Agenda and decisions

To receive any apologies for absence.

To receive and note any declarations of interests in respect of any matters included on the agenda for consideration at this meeting.

(The other registrable interests of Councillors of Somerset Council, arising from membership of City, Town or Parish Councils and other Local Authorities will automatically be recorded in the minutes: City, Town & Parish Twin Hatters - Somerset Councillors 2023 )

To approve the minutes from the previous meeting

The Chair to advise the Committee of any items on which members of the public have requested to speak and advise those members of the public present of the details of the Council’s public participation scheme.

For those members of the public who have submitted any questions or statements, please note, a three minute time limit applies to each speaker and you will be asked to speak before Councillors debate the issue.

We are now live webcasting most of our committee meetings and you are welcome to view and listen to the discussion. The link to each webcast will be available on the meeting webpage, please see details under ‘click here to join online meeting’.

To receive an update from the Service Manager, Governance Scrutiny. To assist the discussion, the following documents are attached:-

(a)  The Committee’s work programme

(b)  The Committee’s outcome tracker

Please use the following links to view the latest Somerset Council Forward Plans and Executive Forward Plan of planned key decisions that have been published on the Council’s website:

Somerset Council Forward Plans

Somerset Council Executive Forward Plan

Following consideration of the forward plan and action tracker the committee resolved to

·         Add Scrutiny of the Somerset Rivers Authority to the forward plan, for the meeting on 11^th November.

·         Seek assurance that the Task and Finish group report that was approved by the committee on 26^th March 2024 on the Somerset Energy Plan, and the recommendations within it, are being progressed and will be included in the Executive forward plan.

·         Finalise the membership of the Task and Finish group on Water Quality as agreed at the meeting of 6^th June 2024, opening it up to all Council members.

·         Consider Item 60 of the Executive Forward Plan regarding highways devolution for the Scrutiny Climate and Place forward plan.

Scrutiny committee are asked to:  

1.    Reconfirm their commitment to equality Due Regard being part of their Scrutiny function.  

2.    Support further training opportunities that are provided for the delivery of this commitment.

The committee considered and noted the report on Equality due regard.

Scrutiny are asked to note the revised BSIP (Appendix A) and the BSIP Overview Table (Appendix B) 

To note the following Waste Services updates

1)    Expansion of Flex Plastics trial

2)    Suez contract negotiations

The committee considered and noted the updates from Waste Services.

To consider and comment on the provisional outturn report.

The committee considered and noted the Climate and Place provisional outturn report and there was a request for further information in regards to the section: Accountable bodies -Connecting Devon and Somerset (CDS) “clawback” of public subsidy.

This is a standing agenda item for ‘information only’ that cover the Committee’s policy areas.

Members are asked to note the following items for information -

1) Development of the Economic Strategy  

2) Connecting Devon and Somerset 

3) Local Nature Recovery strategy