Agenda and draft minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Bonds, Mathews, Roome, White and Worden.

(Please telephone the Corporate and Community Services team to prepare a form for your signature before the meeting. Interests must be re-declared when the item is called, and Councillors must leave the room if necessary).

There were no declarations of interest announced.

For discussion (attached).

The Chairman addressed the Committee and advised that although all service plans had been provided within the agenda, four had been selected for discussion with the appropriate Heads of Services or Business Managers present at the Committee.  He advised that other plans could be discussed if the Committee had any questions. It had been agreed that the Head of Operational Services, Head of Environmental Health and Housing Services, Head of Place and the BIS Manager be invited to attend the Committee to present their service plans.  He invited each to address the Committee with a short summary of their service plan, after which questions would be received from the Committee.

(a)       ICT

The Committee welcomed the BIS Manager to the meeting.

The Committee considered the Service Plan for 2019/20 for ICT (circulated previously).

The BIS Manager addressed the Committee and confirmed that the next 12 months would be very busy for the IT department. Their works included the moving of the email system to Office 365, upgrading to ‘Windows 10’, installing the new desktop solutions, upgrading servers and introducing a new telephony system.

In response to questions from the Committee, the BIS Manager confirmed that:

·         All agendas and minutes would be accessible via the new Committee Management System (Modern.gov) from May 2019.  This would be via iPads which would be issued to all Councillors following the elections in May 2019.  Only those with a medical reason for requiring paper copies would be exempt.

·         Council emails would no longer be accessible via mobile phones. They would be accessed via the iPads. This enabled added security to the email system.

·         There would be no facility to print from the iPads as they would not be connected to the Council’s printers.

·         Full training would be provided by the Corporate and Community Services team.

She provided the following information to the Committee:

·         ICT 01 (New 2019/20) Objective one – Upgrade all 2008 R2 servers to 2012 or 2016.  It was now considered that the cost would be in the region of £58k although this could not be confirmed until further suppliers had been approached and their costs established.

·         ICT 03 (2018/19) Objective one – Work with DCC to negotiate an extension to the existing contract, for which there is no current option. This work was being carried out between North Devon Council, Torridge District Council and Mid Devon District Council together.  It covered how the Councils linked sites.  It was essential that all of the contract was negotiated and the existing contract extended as a change to supplier could incur additional costs.  A meeting was to be held with Devon County Council (DCC) next month.

The Committee thanked the BIS Manager for her attendance at the meeting.

(b)       ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH AND HOUSING SERVICES

The Committee welcomed the Head of Environmental Health and Housing Services and Housing Services Manager to the meeting.

The Committee considered the Service Plan for 2019/20 for Environmental Health and Housing Services (circulated previously).

The Head of Environmental Health  ...  view the full minutes text for item 65.