Agenda and minutes

Please note: if the alarm sounds during the meeting, everyone should please exit the building via the way they came in, via the main entrance lobby area, and then the front ramp. Please then assemble on the paved area in front of the building on College Green by the flag poles. If the front entrance cannot be used, alternative exits are available via staircases 2 and 3 to the left and right of the Conference Hall. These exit to the rear of the building. The lifts are not to be used. Then please make your way to the assembly point at the front of the building. Please do not return to the building until instructed to do so by the fire warden(s).

Due to Covid Safety requirements we have put the following measures in place:

 · All attendees are asked to have a Covid lateral flow test 24 hrs prior to the day of the meeting and show the results of a negative test. It’s important that you report the results of your test and that you get confirmation sent to your phone. Reception staff may ask to see this on the day of the meeting. If you have a positive test or if you develop any Covid 19 symptoms – high temperature, a new continuous cough, or a loss or change to your sense of smell or taste, you should book a test on .GOV.UK and self-isolate while you wait for the results.

· You are required to wear a face mask at all times unless you are exempt or presenting your public forum. Social distancing rules remain in place.

· Members of the press and public who wish to attend City Hall may be asked to watch the meeting on a screen in another room due to the maximum occupancy of the venue.

The Chair welcomed all attendees to the meeting.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Gollop. Councillor Weston substituted for Councillor Gollop.

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.

The following non-pecuniary interests were declared;

Agenda item 7 - Councillor Kent declared he was a former Director of Hartcliffe Community Park.

Agenda item 14 - Councillor Bradshaw declared he was a Council appointed Non-Executive Director of Bristol Holding Limited and Bristol Heat Networks Limited; Councillor Bradshaw declared he intended to resign once a successor was found.

OSMB Members agreed the recommendations as set out below:

Resolved: That;

The Membership of the Board for 2021/2022 be noted; and

The Scrutiny Terms of Reference be noted; and

Responsibility for scrutiny of the budget be delegated to the Resources Scrutiny Commission; and

The dates of future Mayoral Question Time sessions be agreed in September; and

The dates and times for meetings for the remainder of the 21/22 Municipal Year be confirmed at the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board (OSMB) meeting to be held in September; and

The Call In Sub Committee be6 (non-executive) Members, the proportionality being 2 Labour, 2 Green, 1 Conservative and 1 Liberal Democrat; and

The Chair of each Call In Sub Committee rotate, and for 21/22 the following order be; Labour, Conservative, Green, Lib Dem, Labour, Green.

Resolved; That the minutes of the meeting on 5^th March be approved as a correct record.

To note any announcements from the Chair

There was none.

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 democratic.services@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 Tuesday 6 July 2021.

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 Friday 9 July 2021.

Attending the Meeting – Members of the public who wish to attend the meeting are asked to register their intent to attend by giving at least two clear working days notice prior to the meeting, which for this meeting is 5pm, Wednesday 7 July 2021.   This is to help ensure appropriate social distancing measures in the Council Chamber can be maintained.

Public Forum questions and statements were published prior to the meeting and can be viewed here.

Statements 1 & 5: Christina Biggs presented two public forum statements; of tendered bus services (on behalf of David Redgewell) and on the Clean Air Zone.

Katrina Billings presented a public forum statement on the Clean Air Zone.

Dr Suzanne Audrey and Peter Finch were not in attendance so statements 2 and 6 were not presented.

Joanna booth was not in attendance but question 1 can be viewed in the public forum pack as above.

Resolved; That the public forum be noted.

The Head of City Transport presented the Clean Air Zone (CAZ) item.

The Chair noted that the Full Business Case (FBC) originally submitted in February 2021 had been adjusted and asked for clarification about the primary reason for delay.  In response, the Head of City Transport advised that incorporation of better mitigation for low income residents and businesses was a key element, as well as the Joint Air Quality Unit’s (JAQU) request that the Council meet the legal compliance targets whilst implementing sustainable transport options to continue improvements.

Members asked if there was any substantial harm to health due to the delay of the CAZ and it was confirmed that this hadn’t been fully assessed to date but there was a significant decrease in emissions in the city centre due to road changes following Covid-19 that were not in the original CAZ proposals, for example the closure of Bristol Bridge.

Members went on to consider modal shift and the Head of City Transport advised that the Council had submitted a number of suggestions for sustainable transport options, but most were not deliverable in time for meeting legal compliance.  Furthermore, lots of initiatives were already being funded as part of existing schemes.

The impact of wood burning on climate change was discussed and the Climate Change Service Manager confirmed that this was a separate project to the CAZ; the primary focus was nitrogen dioxide pollution as opposed to the burning of fossil fuels.

Members queried the arrangements for CAZ charges for those visiting hospital and were advised that this group of people were likely to be exempt.

A Member asked about the cost of establishing the number plate recognition system and was advised that the total was not yet known but details could be provided in due course.

There was concern around the impact of traffic in neighbourhoods adjacent to the CAZ and Members were advised that there would be a general reduction in traffic overall but mitigation around ‘rat running’ would be difficult before the CAZ was introduced as affected areas were difficult to predict. It was confirmed that an application for funding to enable relevant monitoring had been submitted.

In response to a query from a Member, the Head of City Transport advised that the focus would be on moving residents over to electric vehicles rather than other forms of sustainable transport as this was the simplest way to meet compliance before the legal deadline. Members asked when detail would be published on when grants/loans that would become available and how people could apply but it was advised that this was not yet confirmed although it was expected to be at some point in autumn 2021.

