Agenda and draft minutes

Apologies have been received from Councillors Mandy Anderson and Laurance Garrard.

To receive any other apologies for absence.

Apologies were received from Councillors Mandy Anderson (Trevor McKeever substituting) and Tim Ryan (Judith Holt substituting).

Members are invited to disclose any interest in any of the items on the agenda at this point of the meeting.

Members may still disclose an interest in an item at any time prior to the consideration of the matter.

There were no disclosures of interest.

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the meeting of the Board held on 31 January 2024 (attachd) and to authorise the Chairman to sign them.

The minutes of the meeting held on 31 January 2024 were agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

Report and documentation attached.

Officers gave a response to each of the call-in grounds in turn, explaining that both decisions related to the asset disposal programme and also related to earlier Cabinet decisions.

Implications of disposal of the sites to MLH

The rationale for the site disposals was given in the report presented to Cabinet in February 2023. There would be a lower capital receipt to the Council if disposed of on the open market due to the uncertainty of timescales. Disposal to Mercury Land Holdings would allow a 2-stage payment to the Council aligning with the Council’s Capital Programme. Properties would be leased back to the Council, enabling a revenue stream to continue as long as possible. This arrangement may not be possible on the open market.

Potential missed revenue opportunities

Two of the sites were involved were not car parks. The Angel Way car park only produced nominal parking revenue and was in poor condition. There were other Council car parks in Hornchurch that could absorb the demand and mitigate loss of revenue should the Dorrington Way and Keswick Avenue car parks be closed.

Contribution towards housing needs

Planning applications for the sites to be disposed of had not yet been determined. These could potentially include social housing from Mercury Land Holdings.

Land ownership

Officers confirmed that the Council did own the freehold of all the sites in question. There was a boundary dispute concerning the edge of the Angel Way car park and work was in progress to resolve this.

Alternative use of funds

It was clarified that the Council funded Mercury Land Holdings via the General Fund and it was not possible to use these funds for different purposes.

Questions and discussion

A Member asked why no detail of the business case or likely profit from the proposals had been provided. He felt that an individual business case should be provided for each site to ascertain if the £8m loan to Mercury Land Holdings was viable. Officers responded that a breakdown of the sites was given in the exempt appendix but the final unit housing numbers could not be given at this stage.

Cash would not be changing hands in the first phase of the programme, this would be done via equity. There would be a longer term dividend to the Council but it was not to be specific about returns at this stage. The Strategic Director of Finance could give a written response on the likely level of returns. The Council’s capital accountant had confirmed that the proposed transactions were acceptable and standard practice for Local Authorities.

It was confirmed that there would a 2-stage transaction with receipts received shortly after each stage had been completed. The peppercorn rent by which the sites were leased back to the Council was a temporary arrangement to allow the maintaining of car parks until the development works started. One planning consent was granted, a further receipt would be received by the Council.

The Council would provide to Mercury Land Holdings (MLH) a  ...  view the full minutes text for item 34.

Update report attached.

Officers advised that the CRM programme covered a number of services. The Council’s aim was to offer a high quality, convenient service for residents accessible both on line and by phone via the contact centre. It had been necessary to replace the previous out of date system. Microsoft applications had been built into the new platform which would save around £50k per year compared to the previous system. Officers were aware that Microsoft support may end in 2026 but alternative products were also available.

It was accepted that issues such as flytipping could be dealt with by several different Council departments. Refinements to simplify how CRM dealt with these types of issues could be implemented over the next 12 months. It was planned to build a consolidated report covering different types of enquiries. A Member suggested it would be helpful if the e-mail giving confirmation of the enquiry number confirmed what address the enquiry related to.

The value for money of the agency staff employed was raised. Officers responded that the numbers of contractors on the team had been reduced but it was necessary to look at the grades of post compared to the private sector.

Security work on the system was now complete and officers were reasonably confident that the more difficult work on the project had been completed. There were 100 licenses used by staff on the current system and this would not be altered. Most staff would however use a version of the web form for which the licenses were much cheaper. If rates of digital usage increased, there would not be a need for any additional licenses.

Customer feedback for areas such as registrars which were on the new system had been broadly very good. The renewal process for green waste collection had also received good feedback. It was clarified that the introduction of the nw waste contract had not impacted on the CRM project.

The Board NOTED the report.  

Report attached.

The Board is invited to agree the report and that it should be referred to Cabinet for response.

The Board considered the report of the Parking Enforcement Task and Finish Group and the Chairman recorded his thanks to all Councillors and officers who were involved with the review. It was agreed that a recommendation concerning the 30 minutes free parking in some areas of Havering should be added to the report.

The Board AGREED the report and that the report should be referred to Cabinet for consideration and response.

To consider whether the public should now be excluded from the remainder of the meeting on the grounds that it is likely that, in view of the nature of the business to be transacted or the nature of the proceedings, if members of the public were present during these items there would be disclosure to them of exempt information within the meaning of paragraph 3 of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972; and, if it is decided to exclude the public on these grounds, the Sub-Committee to resolve accordingly on the motion of the Chair.

On the motion of the Chairman, it was AGREED that the public should be excluded from the remainder of the meeting on the grounds that it was likely that, in view of the nature of the business to be transacted or the nature of the proceedings, if members of the public were present during these items there would disclosure to them of exempt information within the meaning of paragraph 3 of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972.

To agree as a correct record the exempt minutes of the meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Board held on 31 January 2024 (attached, not available to press or public).

The exempt minutes of the meeting of the Board held on 31 January 2024 were agreed as a correct record.