The out-going Chair opened the meeting and presided over the election of a new Chair.

A motion to approve Rosie Ollie as Chair of the Committee was moved and seconded.  It was noted that Rosie Ollie was not present at the meeting but had indicated that she would be happy to be nominated as Chair.  The motion was put to the vote and carried.

RESOLVED:

To appoint Rosie Ollie  as Chair of the Local Joint Committee for the ensuing year.

Cllr Chris Furness was moved and seconded for the appointment of Vice Chair of the Committee.  There were no other nominations so the motion was voted on and carried.

RESOLVED:

To appoint Cllr Chris Furness as Vice Chair of the Local Joint Committee for the ensuing year.

As the Chair was not present at the meeting the Vice Chair continued the meeting.

David Hickman, Director of Corporate Strategy and Development, was moved and seconded for the appointment of Secretary of the Committee.  There were no other nominations so the motion was voted on and carried.

RESOLVED:

To appoint David Hickman, Director of Corporate Strategy and Development, as Secretary of the Local Joint Committee for the ensuing year.

The minutes of the last meeting of the Local Joint Committee held on 13 June 2018 were approved as a correct record.

The Chair confirmed that the report would be discussed under item 12 of the agenda.

There were not items of urgent business to discuss.

To note any questions or to receive any statements, representations, deputations and petitions which relate to the published reports on Part A of the Agenda.

There was no public participation.

Members are asked to declare any disclosable pecuniary, personal or prejudicial interests they may have in relation to items on the agenda for this meeting.

There were no declarations of interest. 

The report was introduced by the Health & Safety Officer.

Members congratulated officers for achieving excellence in the way the Authority  manages occupational safety and health.

Members suggested that a Member from Local Joint Committee should be involved in the Health and Safety Committee Meetings.  The Secretary clarified that this would need to be an approved duty and that he would check the terms of reference for the Health and Safety Committee and report back.

RESOVLED:

1.    The report was noted.

2.    The Secretary of Local Joint Committee will investigate the inclusion of an Authority member on the Health and Safety Committee and report back at the next meeting.

A Member of Staff Committee introduced the report. 

Staff Committee had been successful in recruiting new members during 2018 but would continue to recruit to reach the aim of three members on the committee from each directorate.  Staff Committee thanked those who were no longer on the committee for their time and efforts.

The Cycle to Work Scheme had proved successful and a request had been made to install an additional cycle shelter at Aldern House.

The Yoga sessions had proved successful but a decision had been made to discontinue them during the summer school holidays due to the low number of attendees.

Staff Committee would be running a Christmas Social Event and raising funds for Accessible Derbyshire as their nominated charity.  Staff Committee thanked Kath Potter for all the donations of prizes and invited her to attend the raffle draw. 

Staff Committee highlighted the charity cycle ride by Jim Thomason from CBST and Mark Anderson, Estate Ranger around the boundary of the National Park which raised in excess of £500.

RESOLVED:

To Note the Report.

A UNISON Representative, introduced the report and expanded on the issues relating to the changes to Vehicle use and the travel and subsistence scheme at the Authority

UNISON requested further clarification of the report presented at item 6 of the agenda. Although the scheme was authority wide it had impacted mostly on officers in the Ranger Service as they had the use of vehicles for private travel to and from home and this provision had been removed with no compensation.

UNISON felt there had been unclear advice regarding what affected individuals could do if they wished to pay tax due if they retained a vehicle. 

UNISON also noted that the option to keep the use of the vehicle and pay the tax had not been discussed at the Resource Management Meeting during the discussion of the changes to the scheme.

UNISON requested that Members note that UNISON had expressed concerns regarding the impact on staff morale of the handling of the introduction of the new scheme.

The Director of Corporate Strategy and Development clarified the reasons for implementation of the new scheme and confirmed that consideration had been given to the consultation responses of Staff Committee and UNISON. Those vehicles that had previously been kept at home were now part of the pool vehicle fleet and were now available to be used by other staff.  Advice from a tax consultant was that the personal tax implications would be great and the impact of paying it would outweigh any benefits to the individual.

Members requested to know the number of officers directly affected by the change not to allow dedicated Authority vehicles to be used for private commuting to work, the Director confirmed that it was in the low teens.

Members raised concerns regarding the impact of the requirement for staff to travel from home before visiting sites on the operation of the Ranger Service.  The Director confirmed that vehicles were now located as close as possible to the area of work to reduce travel time and to comply with HMRC regulations. A check on operational issues would be carried out after the new scheme has been in effect for a year. The Authority had previously had a specific dispensation from HRMC which had been withdrawn and comparisons with other authorities was not possible. The Director clarified that the Authority is not designated a ‘blue light’ service for the HMRC purposes.

The Head of Human Resources stated that the new scheme equalised treatment and it now aligned fairly all staff across the Authority.

UNISON requested that members noted their concern regarding the communication of the change in policy and requested that communication was across the authority rather than through UNISON.  The Director confirmed that UNISON and Staff Committee had received the same communication and he expressed the concern that communicating to all staff the arrangements that only a small number of officers had been receiving would impact negatively on staff morale overall.

It was noted that several employees had asked what  ...  view the full minutes text for item 31/18