Agenda and minutes

Apologies were submitted from Councillors Tim O’Kane, Michael Hindley and Carole Haythornthwaite. Councillor June Harrison substituted for Councillor Tim O’Kane.

There were no declarations of interest or dispensations.

To submit the Minutes of the Resources Overview and Scrutiny Committee held on Thursday 16th February 2022 for approval as a correct record.

Recommended - That the Minutes be received and approved as a correct record.

The Minutes of the Resources Overview and Scrutiny Committee held on 16^th February 2022 were submitted for approval as a correct record.

Doug Hayes, Cooptee, stated that that an amendment was required in the minutes of the last meeting. He was marked as present when in fact he had sent apologies for the meeting.

Resolved        -          That the Minutes be received and approved as a correct record with the above amendment noted.

To provide Overview and Scrutiny with an overview of the Non Domestic Rates Collection and Recovery Policy and methods used by the Council in the collection and recovery of Non Domestic Rates.

Recommended       -           That Overview and Scrutiny note the contents of the report and comment accordingly.

The Chair welcomes Councillor Joyce Plummer, Lee Middlehurst, Head of Benefits and Revenues and Teresa Phelan to submit their report on Non Domestic Rates Collections.

Councillor Joyce Plummer provided a summary of the report and in depth responses to the advanced questions which they had received, which are listed below:

1. Do we benchmark collection rates with other Local Authorities? If so how do our figures compare?

2. Do you expect collection rates to return to previous highs and if so when?

3.    How does our process for billing/compliance/enforcement compare with the process for council tax collections?

A written analysis relating to question one was also provided to members of the committee.

Additional questions were submitted by members relating to the following:

·         Timings of the billing, compliance and enforcement stages, and how these affect our collection rates in comparison with other local authorities.

·         Value of non-domestic rates collected in previous years.

·         Enforcement monitoring.

Councillor Plummer wished to place on record her thanks to the Benefits and Revenues service for the hard work and in particular their increased workload caused by the pandemic, during which numerous additional benefits were introduced and processed efficiently. The Chair echoed the thanks to all staff involved with the service.

Lee Middlehurst thanked the Committee for the opportunity to present to them and looked forward to further opportunities to work with Councillors.

Resolved        -           That the Committee notes the content of the report.

To present to the Hyndburn BC Resources & Scrutiny Committee a progress report for Hyndburn Leisure, highlighting performance following capital investments and the Trust’s recovery from COVID-19. 

Recommended          -           That the content of the report is noted.

The Chief Executive of Hyndburn Leisure was due to report on this item but was unable to attend due to a positive Covid-19 test. Therefore the Chair moved that the item be deferred until the next meeting.

Resolved        -           That the item “Hyndburn Leisure Annual Review” be deferred until the next meeting of the Committee.