Agenda item

The Committee Support Officer submitted the work programme report and Members were invited to consider and determine the work programme going forward. The Committee Support Officer set out the matters coming forward for the November meeting and the meetings in January and March 2026.

Councillor E Buckmaster said that he wanted to clarify what it was that the committee would be considering in respect of Local Government Reform (LGR). He referred to how the council would deal with assets.

Councillor E Buckmaster emphasised the importance of understanding what was important to members and residents. Councillor Jacobs said that LGR scrutiny proposal forms were submitted from Councillor E Buckmaster, and Councillor McAndrew, and that these forms had been circulated to the committee for comments.

Councillor Jacobs said that the next step was to share these forms and comments with the administration, and for Members of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee to agree a reporting timescale. He said that he did not envisage that this subject would be included at the 4 November meeting and instead be more likely for the 20 January 2026 agenda.

Councillor Carter said that with regards the Sustainable Transport proposal, she believed that this was part of a task and finish group held in 2017, which researched matters linked to the District Plan.

Councillor Carter said that she wondered whether this matter would therefore be more usefully linked in with the planning department - in terms of evidence for the sustainable transport element of the District Plan. She said that there might be other things that the planning department wanted the committee to consider in that regard.

Councillor Carter said that another big topic was artificial intelligence and asked whether Members could have a summary bulletin on this topic, to enable Members to see where it was being used, what kind of packages were being utilised, and in what areas.

The Executive Member for Corporate Services said that he would speak to the Head of IT to ascertain to what extent this was being used at the council. He believed that the use of AI was quite limited at the moment, if at all, and that any update could include future plans for the use of AI.

Councillor Carter said that people in local government and other organisations were increasingly being encouraged to use AI to summarise matters or to write notes.

Councillor E Buckmaster said that, in respect of sustainable transport, a cross-party working group had just started in respect of the local transport plan which would include elements of sustainable transport.

Councillor Swainston mentioned Glyphosate as perhaps being lost in the wording about the re tendering of the ground’s maintenance contract (as per the work programme). The Committee Support Officer suggested emailing the officer submitting this matter to reiterate that the use of Glyphosate should form part of the considerations.

Councillor Nicholls proposed, and Councillor Swainston seconded a motion that the Overview and Scrutiny Committee work programme be agreed. After being put to the meeting and a vote taken, the motion was declared CARRIED.

RESOLVED – that the Overview and Scrutiny Committee work programme in Appendix 1 be agreed.