Issue - meetings

That the progress achieved during Q4 of 2025/26 be noted and the contents of the report be endorsed.

Councillor Cutler introduced the report and advised that it had been considered at Scrutiny Committee on 26 May 2026, the draft minutes of which had been circulated to all members present.  Councillor Cutler provided a response to the questions raised by the committee where it had not been possible to provide answers during the meeting.

At the invitation of the Leader, Councillors Lee, Horrill and Wallace addressed Cabinet as summarised below.

Councillor Lee

Councillor Lee highlighted a significant "delivery gap" regarding the decarbonisation of corporate assets and expressed concern that unmanaged AI growth could create hidden scope 3 emissions. He questioned the exclusion of councillors from the staff travel survey and sought clarity on how network mergers might impact future EV charging tariffs and investment. Finally, he raised concerns regarding telecom resilience in energy metering and queried the strategic risks posed by the government’s challenging timetable for the upcoming Local Plan.

Councillor Horrill

Councillor Horrill suggested that the new chair of Scrutiny Committee consider how future meetings could be utilised more effectively to address meaningful issues and scrutinise reported outcomes more efficiently. Regarding the joint Movement Strategy, she urged the council to leverage available funds to address unmet priorities. Finally, she sought clarification on the RAG status concerning proposed land acquisitions for the Central Winchester Regeneration (CWR) scheme.

Councillor Wallace (Chair of Scrutiny Committee)

Councillor Wallace agreed that further consideration would be given to the best methods for scrutinising performance reports.  He expressed significant concern regarding climate delivery, noting that both corporate and district carbon reduction measures had been rated amber for an extended period. He questioned at what point these ratings would trigger a formal recovery approach and raised further queries regarding the clarity of reporting for the local area energy plan. Finally, he highlighted delivery challenges within the housing sector, specifically focusing on the progress of the new homes programme, retrofitting, and damp and mould issues.

Councillors Cutler, Learney and Tod responded to the comments made including suggesting that Scrutiny Committee consider focussing on a particular topic in relation to performance monitoring at its meetings to ensure the appropriate Cabinet Member, Director and supporting officer could be in attendance.

The Chief Executive highlighted that the performance reports offered a snapshot in time and any “amber” or “red” ratings would be monitored regularly by the Cabinet Member and senior officer team.

In relation to the clarification sought by Councillor Horrill, Cabinet agreed a correction to the wording of the CWR section of the performance report as follows:

“A paper will be taken to May Cabinet seeking approval for the proposed land acquisition required to support the delivery of the scheme.”

Cabinet agreed to the following for the reasons set out in the report and outlined above.

RESOLVED:

That the progress achieved during Q4 of 2025/26 be noted and the contents of the report be endorsed.

RECOMMENDATION:

That the Scrutiny Committee raises with the Deputy Leader or relevant Cabinet Member any issues arising from the information in this report, ref CAB3550, which is being presented to Cabinet on the 28 May 2026 and considers whether there are any items of significance to resolve or to be drawn to the attention of Cabinet.

Councillor Neil Cutler, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Finance and Transformation introduced the report, ref CAB3550 which set out the Q4 performance monitoring for 2025/26. The introduction included the following points.

1.   The report was the final quarterly performance report for the 2025/26 financial year, covering the period from 1 January to 31 March, and focused on progress in delivering the Council Plan priorities.

2.   The full-year financial position for 2025/26 would be reported in a separate annual outturn report to the scrutiny committee on 7 September 2026.

3.   The report format remained streamlined, with one update to include progress on the next Local Plan (2026-2044) following the adoption of the Winchester District Local Plan on 24 March 2026.

4.   Key highlights included the collection of approximately 13 tons of food waste daily, the direction of £1 million of Community Infrastructure Levy funding into community-led projects, the approval of a balanced budget, and the procurement of four low-carbon and electric fleet vehicles.

Councillor Danny Lee addressed the committee and raised several points regarding the carbon neutrality programme. He felt that there were emerging gaps in decarbonising corporate assets, and was concerned that district carbon monitoring was two years in arrears. He welcomed the progress made on solar PV and battery installations on council homes, but was concerned regarding the planned corrective actions for decarbonisation. He questioned if councillors would be included in the staff travel survey, and raised the potential impacts of the acquisition of the council's EV charging network operator.

Councillor Lee requested the timetable for the Local Authority Energy Plan and queried the omission of the HEP Committee’s nutrient neutrality working group paper from the report, he asked how LGR risks would be captured in future performance reports, and suggested the need for a broader resilience strategy in light of telecom transition issues.

The committee was asked to raise with the Deputy Leader or relevant Cabinet Member any issues arising from the information in this report, ref CAB3550, which was being presented to cabinet on 28 May 2026 and to consider whether there were any items of significance to resolve or to be drawn to the attention of cabinet.

The Chair advised that the committee should focus its scrutiny on areas identified as underperforming or at risk. Key criteria for discussion included distinguishing structural or recurring issues from isolated variances, and assessing the subsequent impact on future service delivery and financial sustainability and that the report sections would be taken in turn.

The committee proceeded to ask questions and debate the report. In summary, the following matters were raised, grouped in line with the areas of focus identified by the Chairperson.

Climate and Environmental Delivery (Greener Faster)

1. An update was requested on the progress of the wastewater treatment plants and the recruitment of a project manager (page 150).
2. A question was asked regarding the expected date for the PV installation at Meadowside (page 147).
3. Further clarification was sought on what the minor works and projects for sustainable  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9