Agenda and minutes

Councillor Woolf was elected as Chairman.

Where a Councillor has a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest the Councillor must declare the interest to the meeting and leave the room without participating in any discussion or making a statement on the item, except where a councillor is permitted to remain as a result of a grant of dispensation.

There were no declarations of interest.

To set out the draft Business Case and the draft Memorandum of Agreement to support the role of the Joint PMP and PDP in making recommendations for consideration at the Council meeting on 29 July 2021 in relation to South Holland District Council entering the South East Lincolnshire Councils Partnership (report of the Interim Chief Executive and Head of Paid Service).

The Strategic Advisor (SA) introduced the report and advised that he would go through the Business Case, Structure and Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) in order, taking questions following a brief introduction of each.  The questions/key points raised and answers provided were as follows:

Business Case:

·         Concern was raised about joining a ‘ready-made’ partnership/alliance and nervousness was expressed regarding being ‘left behind’ as a lot of joint work had already been started – where would this leave South Holland staff?

o   The SA advised that lots of opportunities were still available and already a baseline had been set with PSPS working across the three authorities.

o   The business case identified a number of opportunities for the partnership, subject to further Member decision and scrutiny.

o   Progress had been made by the Strategic Alliance which was a positive indication of the partnership.

·         A serious look at leisure and market provision within the district was requested by members with reassurances that this work would move quickly.

o   The SA confirmed that each Council would have an Annual Delivery Plan setting out clear priorities and timescales and this would go to each respective authority’s Annual Council meeting for approval.

o   Some early opportunities had already been identified in the work ELDC had been leading which would be advantageous for SHDC, this would be shared with Members.

·         Concern was raised as to whether there would be sufficient resilience to be able to finalise three sets of draft accounts in a timely manner.

o   The Deputy S151 officer advised that PSPS, as a provider, were still bedding into Boston and East Lindsey and acknowledged the fact that South Holland was still waiting for the draft financial statements, the deadline of which was the coming Friday.

·         How would cross border refuse collections work – would South Holland continue to use bags? 

o   The SA confirmed that there was nothing contained within the document for transformation and change and nothing setting out changes to services.  There was no reason why bags would change. 

o   The Environment Bill would have a cost impact so where there were opportunities over three councils it would make sense to look at them.

o   Opportunities could exist for depots, fleet maintenance and where the partnership councils shared a border.

·         Would South Holland’s meeting rooms be set up for agile working.

o   The SA advised that agile working still needed to be worked through. There was a need to consider the most effective way to use technology.  It was important that the senior team was able to operate in an agile way across the partnership in support of Members and local communities.

·         On Page 93 it talked about investment in resources – what conversations have already taken place?

o   The SA confirmed, with regard to investment in systems, that PSPS had an existing transformation plan to get the three councils on all the same systems – this would be a huge advantage. This decision would come back to members for a decision on the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

There were none.