Agenda and minutes

There were no disclosable pecuniary interests.

The minutes of the meeting held on 12^th July, 2023 were agreed and signed as a true record.

There were no Matters Arising.

Briefing Note of the Director of Transportation, Highways and Sustainability

The Scrutiny Co-ordination Committee received a Briefing Note and presentation of the Director of Transportation, Highways and Sustainability and the Strategic Lead - Green Futures, informing Members about the engagement process and consultation feedback to the Council’s draft Climate Change Strategy, and next steps with regards to finalising the Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan. 

The draft Climate Change Strategy was launched in February 2023, setting out the Council’s ambitious vision and foundations for creating a sustainable net zero city of the future.  It was developed based on the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives pathways to sustainability.

The consultation ran from 15 February to 7 July 2023 which was extended to enable the team to engage with the major public events over the summer.  The team sought to understand the views of the people of Coventry on the Strategy, pathways and key themes within them, to identify which issues were most important to people and find out if anything should be added or amended.  Data and feedback was captured via a survey on the Council’s Lets Talk Platform, during focused pathway group sessions, via email and letter correspondence, drop in sessions held at libraries and shopping centres and at events.

1421 people or organisations engaged with the consultation which took place face to face at various drop ins, events and focus groups, via online meetings, webinars and online surveys. Over 500 written responses were received, with over 1856 comments from individuals and representatives of organisations providing feedback on the Strategy.  This was a low response rate in a city of 345,000 but was a typical response rate for a consultation on a strategy.  However, given the importance of this issue and the fact that behaviour change was one of the key actions required to help reach net zero, further engagement would be required going forward to raise awareness and encourage positive action to be taken.

The majority of respondents that took part in the survey were between 35-64 years (58.6%) which was larger than the 2021 Census figure of 36%.  Only 4.5% of respondents were aged 24 and under which was lower than the Census figure of 15% of the population aged between 16-24 years old.

71.5% of respondents that took part in the survey identified as ‘White British’, higher than Coventry’s total ‘White British’ population of 66.6%.  Responses from Asian groups which made up 16.3% of the city’s total population only made up 4.3% of surveys received.

The highest responses from wards were from Earlsdon (9%), Binley & Willenhall (8%) and Wyken (7%).  The areas with the least responses were Upper Stoke (2%) and Foleshill (3%).

Feedback received from the consultation was summarised as follows:

• 81% of respondents considered it ‘very important’ or ‘fairly important’ to think about sustainability and tackle the impacts of climate change.
• 19% of those engaged felt it was ‘not very important’ or ‘not important at all’.
• There was no consistent agreement regarding feedback on the aspects of tackling Climate Change that were most important  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.

Report of the Chief Legal Officer

The Scrutiny Co-ordination Committee received a Briefing Note of the Scrutiny Co-ordinator regarding the Scrutiny Annual Report 2022/23.  The Constitution required that Scrutiny report annually to inform Council of its work.

RESOLVED that the Scrutiny Co-ordination Committee:

1)  Accept the content of the draft report at Appendix 1.

2)  Recommends that Council considers the Scrutiny Annual Report at its next available meeting.

Briefing Note of the Chief Legal Officer

The Scrutiny Co-ordination Committee received a Briefing Note of the Scrutiny Co-ordinator regarding the Complaints Policy and Procedure – Task and Finish Group. 

As part of their annual summary of complaint statistics, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman included the Chair of Scrutiny Co-ordination Committee, as an opportunity to “to encourage effective ownership and oversight of complaint outcomes, which offer such valuable opportunities to learn and improve”.  A copy of this letter had been appended to the report.

The annual letter and report are considered in detail by the Leader at his Cabinet Member meeting, as well as Ethics Committee and Audit and Procurement Committee.

Members of the Scrutiny Co-ordination Committee and other scrutiny members were invited to be involved in the review of the Complaints Policy and Procedure to ensure that the process is easy to access and understandable for everyone involved, particularly members of the public.

The task and finish group would meet 2-3 times during the autumn with the intention of making recommendations to the Cabinet Member in the new year.

RESOLVED that the Scrutiny Co-ordination Committee:

1)  Establish a Task and Finish Group to be involved in a review of the Council Complaints Policy and Procedure.

2)  Identified the following Members to take part in the Task and Finish Group, together with a representative of the Opposition Group:

·  Councillor N Akhtar

·  Councillor M Ali

·  Councillor R Singh

·  Councillor CE Thomas

Councillor N Akhtar, Chair of the Scrutiny Co-ordination Committee, attended the meeting of Cabinet on 29 August, 2023 for consideration of an item relating to “Coventry Strategic Energy Partner”

Councillor Akhtar agreed that the decision was urgent and that call in should not apply.

In accordance with the Constitution, this matter is reported to inform the Committee of the reason for urgency which is:-

“The procurement timeline currently shows the date by which the Council will enter into contract with the preferred bidder as being 12th September 2023. In order to achieve this, the notification letter to all the bidders stating the award of the contract to the preferred bidder and commencement of the mandatory 10-day standstill period needs to commence on 1st September 2023. Failure to issue these letters on that date would mean a delay to the ability of the parties to enter into a contract on 12th September 2023 and therefore could also delay the implementation of the Joint Venture arrangements.”

Councillor N Akhtar, Chair of the Scrutiny Co-ordination Committee, attended the meeting of Cabinet on 29 August 2023 for consideration of an item relating to “Coventry Strategic Energy Partner”

Councillor Akhtar agreed that the decision was urgent and that call in should not apply.

In accordance with the Constitution, this matter is reported to inform the Committee of the reason for urgency which is:-

“The procurement timeline currently shows the date by which the Council will enter into contract with the preferred bidder as being 12th September 2023. In order to achieve this, the notification letter to all the bidders stating the award of the contract to the preferred bidder and commencement of the mandatory 10-day standstill period needs to commence on 1st September 2023. Failure to issue these letters on that date would mean a delay to the ability of the parties to enter into a contract on 12th September 2023 and therefore could also delay the implementation of the Joint Venture arrangements.”

RESOLVED that the Scrutiny Co-ordination Committee:

Notes the content of the report.

Report of the Chief Legal Officer

The Scrutiny Co-ordination Committee considered their Work Programme for the Municipal Year 2023/24.

RESOLVED that the Scrutiny Co-ordination Committee:

1)  Notes the Work Programme for the Municipal Year 2023/24 with the inclusion of the following items:

·  Public Space Protection Order (PSPO) –

Scrutiny Co-ordination Committee to be held on 25^th October 2023.

·  Strategic Energy Partnership.

·  One Coventry Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan (early 2024).

Any other items of public business which the Chair decides to take as a matter of urgency because of the special circumstances involved.

There were no other items of public business.