Agenda and draft minutes

An apology for absence was received from Councillor Pearce.

To approve the record of the meeting held on 19 June 2026.

The record of the meeting held on 26 March 2026 was agreed and signed by the Chairperson as correct.

The Chairperson will announce any late items which do not appear on the main agenda but which he has agreed should be considered by reason of special circumstances to be specified in the report.

There were none.

Members are invited to disclose any Disclosable Pecuniary Interests or Other Significant Interests in accordance with the Member Code of Conduct. Guidance on this is set out in agenda item 4.

Disclosable pecuniary interests (DPI)

There were none.

Other significant Interests (OSI)

There were none.

Other Interests

There were none.

In August 2025, the Cabinet approved the refreshed Climate Change Action Plan 2025-2028, representing the third update since the Council’s declaration of a climate emergency in 2019.  The vision of the Climate Change Action Plan aligns with the One Medway Council Plan priority “enjoying clean, green, safe and connected communities.”

This report marks the first annual update on progress against the plan.  A progress report, highlighting key achievements in 2025, can be found in Appendix 1.

Estimated time: 30 minutes

Discussion:

The Chief Leisure and Environment Officer introduced the report. He highlighted the progress made by the Council in the first year of the action plan with 35 of 42 actions were underway. Many of the actions had a number of phases so would not be completed until the end of the four year cycle, however positive progress had been made.

Seven actions had not been started, this was primarily due to capacity within the relevant service, for example work with the property team has been delayed by the Gun Wharf Improvement Project. Many of the actions were managed by the relevant service, I further information was required by the Committee regarding those actions it would be provided in writing following the meeting.

There were a number of areas of development which were not currently in the action plan, for example the Warm Homes grant of £1.3m to improve housing for families with a combined income of less than £36,000. An updated action plan to take account of those developments would be proposed to Cabinet in due course.

The following issues were discussed:

Service based actions – in response to a request that Members receive contact information for the relevant services, the Chief Leisure and Environment Officer agreed to provide the information to the Committee.

Financing – it was asked what monies were provided by external grants and what was funded by the Council and what would the effect be if funding was withdrawn. The Chief Leisure and Environmental Officer stated that applications for grants and the management of the budgets were the responsibility of the relevant service manager, and they were aware of the four year action plan and the importance of funding for that period when managing those actions.

The Chief Operating Officer added that there was a great deal of activity taking place within a range of services, which was covered by existing resources and it would be necessary to estimate how much of that resource was delivering the Climate Change Action Plan. It was agreed that the Chief Leisure and Environment Officer would collate an analysis of the activity and estimated costs as a briefing note for the committee.

Burnham Wood – A Member noted that 1,300 trees had been planted in Burnham Wood, he asked if there was a management plan to ensure the trees become properly established as he was concerned that their growth had been hampered. The Chief Leisure and Environment Officer stated that there was a 3-year management plan to support the establishment of the trees in the area. He undertook to provide further detail about the specific scheme following the meeting.

Tree coverage – it was asked how the Council measured the tree coverage in the area. The Chief Leisure and Environment Officer stated that the service worked closely with the tree officers in the planning department and Medway Norse tree officers now reported to him to provide a streamlined approach. A tree survey was scheduled to take place to provide  ...  view the full minutes text for item 97.

This report provides an annual review of the Council’s Petitions Scheme.

Estimated time: 15 minutes

Discussion:

The Head of Democratic Services introduced the report. He highlighted that there had been an increase in the number of petitions and the number of signatures of those petitions in 2025-26, with twenty-one petitions received in total, all of which related to areas under the remit of the Regeneration, Culture and Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

The following issues were discussed:

Members welcomed the increase in petitions, and the positive outcomes from petitions. One Member commented that he was pleased that the Council was, in response to a petition moving forward with consideration of a 20mph zone in Strood to improve road safety.

Outcomes – in response to a question whether petitions were a way to influence Council decisions the Head of Democratic Services highlighted petitions where petitions had achieved an outcome, as detailed in the report and also noted that the Council were not always able to meet the aims of petitions.

Decision:

The Committee noted the annual review of the Council’s Petitions Scheme.

The One Medway Council Plan (OMCP) 2024/28 sets out the Council’s priorities and the performance indicators used to monitor performance. This report and appendices summarise how we performed in Quarter 4 (Q4) 2025/26 on the delivery of these priorities. This report also presents the Q4 2025/26 review of strategic risks which fall under the remit of this committee.

Estimated time: 45 minutes

Discussion:

The Chief Information Officer introduced the report. He highlighted that two of the four performance measures had exceeded performance targets during the year, these were the reduction of phone calls to the Council and the accessibility rating of the Council website.

There had been three change to the Strategic Risk Summary in the quarter. Risk SR03B ‘Insufficient budget funding’ had been reduced from A2 to B2 which reflected the three year financial settlement from central government. Risk SR54 ‘Recruitment and Retention’ had increased from C3 to B2. This reflected the difficult recruitment and retention environment. Risk SR58 ‘Gun Wharf building closure’ had been de-escalated from the Strategic Risk Register as the RAAC issue has been dealt with and the Gun Wharf project was now at the renovation stage.

