Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Ian Payne.

Councillor Tim Stevens declared that as a member of the Executive he would not take any part in the debate or voting on Parking Shared Services.

There were no other declarations.

In accordance with the Council’s Constitution, questions to this Committee must be received in writing 4 working days before the date of the meeting.  Therefore please ensure questions are received by the Democratic Services Team by 5pm on Thursday 15^th November.

No questions had been received.

This report has been circulated under separate cover and Members are requested to bring their copy to the meeting. The report is also being considered by the following Committees –

Environment PDS Committee   20^th November 2012

Executive and Resources PDS Committee   21^st November 2012 (Joint meeting with this Committee)

Executive   28^th November 2012

Report ES12110

This item was considered in a joint session with the Executive and Resources PDS Committee. The following documents were circulated in addition to the report – a summary of the consultation responses received from staff, a letter dated 20^th November 2012 from the Directors of Environment & Wellbeing and Finance & Resources at LB Bexley, and the draft minutes from the meeting of the Environment PDS Committee on 20^th November 2012. The Environment PDS Committee had supported the proposed shared parking service with Bexley, but added an additional request that an assessment of externalisation opportunities be brought forward once the shared service had been successfully established with a report on options in 12 months’ time. 

Members considered that the savings on offer of £100,000 were modest compared to the scale of the service. The proposed staffing structure appeared to contain too many managerial posts, and could be further trimmed to achieve more savings – particularly the Strategy and Service Development Team. Officers explained that the manager posts at this level, while including supervisory responsibilities, were not at management grade, and this team played an important role in developing the statutory Parking strategies for both boroughs, assessing and responding to customer needs, and dealing with issues such as complaints and freedom of information enquiries.

Members sought clarification on whether new staff would be recruited only on Bromley terms and conditions. It was confirmed that costs would be split according to the collaboration agreement, whether staff were appointed by Bromley or Bexley. The proposal was based on secondment of staff as there would be pension liabilities for Bromley. 

Members were concerned at references to a joint parking strategy in the response given to staff, given that the two authorities might have different priorities and different problems to address. The aim would be to align strategies as far as possible, but the report correctly confirmed that the respective boroughs would retain their own formal Parking Strategies which would continue to be agreed by Members.  Some Members suggested that as Bromley appeared to be a better performing service the advantage in the shared service would be greater for Bexley. It had been suggested at the Environment PDS Committee meeting that if Bromley was bearing a risk if performance was poor, consideration should be given to providing a financial incentive if the opportunity to improve performance was realised. Members were also reluctant to agree that the power to approve the formal Shared Service Collaboration Agreement should be delegated to an officer, and felt that this should be confirmed by the Executive.

Officers confirmed that the Parking Service was already largely outsourced, with contracts for enforcement & car parks management, and ICT. Efficiency savings had already been made, and there was little scope for “salami slicing” further savings. A larger service would reduce duplication and be better able to cope with peaks of work.

Officers were already working with Liberata to investigate the potential benefits of an outsourced debt collection service. There were differences between  ...  view the full minutes text for item 56.