Agenda and draft minutes

Link to further information in the Council’s Constitution

There were no declarations of interest.

The minutes of the meeting held on 25 February 2025 were agreed as an accurate record and were signed by the Chair.

Report of the Chief Executive

The Head of Economic Growth and Property presented the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Scheme Update and Diversity Annual Report 2024 to 2025 to the Group and provided an overview of the key aspects of the report.

The Head of Economic Growth and Property confirmed that this report was brought to the Group on an annual basis and as such some statistical data, for example about ethnicity and age had not significantly changed since it was last presented to the Group. She noted that applications for vacancies were higher than they had been historically and that some posts had received a high number of applications, but it was expected that Local Government Reform would have some impact on staffing in the future.

In relation to EDI Maturity Assessment, the Head of Economic Growth and Property explained that the Council had asked BDO, the Council’s Internal Auditors, to carry out this assessment to review the Council’s approach and governance arrangements and training schedule and she highlighted some of the strengths and recommendations made by them. She informed that Group that the Council’s EDI Steering Group met on a quarterly basis, that the Council had introduced a new Equality Impact Assessment process, that its website was Shaw Trust accredited, that it had achieved Carer Friendly Accreditation and that it coordinated the joint membership for partners within the primary care network to the Sunflower Hidden Disabilities campaign.

The Head of Economic Growth and Property provided an overview of projects completed through the previous year, including adopting a Rushcliffe Borough Council Play Strategy, with a focus on disability and inclusion and space for girls, making inclusive play improvements at a number of the parks within the Borough, providing UKSPF grants to parish councils to provide inclusive play equipment in their local parks, making public realm improvements in West Bridgford, providing grant funding to the Framework Knitters, holding a number of events, such as the Lunar New Year event, and providing support for local residents to improve their employment skills and help them get back into work.

Looking forward to 2025/26, the Head of Economic Growth and Property said that the Council would carry out a refresh of its EDI scheme, would work with Nottinghamshire County Council regarding Community Cohesion Networks, deliver a women and girls golf and cricket programme, establish links with various community groups such as Hong Kong Notts, deliver another Lunar New Year event, continue to enhance play areas within the Borough and support businesses with a focus on accessibility and benchmark its application process and employment offer.

Councillor Simms asked how much of the work being out by the Council was legislative and how much of it was gold standard and whether it was possible to define how much the Council spent on EDI work. The Head of Economic Growth and Property said that the Council had an equality duty to assess how its policies and procedures affected people protected under the Equality Act but that the Council did not have  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

Report of the Director – Finance and Corporate Services

The Head of Finance presented the Q4 Financial Monitoring report for 2024/25 and took the Group through the key aspects of the report.

The Head of Finance said that the revenue budget had an overall revenue efficiency position of £2.4m as set out in Tables 1 and 2 and Appendix A, with some of the larger variances arising from planning income and appeals, housing support cost increases and favourable variances from income on investments and contractual savings. The Council had also experienced some variances in grant income and business rates. She said that the variances had been appropriated to reserves or future commitments or carried forward as identified at Appendix E.

The Head of Finance referred to movements in revenue reserves with most significant activity relating to the creation of a recycling reserve, land for carbon offsetting, West Bridgford Town Centre regeneration, Disabled Facilities Grant and Local Government Reorganisation.

In relation to Capital, the Head of Finance noted the overall underspend position of £5.109m of which the majority had been carried forward for future projects already committed.

In relation to Special Expenses, the Head of Finance said that there had been an overspend of circa £50k largely due to a loss of income

In relation to the Statement of Accounts, the Head of Finance said that they had been published on 11 June 2025

The Communications and Customer Services Manager presented the Performance Monitoring Scorecards and summarised that the Council had experienced high levels of demand but that performance was generally stable.

The Communications and Customer Services Manager said that there were eight indicators which hadn’t reached target, including the percentage of household waste recycling and it was hoped that recycling measures being introduced by the Council, such as glass kerbside collections later in the year, and food waste collection in 2026, would help with this.

In relation to recycling contamination, the Communications and Customer Services Manager said that work to improve this was continuing with communications campaigns about recycling.

