Overview & Scrutiny Committee - Tuesday 3 February 2026, 7:00pm - Epping Forest District Council webcasts

Overview & Scrutiny Committee
Tuesday, 3rd February 2026 at 7:00pm 

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  1. Cllr Roger Baldwin
  2. Laura Kirman
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  1. Laura Kirman
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  1. Cllr Richard Bassett
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  3. Cllr Jodie Lucas
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  1. Cllr Alan Lion
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  1. Laura Kirman
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  1. Mandy Thompson
  2. Cllr Roger Baldwin
  3. Cllr Stephen Murray
  4. Mandy Thompson
  5. Dawn Harrisson
  6. Cllr Stephen Murray
  7. Cllr Roger Baldwin
  8. Cllr Alan Lion
  9. Mandy Thompson
  10. Cllr Roger Baldwin
  11. Cllr Alan Lion
  12. Cllr Roger Baldwin
  13. Mandy Thompson
  14. Cllr Roger Baldwin
  15. Cllr Graham Wiskin
  16. Mandy Thompson
  17. Cllr Graham Wiskin
  18. Cllr Ken Williamson
  19. Cllr Roger Baldwin
  20. Cllr Richard Bassett
  21. Cllr Roger Baldwin
  22. Cllr Ken Williamson
  23. Cllr Roger Baldwin
  24. Cllr Graham Wiskin
  25. Cllr Roger Baldwin
  26. Cllr Sheree Rackham
  27. Mandy Thompson
  28. Cllr Roger Baldwin
  29. Mandy Thompson
  30. Cllr Roger Baldwin
  31. Cllr Stephen Murray
  32. Mandy Thompson
  33. Dawn Harrisson
  34. Cllr Roger Baldwin
  35. Cllr Lisa Morgan
  36. Cllr Roger Baldwin
  37. Mandy Thompson
  38. Cllr Roger Baldwin
  39. Cllr Lisa Morgan
  40. Mandy Thompson
  41. Cllr Jodie Lucas
  42. Mandy Thompson
  43. Tracy Scott
  44. Cllr Roger Baldwin
  45. Cllr Mandy George
  46. Cllr Roger Baldwin
  47. Cllr Craig McCann
  48. Mandy Thompson
  49. Cllr Roger Baldwin
  50. Cllr Stephen Murray
  51. Cllr Roger Baldwin
  52. Mandy Thompson
  53. Dawn Harrisson
  54. Cllr Roger Baldwin
  55. Cllr Martin Morris
  56. Mandy Thompson
  57. Cllr Roger Baldwin
  58. Cllr Chris Whitbread
  59. Cllr Roger Baldwin
  60. Cllr Stephen Murray
  61. Cllr Roger Baldwin
  62. Dawn Harrisson
  63. Cllr Stephen Murray
  64. Cllr Roger Baldwin
  65. Dawn Harrisson
  66. Cllr Roger Baldwin
  67. Cllr Lisa Morgan
  68. Cllr Chris Whitbread
  69. Cllr Roger Baldwin
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  1. Cllr Chris Whitbread
  2. Cllr Roger Baldwin
  3. Cllr Mandy George
  4. Owen Sparks
  5. Cllr Mandy George
  6. Owen Sparks
  7. Cllr Mandy George
  8. Owen Sparks
  9. Cllr Roger Baldwin
  10. Cllr Stephen Murray
  11. Cllr Roger Baldwin
  12. Dawn Harrisson
  13. Cllr Stephen Murray
  14. Dawn Harrisson
  15. Owen Sparks
  16. Cllr Stephen Murray
  17. Cllr Roger Baldwin
  18. Jennifer Gould
  19. Cllr Roger Baldwin
  20. Cllr Stephen Murray
  21. Owen Sparks
  22. Cllr Roger Baldwin
  23. Cllr Graham Wiskin
  24. Cllr Roger Baldwin
  25. Cllr Graham Wiskin
  26. Owen Sparks
  27. Cllr Graham Wiskin
  28. Cllr Roger Baldwin
  29. Matt Winslow
  30. Cllr Roger Baldwin
  31. Cllr Graham Wiskin
  32. Cllr Roger Baldwin
  33. Cllr Craig McCann
  34. Cllr Graham Wiskin
  35. Cllr Raymond Balcombe
  36. Cllr Stephen Murray
  37. Cllr Roger Baldwin
  38. Owen Sparks
  39. Dawn Harrisson
  40. Cllr Roger Baldwin
  41. Cllr Mandy George
  42. Dawn Harrisson
  43. Cllr Roger Baldwin
  44. Cllr Jeane Lea
  45. Cllr Smruti Patel
  46. Cllr Roger Baldwin
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  1. Cllr Chris Whitbread
  2. Cllr Roger Baldwin
  3. Cllr Sheree Rackham
  4. Cllr Chris Whitbread
  5. Cllr Roger Baldwin
  6. Cllr Lisa Morgan
  7. Cllr Chris Whitbread
  8. Cllr Roger Baldwin
  9. Cllr Stephen Murray
  10. Cllr Chris Whitbread
  11. Cllr Stephen Murray
  12. Cllr Roger Baldwin
  13. Cllr Lisa Morgan
  14. Cllr Roger Baldwin
  15. Cllr Graham Wiskin
  16. Cllr Chris Whitbread
  17. Cllr Ken Williamson
  18. Cllr Roger Baldwin
  19. Cllr Mandy George
  20. Cllr Roger Baldwin
  21. Cllr Chris Whitbread
  22. Cllr Roger Baldwin
  23. Cllr Mandy George
  24. Cllr Chris Whitbread
  25. Cllr Roger Baldwin
  26. Cllr Sheree Rackham
  27. Cllr Chris Whitbread
  28. Cllr Roger Baldwin
  29. Cllr Alan Lion
  30. Cllr Roger Baldwin
  31. Cllr Graham Wiskin
  32. Cllr Ken Williamson
  33. Owen Sparks
  34. Cllr Roger Baldwin
  35. Cllr Ken Williamson
  36. Cllr Roger Baldwin
  37. Matt Winslow
  38. Cllr Roger Baldwin
  39. Cllr Janet Whitehouse
  40. Cllr Roger Baldwin
  41. Cllr Rose Brookes
  42. Cllr Roger Baldwin
  43. Cllr Martin Morris
  44. Cllr Roger Baldwin
  45. Cllr Chris Whitbread
  46. Owen Sparks
  47. Cllr Roger Baldwin
  48. Cllr Stephen Murray
  49. Cllr Chris Whitbread
  50. Cllr Stephen Murray
  51. Cllr Roger Baldwin
  52. Owen Sparks
  53. Cllr Roger Baldwin
  54. Cllr Lisa Morgan
  55. Cllr Roger Baldwin
  56. Cllr Chris Whitbread
  57. Cllr Roger Baldwin
  58. Cllr Lisa Morgan
  59. Jennifer Gould
  60. Cllr Roger Baldwin
  61. Cllr Lisa Morgan
  62. Cllr Roger Baldwin
  63. Owen Sparks
  64. Cllr Roger Baldwin
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  1. Cllr Stephen Murray
  2. Cllr Roger Baldwin
  3. Cllr Jodie Lucas
  4. Cllr Roger Baldwin
  5. Cllr Stephen Murray
  6. Cllr Roger Baldwin
  7. Cllr Craig McCann
  8. Cllr Roger Baldwin
  9. Cllr Sheree Rackham
  10. Cllr Stephen Murray
  11. Cllr Roger Baldwin
  12. Cllr Stephen Murray
  13. Cllr Roger Baldwin
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  1. Webcast Finished

