Agenda and minutes

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Commission held on 21 and 30 November 2023.

Previous minutes of the meeting of the Commission will be added to the agenda for 29^th February 2024.

Members are asked to declare any disclosable pecuniary or affected interests and the nature of that interest, including the existence and nature of the party whip, in respect of any matter to be considered at this meeting.

Any Member with a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest in a matter should withdraw from the meeting when the matter is under consideration and should notify the Democratic Services Officer in attendance that they are withdrawing as they have such an interest. If the Disclosable Pecuniary Interest is not entered on the register of Members interests the Monitoring Officer must be notified of the interest within 28 days.

Any Member with an Affected Interest in a matter must disclose the interest to the meeting.  There is no requirement to withdraw from the meeting when the interest is only an affected interest, but the Monitoring Officer should be notified of the interest, if not previously notified of it, within 28 days of the meeting.

There were no declarations of interest or indications that members would be participating while under the party whip.

There were no items of urgent business.

No submissions had been made by members of the public under the Council’s Public Participation Scheme for Overview and Scrutiny.

To consider the Council’s draft budget proposals for 2024/25 currently under public consultation.

The Leader of the Council - Councillor Mary Temperton, the Chief Executive - Susan Halliwell and the Executive Director: Resources - Stuart McKellar provided an overview of the draft capital and revenue budgets 2024/25. Details were also provided about the budget consultation this year which had included Councillors attending ‘surgeries’ to consult the public. 135 responses had been received so far. This was thought to be a much larger response than usual and face to face meetings with residents had also provided a good opportunity for Councillors to challenge misinformation, especially about a proposal to merge the library service with customer services, which was not planned. It was noted there had been a huge investment in the library infrastructure over the past few years. Other ways of engaging residents with the budget consultation process in the future were discussed, including the use of personas. For example, a persona could be created for someone who was a library service user and questions and answers about ‘how might changes to the library service affect me’ could be posed and answered to help people relate to the budget.

Broad questions about the budget were raised including the amount of money raised from service charges within the Councils’ discretion.  Councillors were informed it was the intention of the Council to increase fees by 5% across the board although this would vary according to the market. An estimated income of an additional £2.1million was expected through fees and charges. Councillors queried the amount of funding the Council would receive from business rates and Mr McKellar explained about the complexity of the Business Rates Retention System. A loss of business rates from, primarily the Lexicon businesses, had resulted in a £4million deficit in the business rates for the current year. Also, central government would be introducing a different rates multiplier for small business rate payers, compared to standard business rate payers, which meant it was difficult to calculate the impact but the approximate £4million deficit, which was forecast in the collection budget this year, had impacted the overall budget for 2024/25. Mitigations were being considered including the use of reserve monies.

A number of questions were asked regarding the capital part of the budget including the maintenance of Council buildings in the borough. Councillors also asked a broad range of questions on the revenue part of the budget including investment in repairing potholes; cutting grass verges; changes to waste disposal; dimming of streetlights; changes to Forestcare service provision; value for money in regard to leisure service contracts; investment in continuing professional development for staff and lessons learnt regarding the write off of unrecoverable rent arrears.

Following a discussion four recommendations were proposed by Councillor McLean be put forward to the Executive for consideration as part of the budget consultation exercise and were seconded by the Chair, Councillor Pickering.

Recommendations:

1)    To reconsider dimming streetlights; not cutting grass verges as frequently and reducing the number of litter bins available around the borough.

2)    To consider providing additional  ...  view the full minutes text for item 42.

Overview and Scrutiny Panel Chairs to provide verbal updates on the work programme and highlight any proposed changes such as scope, scheduling or duration.

An update on the work programme was provided by each of the Overview and Scrutiny Panel Chairs which included:

·         The Chair of the Environment and Communities, Councillor Christoph Eberle, informed members of the Commission that all investigative work into the Thames Water review had been undertaken. Members of the Panel had agreed recommendations at a public meeting and the review report was being drafted and would be presented at the next meeting of the Commission.

·         The Chair of the Health and Care Panel, Councillor Egglestone, informed members of the Commission that she had attended a meeting regarding the rebuilding of Frimley Park Hospital and a Joint Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee would be required between Bracknell Forest Council and other local authorities affected. Also, a meeting of the Panel had been scheduled for 23^rd January to discuss a review into Sexual Health and the scope would be brought to the next Commission meeting for approval.

·         The Chair of the Children, Skills and Growth Panel, Councillor Cath Thompson, informed members of the Commission she was meeting with the Executive Director: People next week to discuss potential review topics ahead of a Panel meeting on 25^th January at which members of the Panel would identify their first review topic.