To receive any apologies for absence.

An apology for absence was received from Councillor Davies.

To receive any declarations of interest.

There were no declarations of interest received.

To consider the minutes of the meeting held on 14^th December 2022.

Councillor Price was pleased to note that with the extra money which had been received as part of the local government financial settlement, some of the points which the Panel had requested at the December budget meeting had been picked up and considered. She also felt that the decision to refer relevant items to the People Overview and Scrutiny Panel and the Place Overview and Scrutiny Panel had been a good one and both Panel’s had recently held beneficial meetings. Councillor Price suggested that these items should automatically be considered by the relevant Panels for next year’s budget process.

Adele Taylor, Executive Director of Resources, confirmed that a review of the budget process would be conducted to see where improvements could be made for next year.

Mark Beeley, Democratic Services Officer, said that the actions table which collated all of the actions from the meetings held in November and December would be circulated to the Panel shortly, with the outcomes of the actions from these meetings.

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: That the minutes of the meeting held on 14^th December 2022 were approved as a true and accurate record.

To comment on the report and make any recommendations to be considered by Cabinet.

Adele Taylor said that the full fees and charges report was part of the agenda pack, the Panel were asked to provide any comments on the proposals. This included the financial implications which were included as part of the draft budget. Lines that were statutory had been indicated and service areas were asked to consider the fees impact on the budget, for example an increase in volume should be fed into the service area income budget.

Councillor Price commented that there was no point in the Panel discussing non-discretionary items as these were fixed. This was confirmed by the Executive Director of Resources.

Councillor Price asked if there was a rationale for some areas which had increased and other areas which had not.

Adele Taylor explained that some increases could be higher due to the scale of some of the fees, cost recovery could be a factor if costs had also increased. Average increases could be skewed if one specific fee had increased which had affected the overall average.

Councillor Price asked why the parking fees had gone out to public consultation but no other fees in the budget had done so.

Adele Taylor said the parking fees formed the majority of the council’s income which was why officers had focused on this area.

Councillor L Jones said that inflation was forecast to drop rapidly over the next couple of months, she asked why the finance team were not using the forecast on inflation.

Adele Taylor said that the rate of inflation was taken at the current point in time, the same had been done for expenditure. Some of the fees and charges were driven by costs in year. All fees and charges were done on an individual service basis, these service areas could justify any rises if needed.

Councillor L Jones did not understand what other costs had been incurred on parking over the past year, other than a loss in income. She did not believe that parking charges needed to be raised to match coinage as parking charges were now done digitally. Councillor L Jones suggested that particularly in Windsor, residents needed more than a one hour discount on parking, residents needed to be encouraged to use their local high street. She requested to Cabinet that the parking charge was not increased, that the inflation rate used needed to be revaluated and that residents were given a greater discount on parking.

The Chairman recalled that the parking team had benchmarked parking charges against other local authorities and RBWM had low parking charges, in comparison.

Alysse Strachan, Head of Neighbourhood Services, confirmed that benchmarking had been done with neighbouring authorities and also with other authorities in different areas of the country. RBWM was largely similar in the level of charge for parking.

Councillor Sharpe wanted to ensure that comparisons had been made locally, residents of RBWM were only likely to visit other local town centres for shopping.

Councillor Werner felt that the cost of parking in Windsor was shocking,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 42.

To note the report.

Emma Duncan, Director of Law, Governance and Public Health, said that an action plan had been developed after the peer review team visited the council in January 2022. The peer review team had revisited the council later in the year to consider the progress made on the action plan, the report highlighted the recommendations that had been made as a result.

Councillor Price made a comment on the Windsor Town Council, the peer review team had been told that only 3% of residents had responded to the public consultation. Councillor Price disputed this figure, she felt that it was closer to 10% as this included the number of residents who had signed the e-petition.

Councillor L Jones noted that the peer review team had suggested that the council needed to invest to save. She wanted to see some service areas given the proper resource to allow transformation to happen.

Adele Taylor said that through the capital programme there were some schemes that were funded through borrowing and these were invest to save.

Councillor L Jones felt that more could be done on governance and culture, some progress had been made but scrutiny needed to be embedded on all policy papers. Draft proposals should be seen by scrutiny so that they could add value, rather than being brought for consideration at the end of the process.

Councillor Bond considered what he knew already and what he had only been informed about through the peer review, there was probably an even split. Briefings could be used to help improve the Panel’s knowledge for certain issues. Councillor Bond questioned if the peer review team were aware of a number of changes in the Corporate Leadership Team at the council. He noted that the health scrutiny terms of reference were being reviewed by the Head of Governance, who had left the council at the end of 2022. He asked what was being planned for this piece of work.

Emma Duncan said that the peer review team had revisited the council just after the departure of the previous Chief Executive. It was the job of all employees at the council to ensure good governance, there would be a change in the leadership team but there had been substantial improvements in the governance of the council. RBWM was in a better place now than when Emma Duncan had joined the council. On health scrutiny, the council was considering how it could best perform the health scrutiny role, particularly as the footprint of the healthcare system was different to that of local authorities. It was likely that this would be resolved after the election.

Councillor Price expressed concern that the Cabinet Transformation Sub Committee was not meeting four times a year and therefore it was not effectively monitoring how transformation had been taking place across the council. She did not feel it had the weight of importance that the committee should have. An annual governance statement being produced had been referenced in the report, Councillor Price asked  ...  view the full minutes text for item 43.

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.

Mark Beeley informed the Panel that items on the agenda for the next meeting in April would be a report on performance monitoring and a resident scrutiny suggestion on the physical separation of resident and library services. Councillor Price had suggested that the Panel should look at the council tax reduction scheme paper, after a discussion with officers it was decided that it would be more beneficial to bring a general cost of living crisis scrutiny review item. The Panel could then consider what schemes the council had in place, how these schemes were being communicated and whether residents were engaging with the support in place. Mark Beeley added that a scoping document would be drafted and shared with Panel Members in the coming weeks.

Councillor Price added that there were a lot of initiatives in place to support residents but it was not clear if this help was reaching all residents and if they were taking advantage of the support that was offered by the council.