The Committee will elect a new Vice-Chairman.

It was moved by Councillor P Honeywood, seconded by Councillor Harris and:-

RESOLVED that Councillor Amos be elected as Vice-Chairman of the Resources and Services Overview & Scrutiny Committee for the remainder of the 2025/26 Municipal Year.

The Committee is asked to note any apologies for absence and substitutions received from Members.

There were no apologies for absence submitted nor substitutions made on this occasion.

To confirm and sign as a correct record, the minutes of the last meeting of the Committee, held on Wednesday 30 July 2025.

It was moved by Councillor Harris, seconded by Councillor Goldman and RESOLVED that the minutes of the last meeting of the Committee held on Wednesday 30 July 2025 be confirmed as a correct record and be signed by the Chairman.

Councillor P Honeywood enquired whether Councillor M Stephenson, Leader of the Council, had responded to the letter concerning the Spendells overspend, which had followed the Committee meeting held on 30 July 2025. The Leader of the Council confirmed that a response would be provided before the conclusion of the current meeting.

Councillors are invited to declare any Disclosable Pecuniary Interests, Other Registerable Interests of Non-Registerable Interests, and the nature of it, in relation to any item on the agenda.

There were no Declarations of Interest made by Members on this occasion.

Subject to providing two working days' notice, a Member of the Committee may ask the Chairman of the Committee a question on any matter in relation to which the Council has powers or duties which affect the Tendring District and which falls within the terms of reference of the Committee.

No Questions on Notice pursuant to Council Procedure Rule 38 had been submitted by Members for this meeting.

To support the committee with its enquiry in respect of the Council’s waste and street cleaning contract re-procurement progress and implementation.

The Committee had before it the report of the Assistant Director (Housing & Environment) (A.2) which had set out to support them with their enquiry in respect of the Council’s waste and street cleaning contract re-procurement progress and implementation.

Members were reminded that the Committee’s Work Programme for 2025/26 had included an item that the Committee should consider how it wished to conduct its scrutiny of this item.

The Council’s contracts for waste and recycling collection and street cleaning had both expired on 31 March 2025.

At its meeting held on 26 July 2024, Cabinet had agreed to the commencement of a procurement process to appoint a contractor to deliver the Council’s waste and recycling collection and street cleaning service from 2026 onwards, based upon a set of principles, which had translated into a specification for detailed solutions to be submitted against.

The final specification had been issued to bidders in August 2025 with bidders having been invited to submit their final tenders by 12 noon on 17 September 2025.

It was highlighted to Members that Officers were currently continuing to finalise the tender evaluation process and an associated report had been prepared to be presented to Cabinet on 14 November 2025, that would include a recommendation to award the contract along with the necessary funding / budget adjustments as required. The appointed contractor would be delivering their services from 1 April 2026.

To provide an overview of the Council’s financial outturn for the year 2024/25 and in-year budget adjustments for 2025/26 to date.

Members had been presented with the report of the Corporate Director (Finance & IT) (A.1) which provided an overview of the Council’s financial outturn for the year 2025/25 as well as in-year budget adjustments for 2025/26 to date.

The Committee heard that on 27 June 2025, the Portfolio Holder for Finance and Governance had considered the detailed Financial Outturn position for 2024/25 and made an executive decision as follows:

(a)     that the financial outturn position for 2024/25, as set out in the Officer report and its appendices, be noted;

(b)     that the financing of General Fund capital expenditure for 2024/25, as detailed in Appendix D, be approved;

(c)     that the movement in uncommitted and earmarked General Fund reserves for 2024/25, as set out in Appendix E, be approved;

(d)     that the General Fund revenue carry forward items totalling £15.093m, as set out in column 4 of Appendix K, be approved;

(e)     that the General Fund capital carry forwards totalling £59.477m, as set out in Appendix D, be approved;

(f)       that, in respect of the HRA, the movement on HRA balances for 2024/25, including any commitments set out within Appendices H and/or I, along with recharges to the HRA from the General Fund of £3.025m for the year and the financing of the HRA capital expenditure, as set out in Appendix I, be approved; and

(g)     that the overall General Fund outturn variance of £5.417m for 2024/25 that is being carried forward via the Revenue Commitments Reserve be noted; and

(h)     that Cabinet be recommended to approve the proposed allocations from the variance amount, as set out within Table 3.