The Communications and Customer Services Manager said that whilst the target for usage of community facilities had not been met, progress was being made and the Council had recruited a new Facilities Manager and Facilities Supervisor and was installing a new meeting room AV system and making improvements at Sir Julian Cahn, all of which it was hoped would help increase external bookings. The Council was also promoting its facilities through social media to increase its audience. He added that there was high usage of playing fields and parks.

The Communications and Customer Services Manager referred to Rushcliffe Oaks Crematorium and explained that there had been lower death rates over the year but that the Council was reaching out and listening to the requirements of the wider community and stakeholders to try to meet the local need. He said that the Crematorium had been shortlisted for an APSE Innovation Awards for sustainable memorialisation and had experienced a 36% increase in growth compared to the previous year.

In relation to Councillor  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

Report of the Director – Finance and Corporate Services

The Head of Corporate Services presented the Review of Strategic Tasks report to the Group and explained that the Council had adopted its current Corporate Strategy in December 2023 and as part of the adoption process, a review of progress against previous targets had been presented to this Group. She said that the Group had found the update to be helpful and had asked to receive future reviews, of which this was the first of those update reports.

The Head of Corporate Services explained that the report provided a summary of progress against twelve of the tasks within the Corporate Strategy over the past eighteen months and that the intention was to continue to provide an annual update to the Group hereafter which would reflect progress that had been in made in that year.

Councillor Parekh asked about grants available for people who lived in older properties, for improvements such as insulation and solar panels and asked if it was known how many properties had benefited within the Borough. The Head of Corporate Services said that she would provide an update to the Group.

Councillor Parekh asked if there were any areas where the Council had not made progress as expected. The Head of Corporate Services said that work was currently progressing as expected but that there were some tasks which were harder to deliver at pace, but that all had started and two had completed.

The Chair said that the report was very useful and would be helpful to look back in future years at what had been achieved.

It is RESOLVED that Corporate Overview Group:

a)             reviewed the progress reported against each strategic task set in the 2024-2027 Corporate Strategy contained within Appendix One

b)             highlighted any potential areas for scrutiny during the coming year.

The Chair read a report submitted by Councillor Way in advance of the meeting as she was unable to attend, which reported that the main agenda item from the last Growth and Development Scrutiny Group meeting on 26 March 2025 had been Management of Open Spaces on New Developments and that a Good Practice Guide had been presented and discussed in detail by the Group.

There were no other updates as there were new Chairs in place for the other scrutiny groups and no meetings had been held as yet in this civic year.

The Head of Corporate Services referred to a suggestion from the last Corporate Peer Challenge review that the Council may wish to review its scrutiny process. As part of that, she asked Councillors to review other local authority scrutiny arrangements and report any which they thought were examples of good scrutiny to her so that the Council could review and learn from them.

Report of the Director – Finance and Corporate Services

The Chair confirmed that two scrutiny requests had been submitted. The first of which had been submitted by Councillor Combellack relating to Rushcliffe Flood Risk Update. The Group agreed for this request to come forward and for it to be programmed for the Communities Scrutiny Group meeting on 16 October 2025.

The Chair confirmed that the second scrutiny request had been submitted by the Head of Economic Growth and Property in relation to East Midlands Freeport (EMF). The Group agreed for this request to come forward and for it to be programmed for the Growth and Development Scrutiny Group meeting on 16 July 2025.

The Chair requested that Councillors and Officers put forward suggestions for any areas of work that they would like to scrutinise.

It was RESOLVED that the Corporate Overview Group:

a)             considered any additional items for scrutiny from the current Cabinet Forward Plan, Corporate Strategy, Medium Term Financial Strategy, Capital and Investment Strategy and Transformation and Efficiency Programme/Productivity Plan (Appendix One)

b)             determined any additional topics to be included in a scrutiny group work programme for 2025/26 for each of the scrutiny groups as presented on newly submitted scrutiny requests (Appendix Two)

c)             reviewed the current work programme for each of the scrutiny groups (Appendix Three).

Work Programme 2025/26 – Corporate Overview Group

Work Programme 2024/25 – Governance Scrutiny Group

Work Programme 2025/26 – Growth and Development Scrutiny Group

Work Programme 2025/26 – Communities Scrutiny Group

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