Policy And Resources Committee - 08/11/2004

At a MEETING of the POLICY AND RESOURCES COMMITTEE held at Dundee on 8th November 2004.

Present:-

BAILIES

COUNCILLORS

Councillor Jill SHIMI, Convener, in the Chair.

The minute of meeting of this Committee of 18th October 2004 was held as read.

Unless marked thus * all items stand delegated.

I SUPPLY OF IT EQUIPMENT - GCAT

There was submitted Report No 734-2004 by the Head of Information Technology reporting IT equipment purchased under the GCAT Government Procurement Scheme.

The Committee:-

(i)noted the IT purchases amounting to 86,079 detailed in Appendix I for the period 28th July to 22nd October 2004; and

(ii)approved ongoing engineering maintenance costs of 6,265 per annum.

II SELECT LIST OF CONTRACTORS

On a reference to Article II of the minute of meeting of this Committee of 15th April 2002 there was submitted Report No 715-2004 by the City Architectural Services Officer relative to the above.

The Committee agreed:-

(i)that the existing in-house Select List of Contractors be continued, in its present form with normal financial updates as required, for a further two years until 2006;

(ii)that Constructionline be continued as a secondary select list to run in parallel with the in-house list; and

(iii)that Constructionline be informed that their system would not be fully adopted by Dundee City Council until it had been fully monitored and reviewed over the next two years.

III ANNUAL SERVICES PLAN PERFORMANCE REPORT - SUPPORT SERVICES DEPARTMENT

There was submitted Report No 710-2004 by the Depute Chief Executive (Support Services) relative to the above.

The Committee noted the contents of the performance report.

IV APPLICATION FOR BETTER NEIGHBOURHOOD SERVICES FUNDING

There was submitted Report No 723-2004 by the Assistant Chief Executive (Community Planning) and Head of Communities setting out funding proposals for environmental improvements at Dallfield Multi-Storey Development and Dudhope Street flats and improvements to lighting and footpaths in Hilltown and Kirkton.

The Committee:-

(i)approved the funding proposals set out in the report;

(ii)authorised the City Engineer to extend the Partnering Agreement with Tayside Contracts for footpath and lighting works up to a value of 40,000; and

(iii)approved the extension of the Contract with Dundee Contract Services for environmental improvement works up to a value of 70,000.

V FUNDING TO TACKLE ANTI-SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR

Reference was made to Article I of the minute of meeting of this Committee of 28th June 2004 wherein the Committee agreed to put forward a range of projects to tackle anti-social behaviour to be funded from a provisional allocation of 634,570 by the Scottish Executive.

There was submitted Agenda Note AN418-2004 intimating that the Executive had confirmed support for virtually all of these projects which included additional teams of community wardens, youth mediation, victim support, development of an anti-social behaviour website, environmental wardens, an in-house solicitor dedicated to anti-social behaviour cases and other officers dedicated to strategy development and improved liaison with the Police. However, the Executive had advised that one element of the application, 68,570 for projects involving positive engagement with young people, while acknowledged as worthwhile, did not meet the specific criteria for this particular funding.

In view of the timescales for considering applications and progressing projects, officers had suggested the following alternative uses for the balance of funding available and the Scottish Executive had agreed to support these:-

(i)Link Officer between Dundee Co-Ordinated Anti-Crime Network and Tayside Police Community Intelligence Unit (25,000);

(ii)continue position of additional Operator/Driver of Mobile CCTV Unit for which short term funding would shortly end (25,000);

(iii)increase officer support to Community Safety Partnership (15,000);

(iv) increase budget for monitoring/evaluation (3,750).

The Committee approved the amendments to the application in order to secure agreement to the overall package of funding.

VI EQUALITY AND DIVERSITY MONITORING AND ACTION PLAN

There was submitted Report No 721-2004 by the Head of Communities and the Assistant Chief Executive (Management) relative to the above.

The Committee approved the framework for monitoring and action planning on equality and diversity to allow completed Departmental Equality and Diversity Action Plans to be submitted to this Committee and for annual monitoring purposes thereafter by August 2005 to meet corporate monitoring reporting timescales.

VII SCOTTISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT - ACHIEVING EXCELLENCE - CONFERENCE

It was reported that the above conference, hosted by MacKay Hannah, in association with Napier University, would be held in Edinburgh on 3rd December 2004.

The Committee authorised the attendance of one member of the Administration, one member of the SNP Group and one member of the Conservative Group at an estimated cost, excluding travel and subsistence, of 225 per delegate.

VIII SCOTLAND'S HEALTH AT WORK

There was submitted Agenda Note AN417-2004 intimating that, following submission of a portfolio of evidence and assessment visits, the Support Services Department covering Administration Division, Legal Division, Architectural Services, Environmental Health and Trading Standards and Scientific Services, had been successful in achieving the SHAW Bronze standard.

It was noted that the award was valid for three years during which time it was expected that the Department would maintain its Bronze activity and work towards the Silver Award.

IX REGISTRATION SERVICE

There was submitted Agenda Note AN419-2004 relative to the undernoted.

(a) ANCESTRAL TOURISM

It was reported that Scottish Enterprise, Highlands and Islands Enterprise and Visit Scotland had formed a partnership to develop genealogy/ancestral tourism in Scotland and the Registrar General for Scotland had been asked to participate in the work of a National Steering Group being set up to develop this potentially significant aspect of the Tourism Industry in Scotland.

The Committee noted that the Registrar General had asked Dundee's City Registrar, Mr Grant Law, to be his representative on the National Steering Group in recognition of the success of the unique genealogy service provided by the Registration Team in Dundee and of the City Registrar's experience in this field.

(b) CITIZENSHIP CEREMONIES - HOME OFFICE LIAISON GROUP

It was report that the Administration Manager was an Adviser to COSLA on Registration matters and as such had been involved in drawing up the regulations and arrangements for Citizenship Ceremonies.

The Home Office was setting up a UK National Citizenship Ceremonies Liaison Group to provide advice and guidance to local authorities on citizenship ceremonies and the Administration Manager had been asked to represent Scottish local authorities on that group. It was intended that as much liaison as possible would be conducted via email with very occasional meetings at the Home Office Nationality Group HQ in Liverpool.

The Committee noted accordingly.

JILL SHIMI, Convener.