Agenda and draft minutes

There were no apologies for absence.

Link to further information in the Council’s Constitution

Councillor Barney declared that he worked for a company involved in zero?emission fuels and carbon technologies operating in Rushcliffe and Nottinghamshire but which had no involvement with Rushcliffe Borough Council.

The minutes of the meeting held on Thursday, 22 January 2026 were agreed as a true record and were signed by the Chair.

The Communities Manager introduced the Carbon Management Plan Update report and said that this was the fifth year of presenting an update to Scrutiny. He noted that the report covered activity between 2024 and April 2025 due to when national data was released.

The Team Manager for Environment gave a detailed presentation to the Group and said that significant progress had been made towards the Council’s 2030 net?zero target and the Government’s 2050 UK target. He highlighted a number of key projects that the Council had achieved, being:

·       Rushcliffe Arena Solar Project

·       Cotgrave Leisure Centre, Sir Julien Cahn and Gamston Community Hall decarbonation Projects

·       90% reduction in fleet emissions

·       Offsetting - £860k of Grants from Trees for Carbon fund granted for planting and managing trees cover at Wolds Wood and Rushcliffe Woods

·       Warm Homes: Local Grant and Energy Company Obligation 4 across East Leake and Borough wide.

·       EV Charge Points at Nursery and Bridgford Road Carparks

·       Home Energy Advice Team 2

·       Facilitating Ethical Solar Loans at Railway Heritage Centre Ruddington

The Team Manager for Environment explained that the Council had achieved a reduction in carbon emissions equivalent to removing five Cotgrave Leisure Centres, or 124 properties from the national grid.

The Communities Manager provided an update in relation to the Council’s offsetting strategy. He explained that following review of the Council’s land holdings, which were limited, and open spaces and also consideration of working with partner agencies, Cabinet had agreed to proceed with acquisition of land within the Borough, of grade 3 agricultural land value or below. He explained that suitable land had been identified and purchased at Rushcliffe Wood (Upper Broughton) which had a brook running through it and Wolds Woods (near Kinoulton) which was formerly a woodland. He said that these two sites would provide 123% against the Council’s identified sequestration offset requirement and so provided some flexibility for the Council. He said that deer and rabbit fencing would be installed to help protect the planting initially and added that the Council had secured £860k of grant funding which covered the cost of all the tree planting and 15 years of maintenance for both sites.

The Team Manager for Environment informed the Group about the Council’s key projects for 2026-27, being:

·       Gresham Sports Pavillion - install solar PV and improved water management system 

·       Edwalton Golf Course Refurbishment – including energy measures and adding solar PV to roof 

·       Streetwise Solar – solar electric scheme on the roof to supplement EV charge bays installed last year

·       Hound Lodge Energy Efficiency – development of implementation of insulation programme

·       Develop a Scope 3 (supply chain emissions) monitoring and reporting mechanism for all RBC operations to support mapping and maximising efficiencies.

The Team Manager for Environment also highlighted the Council’s future pipeline projectto decarbonise the whole of Rushcliffe Arena and said that the Council would explore future funding schemes to decarbonise heating as the current gas boilers/combined heating powerplant came to the end of their life.

The Team Manager for Environment  ...  view the full minutes text for item 17.

The Communications and Customer Services Manager presented the West Bridgford Customer Contact Point report to the Group and thanked Members who had attended the site visit earlier in the week.

The Communications and Customer Services Manager explained that the Council had moved to Fountain Court in 2020, a few weeks before the pandemic began, at a time when it was experiencing around 10,000 customer visits per year to its customer service site in West Bridgford. He said, however, that the pandemic had changed behaviours and interactions and visits subsequently dropped to around 3780 in 2023. In light of this, the Council had reviewed its customer access provision at all its sites, including at Cotgrave situated in the HUB, at Bingham situated in the Medical Centre and East Leake in their Library, to ensure that they were fit for purpose, met customer needs and were accessible. The Council had identified that moving the West Bridgford centre to the Library would both improve service and provide financial savings. He updated the Group with information about opening times and dates, currently Monday, Thursday and Friday which had been identified as the busiest times of the week and confirmed that if any changes in need were identified, these timings would be reviewed. He said that being situated in the Library had made the customer centre easier to find and more accessible.

The Communications and Customer Services Manager said that the Council continued to monitor how people chose to interact with customer services and confirmed that most contact was via the telephone, followed by emails and then webform contact and then site visits, with a total of 6000 visits over the year in total to its contact points.

The Communications and Customer Services Manager outlined the main types of service enquiries that it received, being in relation to Council Tax, waste collection, garden waste, benefits and environmental health.

In relation to provision for holding private conversations, the Communications and Customer Services Manager said that the Council had noticed that post pandemic, most private enquiries were coming through via telephone or digital communications. He said that customers had requested a private room at West Bridgford Library on two occasions over the past year and that a library meeting room had been utilised for these on both occasions. He added that should a room be unavailable, a private appointment could be held in a meeting room at Rushcliffe Arena on the same day, if needed. Councillor Plant expressed concern should there be occasion where there were many people wishing to hold private conversations at the same time and the Communications and Customer Services Manager confirmed that the Council was monitoring demand and would look at additional options should there be need.

For comparison, the Group were provided with information about face-to-face customer service provision across the County.

Councillor Phillips asked whether the Library would be able to cope if customer visits returned to pre pandemic levels and the Communications and Customer Services Manager said that the Council  ...  view the full minutes text for item 18.

Report of the Director – Finance and Corporate Services

The Assistant Director of Environment and Communities presented the Work Programme and outlined the upcoming scrutiny items.

The Chair suggested that the next meeting in July start earlier, at 6pm, to allow time for discussions of the two items, and this was agreed.

It was RESOLVED that the Communities Scrutiny Group approved the Work Programme as set out below:

xx July 2026

·       Council Tax Policy Changes (2^nd homes premium and discounts for terminally ill residents and foster carers)

·       Article 4

·       Work Programme

xx October 2026

·       Metropolitan Thames Valley Housing

·       Work Programme

xx January 2027

·       Review of debt collection agents by RBC in line with the outcome of the Government’s consultation on Council Tax and Enforcement

·       Road Sweeping

·       Work Programme

xx April 2027

·       Work Programme

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