Policy And Resources Committee - 12/02/2007

At a MEETING of the POLICY AND RESOURCES COMMITTEE held at Dundee on 12th February, 2007.

Present:-

BAILIES

COUNCILLORS

Councillor Jill SHIMI, Convener, in the Chair.

The minute of meeting of this Committee of 15th January, 2007 was held as read.

Unless marked thus * all items stand delegated.

I MINUTE OF MEETING OF THE BEST VALUE SUB-COMMITTEE

The minute of meeting of the Best Value Sub-Committee of 31st January, 2007 a copy of which is appended hereto, was submitted for information and record purposes.

II COMMUNITY REGENERATION FUND SMALL GRANTS ALLOCATION 2006/2007

There was submitted Report No 92-2007 by the Assistant Chief Executive (Community Planning) and the Director of Leisure and Communities relative to the above.

The Committee noted the process for allocating small grants through the Local Community Regeneration Forums as agreed by the Dundee Partnership and endorsed the funding proposals detailed below:-

III COMMUNITY REGENERATION FUND ALLOCATION OF RESOURCES 2006/2007

There was submitted Report No 93-2007 by the Assistant Chief Executive (Community Planning) and the Director of Leisure and Communities relative to the above.

The Committee noted the process for allocating funding through the Local Community Regeneration Forums as agreed by the Dundee Partnership and endorsed the funding proposals detailed below:-

IV SUPPLY OF IT EQUIPMENT - OGC CATALIST

There was submitted Report No 101-2007 by the Head of Information Technology providing details of IT equipment purchased under the OGC Catalist Government procurement scheme (formerly known as GCAT).

The Committee:-

(i) noted the IT purchases amounting to 92,684 detailed in Appendix 1 for the period 28th September, 2006 to 24th January, 2007; and

(ii) approved ongoing engineering maintenance costs of 6,607 per annum.

V SCOTTISH EXECUTIVE CONSULTATIONS ON SMOKING AND TOBACCO CONTROL

There was submitted Report No 81-2007 by the Assistant Chief Executive (Community Planning) relative to the consultation document "Towards a Future Without Tobacco" and the draft Order under powers contained in the Smoking, Health and Social Care (Scotland) Act 2005 raising the purchasing age of tobacco from 16 years to 18 years.

The Committee:-

(i) noted the report and recommendations of "Towards a Future Without Tobacco";

(ii) noted the draft legislation to raise the purchasing age of tobacco to 18 years; and

(iii) approved the response to the Scottish Executive as set out in Section 7 of the report.

VI INTEGRATED SUPPORT FOR CHILDREN IN NEED

There was submitted Report No 78-2007 by the Assistant Chief Executive (Community Planning) and Director of Education relative to the development of integrated services to provide support for Dundee's most vulnerable children and young people.

The Committee as far as its interests were concerned:-

(i) noted the content of the report and the policy paper appended thereto;

(ii) endorsed the wish to provide more integrated support for children and young people in need;

(iii) approved the establishment of Joint Action Teams in the secondary schools and early years/primary school clusters;

(iv) approved the establishment of a pilot co-located model of children's services, based in Menzieshill High School;

(v) noted and approved the desire to seek to establish a second pilot co-located model of children's services in a primary school in Dundee; and

(vi) instructed the Director of Education to monitor and evaluate the impact of the pilot co-location exercise, and report back to Committee no later than six months from the inception of the pilot.

VII CONSULTATION ON THE POST OFFICE NETWORK

There was submitted Report No 79-2007 by the Assistant Chief Executive (Community Planning) informing members of the Committee of a consultation document on the future of the Post Office Network.

The Committee:-

(i) welcomed the recognition in the consultation document that post offices had an important social and economic role in communities, and the commitment to maintaining and funding a national network with criteria for access to ensure appropriate coverage by post offices at a local level;

(ii) proposed that, for the purposes of the access criteria, the definition of deprived urban areas should be extended to include those areas falling within the 20% most deprived areas rather than 10% as suggested in the consultation document, and that post offices in such areas should not be closed unless there was another post office within half a mile;

(iii) suggested that, in considering the accessibility of post offices, account needs to be taken not only of distance but how the people most affected cope with that distance. This would involve considering factors such as the age profile of the population served, levels of car ownership and availability of public transport;

(iv) noted that any specific proposals to close post offices would be subject to public consultation and the Council would have an opportunity to comment on and object to any proposals affecting Dundee, but respond that the period for public consultation should be ten weeks rather than six weeks as suggested in the consultation document;

(v) expressed the view that any closure proposals should be made on a strategic basis, in accordance with the access criteria, and should not be driven by the decisions of sub postmasters to apply for the compensation package available;

(vi) expressed the view that Post Office Ltd's consultation on area proposals should be on the basis of local authority areas rather than Parliamentary constituencies;

(vii) suggested that consideration be given to applying some of the ideas from the outreach projects piloted in rural areas to those parts of urban areas least well served by post office services;

(viii) welcomed the suggestion that devolved administrations and local authorities could play a role in influencing how postal services were best delivered in the future, but suggested that the investigation of this role should begin sooner than 2011 as suggested in the consultation document;

(ix) agreed that the possibility of community ownership of parts of the post office network should be explored; and

(x) noted that the Council continued to support local post offices by accepting payments of rent and Council Tax through the post office network.

The Committee resolved under Section 50(A)(4) of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 that the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the undernoted item of business on the grounds that it involved the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraph 1 of Part I of Schedule 7A of the Act.

VIII DEVELOPMENT OF CUSTOMER SERVICES TEAM AND CUSTOMER 1ST STRATEGY AND REVIEW OF STRUCTURE OF TELEPHONE SERVICES TEAM

There was submitted Report No 123-2007 by the Depute Chief Executive (Support Services) relative to the above.

The Committee approved the recommendations detailed therein as far as its interests were concerned.

Jill SHIMI, Convener.

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