CORPORATE SERVICES LEAD MEMBER BRIEFING 5th March, 2001.
Present:
Councillor Antrobus
R. Bell, M. Brooks, K. Clare, A. Eastwood,
K. Horton and A. Westwood
M. Vickers and R. Wynne also attended
Councillor Hinds

Inner Relief Route – AGREED that approval be given to enter into a contract to
take possession of approx. 1.51 acres of land at Stanley Street Salford in
connection with the construction of the Manchester / Salford Inner Relief Route,
subject to the provisionally agreed terms and conditions.

Chapel Wharf Limited – AGREED to the loan of funds to Chapel Wharf Limited
between 1.4.01 and 28.3.02 in order to continue the Council’s support of this
regeneration company.

BFI Investigation – Martin Vickers gave a verbal progress report on the inspection
 Positives
 Impressed with the customer contact centre
 Good training resource including quality and expertise
 Negatives
 Not enough checking of staff work
 Lack of measurement against the verification framework
 Delays in dealing with appeals work and fraud referrals
 The staff had responded well to questions they had been asked by the BFI
Inspectors. The Inspectors had not come up with any more negatives than
were expected.

Customer Service NVQ certificates were now ready to be handed out to staff –
arrangements to be made for a presentation to be held one lunch time – see if the
Mayor is available

Councillor Antrobus to give a talk on the superannuation scheme on 20th March briefing note to be prepared by Roger Bell

SOLAR – system apparently down on Saturday. Keith Clare referred to the fact
that due to human error the Economic and Community Scrutiny Committee papers
for todays meeting had not been published but had remained in the “Preview” box

Councillor Hinds reported that he had received comments from a councillor that
there was a delay in Law and Admin. In processing applications to buy council
houses and in particular with a property in Grasmere Crescent, Winton – Alan
Eastwood to investigate.

Record of the meeting held on 26th February: Interim report on accommodation to be submitted by the end of March
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Meeting with Alan Westwood, Martin Smith and Pan Lowe to discuss
Scrutiny Committee support not yet been held.
No information yet on the claim that a member of staff had not been paid since
last October
Cash collection – map now done
Interview for Assistant Director Legal should read Councillors Antrobus and
Murphy and not Hinds

Printer Members Room – to be replaced if it is found to be beyond repair

Alan Westwood had mentioned to other Directors the availability of a Lead
Members page – must however ensure that these pages and also those given to the
Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives are not used for party political
propaganda.

Education and Leisure Communications Infrastructure – APPROVE the waiving
of Standing Orders and: GCAT be used for the purchase of servers and communication equipment
 GTC be used for the purchase of BT lines
 Cabling work be undertaken by Unitec Communications

Finance Monthly Update: Councillor Antrobus to receive details of the increases in Council Tax over the
last two periods of four years together with details of how much Council
spending has increased over the same periods.
 Still no news on VAT from Customs and Excise
 Multi. disciplinary team being set up to work with the Lowry Trust and the
Arts Council –Geoff Topping to represent Corporate Services – representative
required from Personnel.
 More information required on the matter relating to Energy Audit and the
Lowry
 Reference to payroll article in the Municipal Journal
 Problems with Co-op Bank loans resulting in some staff being refused credit
facilities and going on credit blacklist
 Councillor Antrobus to be informed of date of next LAPP meeting which is
supposed to be held in Salford
 Details required of the savings achieved as a result of using SAP
 Do other authorities have the LAPP catalogue on-line ?
 Budget Strategy meeting required with the Chief Executive

ALL FUTURE MONTHLY UPDATE REPORTS TO BE IN PART 2

IT Research and Development restructure – APPROVED

Members access to SOLAR and training – site to be re-launched when the new
box is up and running – it needs to be more user friendly. Involve the following
Members in this process Councillors Ullman, Garrido, Lea, Boyd, J.Holt,
S.Miller, J.Murphy, E.Burgoyne and V.Burgoyne, Further report at next weeks
meeting

Strategy Development Monthly Update: Budget consultation – document on consultation policy to be updated as a
result of new groups identified together with anything in the procedure
reflecting reality not aspirations
 Alan Westwood taking a report to Directors meeting next week on policy
tagging of e-merge

Customer Services Monthly Update: Application to be submitted for Pathfinder Status – consider putting something
in re impact for consumers
 Alan Westwood and Maura Brooks had a successful meeting last week with
representatives of the Health Agencies – the Post Office were unable to be
present
 Need to look to developing access to minority languages
 Year end closure presented no problems
 Customer satisfaction survey still progressing - it is being carried out over a
12 month period
 Salford speaks – still progressing

IT Monthly Update: Council Tax / Benefits – options to be considered in-house/other packages or
the Blackpool/Tameside version
 Strategic Service Review has had an impact on the matters – final report due
in June
 Data Comms. A lot of large projects in the pipeline

Key Asset Disposal – to remain on the agenda for the next few weeks to update on
major asset disposals

Land Charges – APPROVAL to renew the Land Charges contract with MVM for
a further period on five years

Application for VER – APPROVAL given to a VER in the Elections Section

Alan Eastwood to investigate the third round of schemes for Beacon Council
status in relation to : Community Legal Service
 Libraries as a Community Resource