Agenda and draft minutes

The Chair welcomed all attendees to the meeting and explained the emergency evacuation procedure.

None.

To note any declarations of interest from the Councillors.  They are asked to indicate the relevant agenda item, the nature of the interest and in particular whether it is a disclosable pecuniary interest.

Any declarations of interest made at the meeting which is not on the register of interests should be notified to the Monitoring Officer for inclusion.

It was noted that Cllr Pearce had previously served as a non-executive director of Bristol Waste Company.

Minutes of the OSMB meetings held on 4^th December 2023 and 18^th January 2024 to follow.

The minutes of the meetings of the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board held on 4 December 2023 and 18 January 2024 were confirmed as a correct record.

In response to a question, officers agreed to check (in relation to the 18 January meeting) that all the requested follow-up information requested by members in relation to the discussion on the Clean Air Zone (forecast and income) had been circulated.

To note any announcements from the Chair

The Chair commented that given the impending move to the new committee governance system, today’s meeting was almost certainly the last public meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board (OSMB).  The Chair advised that he wished to place on record his thanks to members of OSMB, the Chief Executive and senior officers, and the Head of Democratic Engagement and Scrutiny team for all their work in supporting the Board.  He also thanked the Chief Executive and Cabinet members for their ongoing regular attendance at OSMB meetings.

Up to 30 minutes is allowed for this item

Any member of the public or Councillor may participate in Public Forum.  The detailed arrangements for so doing are set out in the Public Information Sheet at the back of this agenda.  Public Forum items should be emailed to scrutiny@bristol.gov.uk and please note that the following deadlines will apply in relation to this meeting:-

Questions - Written questions must be received 3 clear working days prior to the meeting.  For this meeting, this means that your question(s) must be received in this office at the latest by 5 pm on 6^th February

Petitions and Statements - Petitions and statements must be received on the working day prior to the meeting.  For this meeting this means that your submission must be received in this office at the latest by 12.00 noon on 9^th February 2024

The Board noted that one public forum statement had been received for this meeting, as follows:

Statement from David Redgewell - subject: Grosvenor Hotel demolition and related issues.

David Redgewell was in attendance at the meeting and presented the statement.

In response to questions on this matter, the Chief Executive clarified that the Grosvenor Hotel building and the work in question were the responsibility of the building owner. The contractors on site were therefore working for the building owner, not the City Council.  The contractors had confirmed to the Council’s building enforcement team that the work was scheduled to continue.  As part of the work, the building owner was required to make the site safe, including the nearby highway, cycle and walking paths.  The Council was working hard to ensure that the building owner met their lawful responsibilities; the Council’s understanding was that the required work would be completed by the end of March to enable the opening of the walkway and the highway/transport interchange. The building owner was under a legal duty to do this, and if there was non-compliance, the Council would take the appropriate escalation action.

To note the work programme.

The Board noted the work programme update.

The Forward Plan published on 8^th January 2024 was considered at the OSMB meeting held on 18^th January 2024. The subsequent Forward Plan is expected to be published shortly and will be availble here: Mayor's Forward Plan

The Board noted that the most recent update to the Mayor’s Forward Plan had been published on 5 February.

Points raised/noted in discussion:

a. It was noted with concern that no information had been included in this latest Forward Plan update of any key decisions beyond the 5 March Cabinet; no key decisions were currently listed for the final Cabinet meeting in April.

b. Concern was also expressed that, via the 5 February update, 21 new key decision items had been added to the Forward Plan, thus only meeting the minimum requirement in terms of giving at least 28 calendar days’ public notice of a key decision.  It was suggested by a member that the authority was departing significantly from best practice with regard to advance notice of key decisions.  It was further suggested that in terms of the new committee governance system, each policy committee should maintain a 12 month ‘forward look’ in terms of their individual forward plans; it would be important for draft forward plans, populated as far as possible with details of anticipated key decisions, to be made available to policy committee Chairs in May, as soon as possible after their appointment.

c. Taking account of the above, the Chair commented that it was also noted that forward plan processes were being built into the committee governance model.

