Agenda and minutes

No declarations of interest were received.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Blakemore, Brittain and Flood.

Please follow the link below to view the latest Forward Plan.

Forward Plan

The Forward Plan was reported for information.

RESOLVED –

That the Forward Plan be noted.

The Monitoring Schedule was reported for information.

RESOLVED –

That the Monitoring Schedule be noted.

The Work Programme was reported.

RESOLVED –

That the Work Programme be noted.

The Chair reported that the next East Midlands Scrutiny Network meeting would be on 30 September, 2022 at Rutland County Council offices.

RESOLVED –

That the report be noted.

The Minutes of the Overview and Performance Scrutiny Forum held on 30 June, 2022 were presented.

RESOLVED –

That the Minutes be approved as a correct record and be signed by the Chair.

5.10pm to 5:40pm

The Climate Change Officer and the Policy and Partnerships Manager attended the meeting to provide members with an update on actions 44 and 45 on the climate change action plan. The two actions related to the commission of reports on carbon accounting and de-carbonisation pathways which would provide an evidence base to support the development of a new climate change strategy.

To inform the strategy, consultations had taken place with all the council’s service leads to understand their concerns regarding climate change. The carbon accounting report provided a detailed look at the council’s finances and the costs of climate change on the budget which provided a hotspot analysis on where the most significant emissions were within the council’s supply chain. The de-carbonisation pathway report assessed the climate risk and produced a series of recommendations of steps that the council could take to achieve de-carbonisation.

This evidence base had produced a set of key areas to focus on for the strategy which were: the council’s electricity and gas usage, developing the vehicle fleet and offsetting emissions that could not be reduced within the timeframe.

The strategy was likely to be significantly larger than the climate change action plan and discussions were also taking place with tier 4 managers to ensure the actions would be embedded across the authority. A public consultation on the draft strategy was expected to start in November however there were a number of announcements expected from the new Prime Minister, particularly on the goal for net zero emissions, which may impact on the strategy development.

In response to a question about why a written report had not been provided ahead of the meeting, the Chair advised that, as this was an interim update in response to a specific question at the last Forum meeting, the Chairs felt it was appropriate for a verbal update. A full written update will be brought to the Forum in November to allow members to review and comment on the draft strategy.

Members commented that the Standards and Audit Committee had raised a question about why Cabinet reports only contained a brief statement on climate change implications and advised that the Committee would be asking the Climate Change Officer to attend a future meeting.

Members asked whether external consultants were being used to prepare the new strategy and the Climate Change Officer explained that an external company had carried out the research for the de-carbonisation pathways report however CBC officers were using that evidence to write the strategy. Members also enquired about which elements of financial spend were looked at when assessing the carbon footprint. The Climate Change Officer advised that a machine was used to sort through a substantial number of records and categorise those by type, a carbon model was then used to identify a generic carbon emission for that category of work.

Members asked whether there was a Climate Change Officers network and were informed that there was a group called the Collective for Climate Action which was made  ...  view the full minutes text for item 27.

5:40pm to 6:30pm

At the pre-agenda meeting, the Chairs had discussed the increasing concerns about the cost-of-living crisis and impact this was having on residents. The Senior Democratic and Scrutiny Officer presented a report summarising the current support available through government schemes, the council, partner agencies and organisations to address the cost-of-living crisis. The report was to inform a discussion about where support should be targeted, how the availability of support is communicated and to consider what questions scrutiny could ask when looking at future scrutiny topics.

Members reported that they were seeing an increase in cases of overcrowding where multiple people were living in a property as they could not afford the costs associated with moving to a new property including heating. Members also raised concerns that there could be an impact on the objectives in the council plan relating to housing conditions if residents were unable to afford repairs or heat their homes.

The Forum felt that communication with Members was key to ensuring that they could support their residents. It was discussed that a guide for members would be useful which could include details of the support that was available and information on where to go for certain needs such as for food or a meal.

Members suggested a number of ideas for making information available to residents including:

·        Placing a noticeboard containing information near where people make payments and in shop windows for those who do not have internet access.

·        Providing details of where people can get access to online services who do not have online access at home.

·        Make use of community notice boards where these still exist to provide information of the support available.

·        Providing Members with a crib sheet of links to websites.

·        Asking the local press to include a regular section to signpost to advice and support agencies.

·        Explore the re-establishment of community forums to help get information out to residents.

Members discussed how there were different challenges in different areas of the borough. Residents who were in need of support, but who had not previously claimed financial or other support, may be reluctant to do so. There was a need to break down barriers to make it clear that the agencies and organisations are there to help. Members suggested that creating publicity in a format such as “Did you know…” could help to inform residents about support in an approachable way.

As the cost-of-living crisis would give rise to lots of different needs, it was impossible to equip everyone with the level of knowledge needed to help somebody. Members discussed how important it was to make sure people could be signposted to expert assistance relevant to their needs.

Members highlighted an increasing issue of loan sharks in Chesterfield and asked for an information session to be considered as part of the member development programme. In addition, scams were circulating which told people to apply for certain grants and benefits that did not need an application.

Members discussed the impact of the rise in energy  ...  view the full minutes text for item 28.