Minutes:
Councillor D Brown, Executive Councillor for Commercialisation and Shared Services, addressed the Council on the commercialisation of CCTV and the Document Centre. A copy of Councillor Brown’s PowerPoint presentation is appended in the Minute Book.
Councillor Brown outlined to Members the vision and process for the commercialisation project by way of generating additional income through joint ventures with the District Council and the commercial sector. Members noted that a Holding Company had been established with the appointment of Councillors Brown and Mrs S J Conboy as Non-Executive Directors and the Managing Director as Executive Director. Work was underway to progress with the finding and selecting of business partners with the ultimate outcome of a planned £50k of efficiency savings in the Medium Term Financial Strategy 2017-2021.
In relation to CCTV, Councillor Brown explained that the Council wished to develop a joint venture company to offer a range of CCTV services to public, private and third sector organisations, with the intention of making CCTV cost neutral by 2021. Attention was drawn to how the existing shared CCTV service would work alongside a joint venture partner and the viability of identifying and contracting with an external partner.
With regard to the Document Centre, Councillor Brown reported that the potential commercial partnership was under development and development of a final business case to support this working model. Attention was drawn to the company structure and governance arrangements, with the process of identification and appointment of a partner to commence imminently.
In response to a question from Councillor T D Sanderson on the impact of the proposals on existing Service Level Agreements with Town Councils supporting 25% of the costs and any variation to such agreement would need a minimum of 12 months’ notice, Councillor Brown explained that there would be no variation to the service and the benefit to such proposals would be the potential for the profits to be put back in and ultimately may result in a significant savings to Town Councils.
Councillor B S Chapman indicated his concern that there appeared to be no provision to remove a Director when they ceased to be a District Councillor and questioned the level of assets transferring and in response Councillor Brown explained that the removal would be agreed by the Board of the Trading Company and the District Council would be transferring £100k. It was suggested that a further dialogue be undertaken with the Managing Director on this project.
By way of a question by Councillor D A Giles on the criteria for Board Membership, Councillor Brown explained that appointments would be made on individual merits and the number of appointments would depend upon how many joint ventures would be established.
In commending the presentation, Councillor P D Reeve outlined his concern with which the Council would have an input into scrutinising decisions of an arm’s length business, whereby Councillor Brown explained that the existing governance arrangements of decision making through Overview and Scrutiny and onto the Cabinet allowed for full engagement to ensure that the Non-Executive Directors were kept fully informed.