Noting that minutes of the WECA Overview and Scrutiny Committee had been submitted to OSMB for information since the inception of WECA, it was suggested that it would be important to identify which committee(s) would be most appropriately placed to receive them under the committee governance system.  It was noted also that the Audit Committee had suggested that it would be appropriate for it to receive the minutes of the WECA Audit Committee for information in future.

The Board noted the Quarter 3 corporate risk report for 2023/24.

Points raised/noted in discussion:

a. Risk ref: CRR58 (Failure to maintain and replace the highway and traffic assets may lead to future budget shocks and potential injuries to the public): A query was raised by a member as to why this risk, which now had a risk score of 21, had been escalated to the Corporate Risk Register whilst other risks with the same score had not been similarly escalated.  It was noted that a response would be supplied to this query.

b. Risk CRR 55 (Children placed in unregistered provision may be at risk): It was noted that members of the Audit Committee had raised concern around this risk and would be looking at it in more detail at their next meeting.

There was a discussion in connection with this risk.  It was noted that action was being taken as a key priority to increase sufficiency of children’s home provision within the city, noting also that the delivery of this would help secure better outcomes for the children concerned in local provision whilst also being more financially sustainable for the Council.

Containing the 2024-25 Business Plans of

-          Bristol Holding Limited

-          Goram Homes Limited

-          Bristol Waste Limited

The Board considered a report setting out three company business plans that would be considered by the Cabinet on 5 March 2024 for approval, as follows:

a. Bristol Holding Limited

b. Goram Homes Limited

c. Bristol Waste Company Limited

a. Bristol Holding Limited (BHL) Business Plan

The Group Finance Director, Bristol Holding Limited presented the BHL Business Plan.

Points highlighted included:

1. The business plan had been compiled following the sale of Bristol Heat Networks Ltd earlier last year. The plan was therefore based for the 2024/25 year ahead on operating with two subsidiaries in the Group, Bristol Waste Company Limited, and Goram Homes Limited.  There was no assumption at this stage of any change in the company portfolio.

2. The business plan had been prepared on the basis of the following assumptions:

* That BHL would continue in its present form for another fiscal year to March 2025.

* That following the outcome of the independent Shareholder advisor review, and the

subsequent management action plan, the Council would determine to support ‘Holdco’

functions in its transition role as providing assurance to the Shareholder.

3. BHL had reduced in scale in the last 18 months and now presented an agile but focused and value-for-money operation.

Summary of points raised/noted in discussion:

1. It was clarified that BHL had no active role in relation to Bristol City Leap, which had its own governance structure.

2. It was noted that BHL’s key strategic objectives included the retention of the objectives of providing effective commercial, financial and risk assurance to the Shareholder in the

operation of its wholly owned companies; and to ensure strategic alignment between Bristol City Council corporate aims, objectives and values, and those of its wholly owned companies, including their commercial objectives.  It was also noted that the intention was that BHL would continue its assurance role to the Shareholder as the new committee governance system bedded in.  From May 2024, the Council’s Chief Executive would formally be the Shareholder although it was anticipated that the relevant policy committee Chair would have an appropriate degree of involvement.

3. Some questions were raised about the approx. £300k cost associated with BHL for 2024/25, and whether this would continue to represent value for money for the Council.  It was noted that most of the costs involved with the assurance role would need to be incurred in any event; for example, approx. one-third of the costs involved were attributable to external audit costs. It was clarified that every effort had been made to minimise costs and that the recharge costs to subsidiaries were indicative at this stage. It was also noted that the future role of BHL would be reviewed as the 2024/25 year progressed.

b. Goram Homes Limited Business Plan

Representatives of Goram Homes Limited presented the Goram Homes Limited Business Plan. 

Points highlighted included:

1. Key objective 1: Move at pace to increase the supply of new homes built each year across Bristol including high levels of affordable housing provision.  Information/detail  ...  view the full minutes text for item 11.

That under s.100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting for the following item(s) of business on the grounds that it (they) involve(s) the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraph 3 of Part 1 of schedule 12A of the Act.