To consider what topics the Panel would like to consider over the course of the municipal year.

An example scoping document has been added to the work programme, these are used to understand the scope of a topic and what the review will try and achieve. A scoping document needs to be agreed by the Panel once it has been completed.

Mark Beeley, Principal Democratic Services Officer – Overview and Scrutiny, explained that Panel Members could suggest items for inclusion in the work programme by completing a scoping document. A recent good example of how the process worked was the cost of living item which had been considered by the Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Panel. There were also two items from the previous municipal year, on the River Thames Scheme and the Community Infrastructure Levy, the Panel needed to consider whether it wanted to bring these items forward for consideration.

The Chair read out an email from Councillor Bermange, who had suggested that the Panel could look at the resource and capacity within the planning development management and enforcement teams.

Councillor Gurch Singh felt that this needed to be scrutinised to ensure that the planning process was performing as expected.

Councillor Grove was supportive of the topic, in her ward there were planning limitations but she had found that these limitations were often being pushed and sometimes even ignored by developers. If pre-application was being brought back, it would be worth reviewing the advice that was given as part of the pre-application stage. The Panel could also look at cases where planning enforcement had not been effective on some applications. Councillor Grove added that she would appreciate the opportunity to scope the topic on the River Thames Scheme.

ACTION – Mark Beeley to send Councillor Grove the context behind the topic, including the original suggestion and minutes from the meeting where the item was discussed.

Councillor Carpenter requested that grass cutting schedules were considered, the timing had been late and she felt that quality had been poor.

Andrew Durrant, Executive Director of Place Services, said that there was a planning service improvement plan so that could feed into the item. Pre-application advice was offered and this could be discussed. Recruitment and retention was a wider issue in local authorities across the country. In terms of performance, the Citizens Portal showed that for major applications the planning team were above the target, while minor and other applications were very close to the target. There had been some difficult conditions around the Tivoli contract and there had been a back log.

Alysse Strachan said that officers had worked hard with Tivoli to improve performance after issues had been identified. It had been a wet season and the grass was difficult to cut frequently. The cemeteries and parks had been prioritised, a number of verges were wild verges and were therefore only cut twice a year. A Parks and Open Spaces Contract Manager had been recruited and they would be able to closely monitor the contract performance, this would improve scrutiny internally.

Councillor Kashmir Singh said that it would be useful to receive a schedule from officers on where and when Tivoli were planning to cut the grass and also which grass verges had been designated as wilding areas. He asked if financial penalties had been applied to the contractors.

Alysse Strachan confirmed that there were schedules but these were not widely publicised as they could change at short notice. She was happy to share the schedules with Panel Members.

ACTION – Alysse Strachan to share Tivoli cutting schedules with Panel Members.

Councillor Kashmir Singh commented on the grass trimmings which had been left were often caught up in drains and had caused flooding issues in recent weeks.

Alysse Strachan said that normally this was not an issue as the grass was cut at a shorter length but admitted that this had been problematic with longer grass now being cut. Changing to a cut and collect schedule would have significant costs on resource, both staffing and machinery.

Councillor Gurch Singh asked if the report on the planning performance was available to Panel Members. He asked if the planning service improvement plan could be considered by the Panel.

Andrew Durrant suggested that the planning service improvement plan should be linked to the planning resource scrutiny item. The performance could be monitored by Councillors and the public through the Citizens Portal, which was available through the RBWM Together website. The exact link could be shared with Panel Members.

ACTION – Link to planning performance to be shared with Panel Members.

Councillor Baskerville raised concern about hedge cuttings, there were some in his ward which had not been cut for a significant amount of time. He asked how regularly were drains and roadside gutters cleaned out.

Councillor Grove raised the issue of rural connectivity from Datchet, Horton and Wraysbury into Windsor. A petition was currently live which requested that a bus route was explored and funded. A number of residents were isolated from essential services like health centres. Parking was also difficult for residents and therefore made for a greater reliance on bus services.

Councillor Gurch Singh highlighted a report from Greenpeace which suggested that plastic recycling was not being recycled properly and it was costing more environmentally to collect plastic when it could not be recycled.

Alysse Strachan said that plastic was difficult to recycle but the government were looking at placing more responsibility with the producers of plastic. The government were also reviewing consistent collections and investigating what could be collected at the kerbside. A waste composition analysis was planned by the council which would look to influence communications with residents.

Councillor Gosling raised the issue of potholes, the council fixed them on a temporary basis before going back to fix them permanently. She asked if there was a way for potholes to be sorted in one trip.

Andrew Durrant said that he was aware of the impact of potholes, this was an issue for both RBWM and other neighbouring local authorities. Officers were looking into other fixes and treatments to ensure that temporary fixes lasted for enough time for the permanent fix to be implemented. The team were also exploring whether the communication around temporary fixes could be relayed better so that residents were aware.

Alysse Strachan added that the temporary fixes were designed to minimise disruption and ensure that issues were resolved until the permanent solution would be brought in. The new highways contract would be coming in from April 2024 and new solutions would be explored with the contractor. Early intervention was key to ensuing the longevity of the road surface.

Councillor Grove picked up on the work done by the Panel in the previous municipal year on street lightning with the Youth Council. She had received various bits of casework from residents in her ward who were concerned about the level of street lightning and that this had led to an increase in crime. She asked if this was something to look at further, particularly the key performance indicators on the contractors.

Andrew Durrant said that brining together community safety and street lightning was a good topic, hot spots could be identified. Key performance indicators were part of the contract, the contractors were currently not hitting the target in one area. There had been issues with stock levels but this had now been resolved.

Councillor Gurch Singh suggested that the Panel should invite the relevant Cabinet Members to the next meeting to outline their priorities over the coming municipal year. The work programme and meetings could then be planned around key reports coming to Cabinet, which would allow the Panel the opportunity to scrutinise reports before a decision was made.

Mark Beeley encouraged Panel Members to have a look at the Cabinet Forward Plan so that more pre-decision scrutiny could take place.

Councillor Kashmir Singh highlighted some roadworks which had been taking place on the border of the Riverside and Furze Platt wards, there had been a number of examples where the temporary traffic lights had been stuck on red. He asked how much the council had to pay to residents who had made a damages case against the council due to potholes not being repaired.

Andrew Durrant confirmed that there was an insurance team who looked after liabilities and costs, this could be reported to the Panel.

ACTION – The amount of money paid to residents from damage caused by potholes to be reported back to the Panel.

Mark Beeley asked if there was any interest in bringing a topic forward on Community Infrastructure Levy.

Councillor Gurch Singh confirmed that he was happy to explore the scope of this topic.