Minutes:
The Chair welcomed the Mayor to
the meeting and invited him to deliver his presentation. The topics covered in
the presentation included responses from previous OSB meetings, the Budget and
Council Strategy.
In terms of the Council’s new
strategy and its approach to transformation the approach was Recover, Reset,
Deliver. The recover element included issues faced to date, the Best Value
Notice, and the corporate governance improvement journey. There was a need to
redress the balance between what was spent on Social Care versus other
services. Reset included acknowledging what the Council did well and Deliver
included how to deliver services differently.
Regarding the Improvement and
Governance journey, there remained political challenges including the letter
inviting government intervention and the lack of unanimity on the budget vote.
The Crown Nightclub had also
featured in the press because of the Audit report into its purchase. There was
a need not to repeat this and subsequent agreements had overage agreements
applied to them.
In terms of the Mayor’s
priorities, the Council Plan was separated into three general priorities; for
Middlesbrough to be Healthier, More Ambitious and Safer. While it was difficult
to visualise how the Mayor’s priorities translated into operational actions, as
such a workplan had been created for this purpose which was shown to members as
part of the presentation.
In terms of levelling up, the
services in the Live Well Centre were to be relocated to the Cleveland Centre
which offered the opportunity to expand those services and introduce new ones
which was explained as part of the presentation.
In order to tackle Anti-Social
Behaviour there was an intention to move the CCTV control room to another
location due to the potential sale of the Bus Station. In order to tackle
motorbike related ASB crime there was an aim to install kick rails in as many
open spaces as possible to mitigate this. In addition, there was an intention
to increase the amount of CCTV as there were several places across the town
that were not covered by current provision as well as the installation of 200
additional street light columns.
There was also a need to focus
on temporary accommodation and brining back properties where possible.
The Mayor invited questions
from the Board.
A Member queried which projects
were the Mayor’s priority. While there were general areas including Health
Inequalities and ASB, the SHiFT programme in Children’s Services was a key
priority project.
It was queried if the
deliverables of the Council Plan Workplan had the details about how they would
be delivered. The Mayor commented that when considering the budget there had
been a lot of attention paid to cuts. However, there was also a need to focus
on how to grow services.
A Member asked what was being
done about empty properties in the town. It was clarified that an empty
property strategy was being created, especially as one social landlord was in
possession of approximately 500 empty properties.
It was asked if services moving
into the Cleveland Centre would take over all the Cleveland Centre or would they
be spaced out. It was clarified that services in the Cleveland Centre would be
centralised where possible. A discussion took place regarding how improving
areas around schools could be inspirational for children.
When asked about the Council’s
strategy for migration it was commented that this formed part of the community
cohesion element of the Council Plan.
In terms of tackling
Anti-Social Behaviour, it was asked if any other councils used drones for this
purpose and if it successful. It was confirmed that other councils had used
drones to tackle Anti-Social behaviour as well as the police. If the Council
wanted to deploy drones, they currently relied on the police for this. By
having this facility in-house would provide a greater level of flexibility.
Members also queried what
reputational damage the letter inviting government intervention and opposition
votes to the budget had caused. It was clarified that the letter had little
impact with the Government, however the opposition to the budget was difficult
to ascertain as there was a desire for unanimity from the government.
The Chair thanked the Mayor for
his presentation.
NOTED.