The following issues were discussed:

AI Search Agent - in response to a question whether the Council had data available on the use of the AI search tool, the Chief Information Officer stated that the Council received weekly reports highlighting various data including what was searched and the responses provided. The launch of the AI search agent was undertaken with enhanced support, so changes to the web in real time to respond to identified issues. After the first few days, real time updates were no longer required and searches were over 90% successful. He added that this data would be included in future reports to the Committee.

Website – A Member requested further information regarding the presentation of the website, the Chief Information Officer stated that the focus was to increase the accessibility of the website for visually impaired users, the Council’s website had risen from 73% accessible to 90%. He acknowledged that more work was required in some areas of the website. There were two parts to the website, one area was designed on a similar basis to Gov.uk and focused on factual information and making payments. The other part of the website such as theatres and leisure needed to have a more commercial outlook.

Recruitment and retention – in response to a question why the risk related to recruitment and retention had increased. The Chief Information Officer stated that it was believed that Local Government Re-organisation (LGR) was the primary cause alongside competition form London for staff.

LGR - it was asked if LGR not going ahead was also a risk. The Chief Operating Officer stated that LGR was included in the Risk Summary, but if LGR did not go ahead it would not necessarily result in abortive work for the Council as much of the Council’s preparations for LGR were focused on areas which would require development should LGR and improvement anyway irrespective of LGR.

Cyber Security – further information was requested regarding the risk related to Cyber Security. The Chief Information Officer stated that Cyber Security was considered a managed risk because there was always a potential risk, however the Council worked to reduce the risk on an ongoing basis.

Budget Savings – in response to a  ...  view the full minutes text for item 99.

This report details the final revenue and capital outturn position for the financial year ended 31 March 2026.These figures will form part of the Council’s Statement of Accounts, which will be presented to the Audit Committee following the completion of the External Audit. The report also presents a summary of debts written off during the 2025/26 financial year in line with the constitutional requirement to submit a report to Cabinet on an annual basis setting out details of all debt written off.

Estimated time: 45 minutes

Discussion:

The Chief Operating Officer introduced the Annual budget report, he highlighted the final budget position which represented a £9.8m overspend which was funded by an increased capitalization direction which now stood at just over £28m for the financial year.

The Committee were asked to note the Council’s general fund reserves position which stood at just over £10m and the declassification of £3.7m of reserves to the revenue budget.

The following issues were discussed:

Exceptional Financial Support (EFS) – A Member asked if the final budget position, low level of reserves meant further EFS may be required for the 2026/27. The Chief Operating Officer stated that the final overspend in Adult Social Care was significantly higher than had been forecast in round 3 monitoring. As a consequence, he was less confident that the 2026/27 budget would be met without further recourse to EFS. He had informed CMT and the administration that he was concerned that the overspend in Adult Social Care would place strain on the 2026/27 budget. The Council had put resources into adult social care, but forecasting had been overly optimistic regarding the delivery of savings targets and work was ongoing to understand the causes of this.

Debt write off – A Member commented that £2.4m represented a significant amount of unpaid Council Tax debt to write off. The Chief Operating Officer stated that finance typically achieved 97% collection of council tax in year and a 99% collection rate over the longer period, however, more recently the cost of living crises had impacted collection rate. Whilst the Council had put additional resources into collection of debt, it was realistically not expected to  recover the £2.4m, hence the exceptional level of write off.

Finance and Interest – A Member asked if the Chief Operating Officer retained confidence in the Council’s treasury advisors following the finance and interest overspend against the budget last year. The Chief Operating Officer explained that it had been expected that interest rates would fall during the last two to three years, however, this has not happened and due to the conflict in the middle east, The Public Works Loans Board rates (PWLB) had risen to circa 5.5%. This had largely caused the overspend shown in the budget outturn. The Chief Operating Officer added that the Council had recently changed its treasury advisors.

Overspend across departments – A Member commented that whilst there were one or two areas of significant overspend. There was also overspend across a number of budgets. The Chief Operating Officer acknowledged that there were some departments where budgets had seen an overspend, however, the wider department was within budget, or there were particular causes for the overspend. One example was the Public Health budget, which had overspends in some areas but as a whole was within budget overall.

Capital Programme – A Member asked if there had been a change to the Capital Programme due to the overspend. The Chief Operating Officer stated that the Capital Programme had not changed, a number  ...  view the full minutes text for item 100.

This item advises Members of the current work programme and allows the Committee to adjust it in the light of latest priorities, issues and circumstances. It gives Members the opportunity to shape and direct the Committee’s activities over the year.

Estimated time: 5 minutes

Discussion:

The Democratic Services Officer introduced the report which set out proposed changes to the Work Programme.

Decision:

a)     The Committee agreed the work programme at Appendix 1 to the report.

b)     The Committee noted the work programmes of the other Overview and Scrutiny Committees at Appendix 2 to the report.