The Chairman welcomed all to the meeting and read out the online meeting information.

The Panel introduced themselves, as did Officers present.

To receive any apologies for absence.

Apologies for absence were received from Parish Councillor Pat McDonald.

To receive any declarations of interest.

No declarations of interest were received.

To agree the minutes of meetings held on 7 October 2021, 9 November 2021 and 18 November 2021.

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: that the minutes of the meetings held on 7 October 2021, 9 November 2021 and 18 November 2021 as a true and accurate record.

Councillor Del Campo would email the Clerk if she had any changes on 7 October 2021.

Subject to no changes from Councillor Del Campo, these were proposed by Councillor Bhangra and seconded by Councillor Jones.

Councillor Price asked to go through all the Matters Arising, as follows:

·       Page 17, 3^rd paragraph, It had been suggested that the resident request be relooked at in three months. ACTION: this would be placed on the work programme for April 2022.

·       Page 19, to place the Community Safety Partnership on the work programme. ACTION: this was on the work programme.

·       Page 19, to place food banks on the work programme. ACTION: Look into working with Councillor Price on a scoping document.

·       Page 23, a brochure for Tivoli was to be distributed to Parish Councils and Town Forum Members. ACTION: Had this been completed, Clerk to follow up on this.

·       Page 25, the Panel agreed in the summary of the debate that communications needed to be improved and Councillor Price felt they had not improved since the meeting. ACTION: Inform Alysse Strachan and report back.

·       Page 26, to place the air quality item suggested by Infrastructure O & S panel on the work programme. ACTION: this was on the work programme.

To consider the report.

Andrew Durrant, Executive Director of Place Services, gave a short overview and some detail around the Q2 performance and data report on page 27 in the agenda pack. Andrew Durrant reminded Members that the new Corporate Plan was adopted on 23^rd November 2021 which set out the Council’s new strategic priorities for the next five years, from 2021 to 2026. The report covered the 2021/22 Q2 data and performance and progress in relation to the council’s interim strategy. The report also acknowledged the new performance reporting arrangements that were agreed by Cabinet on 16^th December 2021, that would take effect from 1 April 2022. Members had been given a presentation on 4 January 2022 that explained the new performance arrangements in detail, by the Monitoring Officer.

There were six out of seven measures either meeting or exceeding the targets and the last one was just short of meeting the target but within meeting the set tolerances. In terms of the recovery strategy, there had been a series of campaigns launched to provide reassurance to returning visitors. The Q2 period saw the return of some of the larger events that the borough was used to hosting such as the Royal Horse Show and Royal Ascot. Andrew Durrant also mentioned the footfall across the main towns continued to be encouraging. Some ongoing work for the environment and climate strategy, the council had been able to secure a further £165,000 of grants funding from the low carbon skills fund and this would enable heat decarbonization assessments and development plans across the majority of the council’s-built estates including schools, libraries, the Town hall and the Guildhall. The formation of a RBWM climate partnership had been approved to provide more visible leadership for communication, engagement and delivery of the borough-wide environment and climate strategy. The next phase of embedding community response was launched in Maidenhead as part of the transformation strategy and the Maidenhead project had started to develop partnerships to address some of the health inequalities affecting disadvantaged communities. Quarter two also saw the launch of the engagement HQ platform for community engagement and empowerment. Also, the engagement with community and cultural groups had been established with a series of health and well being workshops. The Tivoli performance was commented on and Andrew Durrant would follow up on the outstanding actions.

Councillor Del Campo commented that all the figures looked good except the Tivoli performance. The headline performance figure for recycling, especially over Christmas, did not reflect the difficulties that residents had, with three-week bin collections and assisted collections. The Executive Director commented that there had been a low level of issues in relation to waste collection. The change had gone very well but there had been some things that could have been done better. It was suggested that a detailed report on the transfer be presented to the Panel at a future meeting to understand what was done, how it was done and see if it could be done better next  ...  view the full minutes text for item 23.

To draft the Annual Scrutiny Report.

The Clerk asked the Panel for comments on the draft annual scrutiny report. This was the first draft, and all comments would be added and then a final report would be agreed at the next meeting in April, before it went to cabinet in June.

Councillor Price commented that there was a requirement that the report be produced but no use was made of it. In the last two year’s report, proposals had been made to increase improvement to the working methods, but these were not followed and the report was never referred to throughout the year.

Councillor Del Campo commented that the Panels felt more like overview meetings where not much scrutiny was done. There were many meetings that covered many items over the last year and going forward it would be better to have fewer meeting looking at less items but in more detail.

The Clerk commented that we were doing better and that District Enforcement, Serco and Tivoli were very productive and we did better scrutiny for these items.

ACTION: Any comments for the draft Annual Scrutiny Report to be sent to the clerk in the next ten days.

To consider the scoping document for Climate Change.

To consider the scoping document for Community Facilities Review. The cabinet report from September 2021 is also attached for information.

To consider the Panel’s work programme for the remainder of the Municipal year.

To include consideration of items scheduled on the Cabinet Forward Plan.

The Panel went through the work programme and that the next meeting, so far, consisted of Q3 Interim Performance Management Report and the resident item about parking on footpaths and verges. Also items still not scheduled included Community Safety Partnership and the Waste Management Strategy. There was also Serco update, Boulters Lock progress, Food Banks and Air Quality. The Clerk reminded all that a scoping document would be required if the item was to be put on the agenda with reasons why the item was down for scrutiny. Councillor Del Campo asked about Norden Farm and The Old Court. Councillor Del Campo had asked for the items to place before the budget discussion at Full Council which had not been possible. Andrew Durrant commented that conversations were taking place between Norden Farm and Officers. Andrew Durrant and the Clerk would check when the Norden Farm item would be available to be discussed at a public panel.

ACTION: Report back on Norden Farm

Councillor Price commented that the Waste contract item was on the cabinet forward plan, many changes had taken place, but the Panel had not been kept informed. Councillor Price suggested it be put on the work programme. The Clerk suggested speaking with Alysse Strachan first and discussing if the item needed to go on the work programme.

Councillor Price reminded the panel that the Sports strategy and leisure centres had been suggested previously for the work programme. Andrew Durrant commented that this was a good idea for a future meeting.

ACTION: Clerk to add to work programme under items not yet scheduled

The Clerk then referred to the first of the two scoping documents on Climate Change and Sustainability Strategy that Councillor Del Campo had prepared. The Clerk read out a statement from the Officers. It read:

We are currently drafting our End of Year Report which details progress against targets set out in the Environment and Climate Strategy. This was a commitment made in the strategy document itself. It details progress against the headline carbon target as well as against the actions detailed in the delivery plan. This will be published early in the Spring and may well cover much of what the Panel is looking for.

Many of the key headline targets rely on government being published by national government. This includes Borough carbon emissions and renewable energy generation in the Borough. These are only published once a year.

As agreed by Cabinet, we are currently going through the process of setting up an independent climate partnership that will support deliver of the Environment and Climate Strategy. This is due to be in place from Spring 2022.

In terms of current scrutiny of the work we undertake, we have bi-weekly Lead Member Briefings and month shadow lead member briefings.

Councillor Stimson added that a lot of work had been done and it would be better to leave to the summer.

Councillor Del Campo was very pleased that the borough were already working towards the borough’s targets.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 25.