It was reported that subsequently, on 25 July 2025, Cabinet had considered an overview of the financial outturn for 2024/25 and the proposed allocation of the general fund variance for the year and other in-year budget adjustments. It had been resolved by Cabinet that:

(a)     the high-level Financial Outturn Position, as set out in this report (A.5), and the favourable General Fund Revenue variance of £5.417m for the year, which is currently held within the Revenue Commitments Reserve be noted;

(b)     the use of the General Fund Outturn for the Year of £5.417m, as set out in Appendix A (Section 1), be approved;

(c)     in respect of the additional £1.000m set aside to support the delivery of savings / efficiency plans and wider corporate priorities, the Chief Executive, in consultation with the Portfolio Holder for Corporate Finance and Governance, be authorised to utilise this funding during the year;

(d)     in respect of the additional £1.000m set aside for Coast Protection Works, this be added to the remaining budget of £0.970m associated with earlier decisions, and that the Corporate Director (Operations and Delivery), in consultation with the Portfolio Holder for the Environment & ICT, be authorised to utilise this funding during the year;

(e)     the budget adjustments for 2025/26, as set out in Appendix A (Sections 2 and 3), be approved;

(f)       the Council’s Section 151 Officer, in consultation with the Corporate Finance and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 24.

The report provides the Committee with its approved Work Programme for 2025/26, feedback to the Committee on the decisions in respect of previous recommendations from the Committee in respects of enquiries undertaken and a list of forthcoming decisions for which public notice has been given.

The report also invites the Committee to reappoint the “Asset Management” Task and Finish Group, the “Housing Strategy Development and Infrastructure and Temporary Accommodation” Task and Finish Group and the “Council Enforcement Arrangements” Task and Finish Group. Where the memberships of the Task and Finish Groups is still outstanding a delegation to the Assistant Director (Corporate Policy and Support) was approved at the Committee’s previous meeting to finalise those memberships.

The Committee had been furnished with a report that provided its approved Work Programme for 2025/26, feedback to the Committee on the decisions in respect of previous recommendations from the Committee in respect of enquiries undertaken and a list of forthcoming decisions for which public notice had been given,

The report had also invited the Committee to reappoint the “Asset Management” Task and Finish Group, the “Housing Strategy Development and Infrastructure and Temporary Accommodation” Task and Finish Group and the “Council Enforcement Arrangements” Task and Finish Group. Where the memberships of the Task and Finish Groups had still been outstanding, a delegation to the Assistant Director (Corporate Policy and Support) had been approved at the Committee’s previous meeting to finalise those memberships.

Members were reminded that the Committee’s Work Programme, as approved by Full Council at its meeting held on 14 August 2025, included the continuation of the work of the “Asset Management” Task and Finish Group, the “Housing Strategy Development and Infrastructure and Temporary Accommodation” Task and Finish Group and the “Council Enforcement Arrangements” Task and Finish Group. The Work Programme had set out an aspiration for the final report of those Task and Finish Groups to be submitted to the Resources and Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee at its meeting in December 2025. To facilitate that, the Committee held a discussion regarding those memberships.

A list of the nominations for membership of each of the Task and Finish Groups submitted prior to the meeting had been as follows:

Asset Management

·         Councillor Steady

·         Councillor Bensilum

·         Councillor Newton

·         Councillor Bush

Housing Strategy Development and Infrastructure and Temporary Accommodation

·         Councillor P Honeywood

·         Councillor Goldman

Council Enforcement Arrangements

·         Councillor Casey

·         Councillor Steady (second preference)

·         Councillor Goldman (second preference)

It was unanimously RESOLVED that the Committee:

a)    notes its approved Work Programme 2025/26 (Appendix A) together with the feedback to the Committee on the Executive’s decisions made in respect of previous Committee recommendations (Appendix B) and the list of forthcoming decisions (Appendix C);

b)    notes the remaining contents of the report; and

c)    authorises the Assistant Director (Corporate Policy and Support), following consultation with the Committee’s Chairman, to:

-       reconstitute the Asset Management Task and Finish Working Group, Housing Strategy Development and Infrastructure and Temporary Accommodation Task and Finish Group and the Council Enforcement Arrangements Task and Finish Working Group; and

-       appoint individual Councillors to serve on the Task and Finish Groups referenced in the Work Programme as, ultimately, approved by Council and then to make appropriate arrangements to call meetings of those Task and Finish Groups.