Members asked about the improvement of transport links and were advised that local transport authorities were working on a bus improvement plan and the West of England Combined Authority (WECA) would be submitting a strategy in October 2021.

Members noted that the Public Forum statements around the CAZ raised some very important points  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

The Consultation and Engagement Officer presented the Consultation and Engagement Strategy.

The Chief Executive noted that there was communication with participants on how their feedback had influenced the decisions and proposals that had been made.

Members queried how the Deliberative Democracy Panel had been created and were advised that extensive selection criteria had been used to identify 60 residents who were representative, although it was noted that ward wasn’t the only criteria used.

There was a conversation around engaging with specific community/faith groups and supporting communities that struggled with accessing online consultations. Also, around cross promoting consultations, for example, in the annual Council Tax bills booklet and other Council printed letters to reach citizens that were not digitally connected, and it was noted that this would be looked into.

Members suggested that the standard be set to 12 weeks for all consultation periods to allow more time for promoting citizen engagement. It was noted that local community newspapers would be a good way to increase engagement, but these were often published quarterly. The Consultation and Engagement Officer advised that data showed lack of engagement in the middle period of consultations and the need to balance impacts of delay. The suggestion was welcomed for longer consultation periods and engagement with local community newspapers. This would be considered in the future and the Consultation and Engagement Officer would gather information on contacts for local community newspapers.

Resolved; That the update be noted.

The Strategic Intelligence and Performance Manager presented the Performance Report 20-21 Q4 item.

A Member highlighted the unspent apprenticeship levy.  In response, the Chief Executive advised that extensive work was already underway to encourage the uptake of apprenticeships which would include manager briefings on the increased breadth of courses available.

A Member asked how the Council’s performance indicators were set and the Strategic Intelligence and Performance Manager advised that these were set by Heads of Service and Directors, following review with Cabinet Members where relevant.

The Chair noted that performance would be reviewed in more detail at a future OSMB meeting to allow more discussion time and that Performance training will be delivered to Scrutiny Members with Centre for Governance and Scrutiny (CfGS) ahead of the meeting.

Resolved; That the update be noted, and additional consideration be given to the approach to scrutiny of performance at the September Work Programme setting session (see item 11).

The Chair confirmed that the OSMB Lead Members had agreed to set a short term work programme for each Commission over the summer period, with a full work programme setting session to take place in September 21. Members confirmed their intention for the Work Programme setting event to take place in a conference style format with all Scrutiny Members, Cabinet and senior officers all invited to attend.

The Head of Democratic Engagement advised that the Communities Scrutiny Commission’s programme over the summer was yet to be finalised and Members confirmed this would be approved by OSMB outside of the meeting.  Members agreed to the other proposals for the short term work programme as set out in Appendix X to the report.

Resolved; That the Work Programme in Appendix A be approved, subject to details of the Communities Scrutiny Commission which would be agreed outside of the meeting.

The update was noted.

The minutes were noted.

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.

The Chair advised that the discussion was expected to take place in public but reserved the right to move into exempt session if matters of commercial sensitivity arose.

There was no exempt session as no commercially sensitive information was discussed.

To follow

The Head of City Leap presented the report.

The Executive Director for Growth & Regeneration advised that;

·       The Council was the shareholder and would have 50% ownership of the City Leap initiative.

·       The Mayor had delegated responsibility for City Leap to the Deputy Mayor for Finance, Governance and Performance.

·       A report would go to Cabinet in early 2022 once a preferred bidder had been confirmed and suggested that additional Scrutiny should take place shortly before.

Members expressed concerns that the Chair of OSMB was the only Member outside of the Executive that would receive information on City Leap.  It was agreed that consideration would be given to sharing the previous exempt papers on City Leap with the Chair and new cohort of OSMB Members.  A suggestion was made regarding the establishment of a subgroup of OSMB to review matters relating to City Leap although it was noted that this would present significant legal challenges whilst the procurement exercise was still live.  In view of this it was agreed that the matter be decided in advance of the Scrutiny Work Programme setting event in September.

There was a conversation around engaging with community energy groups and the Head of City Leap advised that this would be a significant part of the project forming one of the 6 key objectives.

The Executive Director for Growth & Regeneration advised that it would be difficult to comment on how the 2030 decarbonisation targets would be met until the bids had been evaluated. Also, that this would be a long term partnership between the Council and the private sector to accelerate green energy investments in Bristol and help achieve the net zero carbon ambition. Members queried the main areas of risk and was advised that whilst the project was expected to proceed as planned, issues would arise if a suitable partner was not identified.

Members expressed the importance of robust contract management and asked what reassurance could be given on this.  They went on to ask for details of the expectations for private owners to contribute to the cost of decarbonisation work in blocks of flats. It was advised that this would be subject to the acceptance criteria so there would be no expectation on individual contributions.

The Head of City Leap advised that an initial feasibility study had been carried out to assess the potential for generating energy from waste plants in Avonmouth, Whilst the cost was potentially prohibitive, the study had been shared with bidders who could decide if they wanted to invest.

Cllr Morris left the meeting at 8:07pm.

Members suggested that scrutiny of City Leap should start in early 2022 given that the report would go to Cabinet in February 2022.

Resolved

That consideration be given to;

The schedule of future scrutiny of City Leap; the establishment of a City Leap Sub Group and the sharing of previous exempt City Leap reports with the Chair and Members of the Board

This agenda item was not required.