A request for an Extraordinary meeting of the Council has been made by Councillors Lewis Davies, Ann Griffith, John Griffith, Trevor Ll. Hughes, Vaughan Hughes, Llinos M. Huws, Carwyn E. Jones, R. Meirion Jones,
Alun W. Mummery, Bob Parry OBE, Dylan Rees, Nicola Roberts in accordance with Section 4.1.3.1 of the Constitution, to revisit the Executive’s decision made on 20th October, 2014 in relation to the Smarter Working Business Project and to consider this matter in public.
The relevant documents :-
· Background information for the request for an extraordinary meeting.
· Copy of the Decision made by the Executive on 20th October, 2014.
· Copy of report submitted to the Executive on 20th October, 2014
Minutes:
A request for an Extraordinary meeting of the Council had been made by Councillors Lewis Davies, Ann Griffith, John Griffith, Trevor Ll. Hughes, Vaughan Hughes, Llinos M. Huws, Carwyn E. Jones, R. Meirion Jones, Alun W. Mummery, Bob Parry OBE, Dylan Rees and Nicola Roberts in accordance with Section 4.1.3.1 of the Constitution, to revisit the Executive’s decision made on 20th October, 2014 in relation to the Smarter Working Project and to consider the matter in public. A copy of the reasons for the request was attached within the Agenda for the meeting.
The Chair of the Corporate Scrutiny Committee raised a Question that the Executive resolved to approve the Smarter Working project on 20th October, 2014 subject to capital and revenue resources being available. He referred to the Council’s Constitution 4.3.2.3 – Decisions outside the budget and questioned if the decision of the Executive was within the Councils regulations as Appendix 6 within the report states that the project would be implemented immediately in December. Questions were raised to how this project was to be funded.
The Monitoring Officer responded that the Executive can only make spending decisions where the funding to underpin that spending has already been allocated. As the project is multi-layered, some funding may be already in place in the budget. Some elements of the project may not require funding e.g. disposal of assets; these will be issues for the Executive. Anything else will be a Council decision.
The Interim Head of Function (Resources)/Section 151 Officer stated that any activity that has taken place this year in respect of the Smarter Working may have not required any budget i.e. Officers time or funding from departmental budgets already in place. However, if any funding is required during the course of this financial year, the Council does have earmarked reserves which can be deployed through the proper processes to release funding. He further stated that there is currently no capital provision in place for this project and the Executive has recognised that by only agreeing to the principle of the project. The Officer stated that he considered that the Executive at its meeting held on 20 October, 2014 made a legitimate decision under the constitutional provision.
The Chair of the Council invited Councillor Bob Parry OBE, as the Leader of the Opposition Group to address the meeting. Councillor Parry expressed that the main concerns of the Opposition Group to the Smarter Working Project was the expenditure of this project. The project is dependent on selling the Council’s assets on the open market together and selling these assets quickly. He further stated that whilst he appreciated that elements of the Smarter Working project are acceptable he specified that spending over £1m on the Headquarters would not be acceptable to the residents of the Island when the Authority considers increasing the Council Tax. The issue of local government reorganisation is also a factor that needs to be considered.
Main issues raised by the Opposition Group :-
· Possible redundancies of administrative posts;
· Spending over £1.5m on the County Council’s Headquarters was unacceptable ;
· Enhancement of the ICT is needed to modernise the Authority with more resources being imputed into the ICT budget from the Smarter Working Project;
· The need to investigate fully the energy efficiencies savings of the headquarters i.e. LED lighting, solar panels;
· The project is dependent on selling the Council’s assets and selling these assets quickly;
· Parking and health and safety issues with bringing more staff into the headquarters.
The Portfolio Holder (Transformation) gave a detailed background to the Smarter Working Project and reported on the briefing session conducted with staff. The Smarter Working Project is delivered as a range of savings which is outlined within the report. Information Technology needs to be enhanced to encourage and promote agile working within the authority. Based on advice received by the Section 151 Officer, savings are unlikely to materialise by adopting a piecemeal approach. A number of the aspects within the report have been ideas put forward by staff and management can now work to modernise facilities, service delivery and working practices within the Council. Capital receipts will be used to contribute to capital investment linked to the project which will lead to improvements within the authority. The savings of £730k per annum will materialise from this project.
The Portfolio Holder emphasised that this project is an ‘invest to save’ project.
He referred to the issue of possible redundancies of administrative posts raised by the Opposition Group. He explained that it is envisaged that these posts will be lost through natural wastage i.e. voluntary redundancies and retirement.
The Leader of the Opposition Group stated that the decision regarding Smarter Working Project should be reviewed and should proceed in stages. A recorded vote was taken under the provisions of 4.1.18.5 of the Constitution
The recorded vote was as follows :-
That the Smarter Working Project decision be reviewed and to consider proceeding with the project on a stage by stage process:-
Councillors Lewis Davies, Ann Griffith, John Griffith, Vaughan Hughes, Llinos M. Huws, Carwyn E. Jones, R. Meirion Jones, Alun W. Mummery, Bob Parry OBE, Dylan Rees, Nicola Roberts. TOTAL 11
Against the motion :-
Councillors Jim Evans, R.A. Dew, D.R. Hughes, K.P. Hughes, T.V. Hughes, W.T. Hughes, A.M. Jones, G.O. Jones, H.E. Jones, J. Arwel Roberts, Alwyn Rowlands, D.R. Thomas, Ieuan Williams. TOTAL 13
Abstentions : NIL
RESOLVED that the Chair declared that the motion was not carried.