To determine whether there are any questions for the relevant Lead Members and what support the Overview and Scrutiny Committee can give to work contained within the Plan.

8.1             Attention was drawn to the Executive Committee Forward Plan, circulated at Pages No.12-19.  Members were asked to determine whether there were any questions for the relevant Lead Members and what support the Overview and Scrutiny Committee could give to the work contained within the plan. 

8.2             The Director: Resources explained that Officers were regularly engaged to ensure the Executive Committee Forward Plan was kept up to date and he would be working with them to bring forward the pending items listed at Page No. 18 of the report.  It was noted that, when the Forward Plan was considered by the Executive Committee at its meeting on 7 June 2023, Members had asked for some changes, including the addition of Lead Members and more qualitative information about each Agenda Item including references to background material, which he was happy to support.

8.3             A Member noticed that the Council Plan Performance Tracker Quarter One 2023/24 was due to be considered at the meeting in October 2023 yet Quarter Two was not intended to be considered until the meeting in February 2024 and she asked why there was such a long gap given that Quarter Three was programmed for March 2024.  In response, the Director: Corporate Resources explained that it was down to the timing of Committees and the data being available to populate the tracker.  Another Member drew attention to Page No. 18 of the report and asked what the current position was in relation to the Parking Strategy Review.  The Executive Director: Resources and S151 explained that he would discuss with the Lead Member at the earliest opportunity whether the revised strategy should be taken forward for approval, or whether it needed to be reconsidered given the time which had now passed since the Working Group had reached its conclusions and in light of the new Council. 

8.4             A Member asked for an update on capital funding for an additional waste vehicle, included in the pending items section of the Forward Plan, and whether there would be a change to the way waste collection was managed going forward.  The Director: Communities explained that this item related to the expansion of the waste vehicle fleet rather than changes to waste collections which would be dependent on the outcome of the DEFRA consultation.  In the event further changes were announced an additional report would be taken to the Executive Committee.  The Member asked what type of fuel the waste vehicles used, given the Council’s ambition to move forward with the climate change agenda, and was advised that the 26 tonne RCVs had Euro 5 or 6 engines which were the best available on the market as technology for electric or hybrid was not there currently – this would be explained in more detail in the report to the Executive Committee.  Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil (HVO) could be used in some vehicles but this would need to be carefully sourced as it could be more harmful to the environment than diesel.  He provided assurance that Officers were looking to do as much as possible to make the fleet greener; however, due the rural nature of the borough, it was not viable to move the whole fleet to electric – consideration was being given to making some of the smaller vehicles electric but that was subject to budgetary restrictions as they could cost double the price of a diesel vehicle.  It was hoped that technology would move on considerably over the next seven years so the Council would be in a position to make more significant changes during the next round of procurement. 

8.5             The Chair indicated there was nothing on the Executive Committee Forward Plan to reflect the motion which had been agreed by Council in June - he was interested to note that the previous Climate Change and Flood Risk Management Group had reported to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee and questioned whether it would be more appropriate to report to the Executive Committee.  He indicated that he would like to see a strategy and plan in place by December 2023 and asked for an Officer view on that.  In response, the Executive Director: Resources and S151 confirmed that the newly formed Climate Change and Ecology Management Group would be a Working Group of the Council as opposed to Overview and Scrutiny Committee and would report to the Executive Committee/Council as appropriate going forward.  It was hoped that a further item would come forward in July; however, there were currently no resources to take forward the Council motion so those would need to be put in place as soon as possible.  In his view, December may be too ambitious but he provided assurance that Officers would look at the timescales and advise Members via the Working Group as soon as they could.

8.6             It was

RESOLVED          That the Executive Committee Forward Plan be NOTED.