Agenda and minutes

Venue: Council Chamber - Time Square, Market Street, Bracknell, RG12 1JD. View directions

Contact: Kirsty Hunt  01344 353108

Items
Note No. Item

None

1.

Minutes

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Commission held on 19 February 2020.

Minutes:

It was AGREED that the minutes of the meeting of the Commission held on 19 February 2020 would be presented to the next meeting of the Commission.

None

2.

Declarations of Interest and Party Whip

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.

Minutes:

There were no indications that members would be participating while under the party whip.

None

3.

Urgent Items of Business

Any other items which, pursuant to Section 100B(4)(b) of the Local Government Act 1972, the Chairman decides are urgent.

Minutes:

There were no items of urgent business.

4.

Public Participation

To receive submissions from members of the public which have been submitted in advance in accordance with the Council’s Public Participation Scheme for Overview and Scrutiny.

Minutes:

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

None

5.

Work Programme Update

Overview and Scrutiny Panel Chairmen to provide a verbal update the Overview & Scrutiny Commission on work programme progress.

Minutes:

The Chairmen of the Overview and Scrutiny Panels provided a verbal update on the progress of the work programme:

 

Communities and Environment Overview and Scrutiny Panel.

·        The burials review part one was completed.

·        The next Panel review would be food waste and initial meetings to progress the residential parking review were scheduled. 

·        All reviews were on schedule.

 

Education, Skills and Growth Overview and Scrutiny Panel.

·        The care leavers’ review report was awaiting some costings before it was published but was drafted.

·        The county lines review was scoped and the review was in process and on target.

 

Wellbeing and Finance Overview and Scrutiny Panel.

·        The Vice Chairman of the Panel requested an additional meeting for the Healthy Eating, Activity and Exercise review to enable the Panel to interview key witnesses.

·        All other Panel activity was on track.

6.

Climate Change Review pdf icon PDF 712 KB

The Overview and Scrutiny Commission to consider the evidence pack and through workshop activities will propose the priorities for the new Climate Change Strategy.

Minutes:

The Chairman introduced the meeting, set the scene and gave thanks to the Democratic and Registration Services Intern for his hard work in organising and running the Climate Change Marketplace event held earlier in the day.  It was explained that the Executive Director: Delivery was writing a climate change strategy for Executive consideration later in the year and that the O&S Commission would revisit the issue in August 2020.

 

The Overview and Scrutiny Commission considered the evidence pack and took part in a workshop to consider the possible areas of focus for the new Climate Change Strategy and to inform itself of the requirements to have climate change mitigation as part of the considerations when scrutinising council decisions and commissioning its own reviews.

 

The Executive Director: Delivery introduced the workshop session and gave a presentation to the Commission.  In addition to the presentation he advised that:

·        He was leading on the issue of climate change for the organisation and was being assisted by the Head of recreation

·        It was fundamental to understand how the council used its resources to contribute to climate change measures.

·        Climate change was a big topic, that seemed to be too huge to embrace. The Council would need to be focussed on things that were doable.

·        The purpose of the workshop was to get the Commission ready for its role to oversee the use of council resources in line with the council plan, and to ensure resources were used effectively. 

·        The workshop would get the Commission ready for this conversation, would contribute to the development of the climate change strategy and would consider how we could engender the community response. 

·        We need to do more than we are doing at the moment to reduce global warming.

·        The Climate Change Act to decarbonise the UK sits with the Secretary of State rather than Local Authorities.  There was no transfer of resources and Local Authorities would need to use existing resources rather than use new ones.

·        Bracknell forest had a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions between 2005 to 2017.  This was driven by structural changes such as an increase in the use of lower emission vehicles, little has been done by individuals. 

·        More needs to be done by individuals as the impact of making structural changes is coming to an end.

·        Last summer a motion was passed at Council for the Borough to become carbon neutral by 2050, but the question now was how would the Council get to that 2050 target.  That question needed to be front and centre of the Councils thinking and doing. 

·        When making decisions on what to do to impact climate change, the public health implications over a person’s life course should be considered.

·        Bracknell had the highest number of hospital admissions for alcoholic liver disease.  There was a high rate of liver cancers in women aged between 35 and 55. 

·        Glass bottle collection levels pointed to a high level of cancer when the data was looked at.

·        The Public Protection Partnership  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

 

Contact Information

Democratic services

Email: committee@bracknell-forest.gov.uk