1 Webcasting Introduction

Cllr Roger Baldwin - 0:00:02
Just to start the meeting this evening. Laura, could you read the webcasting instruction please?
Laura Kirman - 0:00:10
I would like to remind everyone that this meeting will be filmed live or recorded and uploaded to
the internet and will be capable of repeated viewing. Therefore by participating in this
meeting you're consenting to being filmed and to the possible use of those images and sound
recordings. Members and public speakers are reminded to turn on their microphones before
speaking and turn them off when they're finished.
Cllr Roger Baldwin - 0:00:35
Thank you. Welcome to the Ovarian Scrutiny Committee meeting this evening, 2025. I'm
the Chairman, Councillor Baldwin, and my Vice -Chairman is Councillor McCann. To my left is Nicola
Sayersi, our Deputy Monitoring Officer and Strategic Legal Advisor. We have Owen Spark,
Strategic Director and Chief Financial Officer, and Nuala Donnelly, his Deputy. And to my right
is Laura Kerman from Democratic Services. Steve Mitchell is webcasting the meeting.
We also have Jennifer Gould, the Deputy Chief. And sorry, what's that? Oh, sorry. We're
We were saving you to last.
No, that's right.
The most important to laugh is Andrew Small,
chief executive.
All right, yeah, thank you for that problem.
And we also have a number of officers in the chamber
and online if they are for needed.
Okay, so can we go to item two, apologies for absence.

2 APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE

Laura Kirman - 0:01:50
Apologies have been received from Councillor Parsons
and Councillor Burrows.
Thank you. Do we have any substitute members?
Can I pass apologies for Mr Will Kaufman?
Cllr Graham Wiskin - 0:02:00
Councillor Will Kaufman. He sends his apologies.
Okay, thank you.
Cllr Roger Baldwin - 0:02:07
Do we have any substitute members?

3 SUBSTITUTE MEMBERS

No substitute members, Chairman.
Okay. I move forward. Do we have any declarations of interest?
Oh, yeah. Councillor Bassett.

4 DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

Thank you, Chairman.
Cllr Richard Bassett - 0:02:21
A normal one being Chairman of Corliss.
Thank you very much.
Cllr Roger Baldwin - 0:02:27
Thank you, Chairman.
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 0:02:32
Similarly, I would like to declare a pecuniary interest because I am the Chairman of TVS.
Thank you for that.

5 MINUTES

Cllr Roger Baldwin - 0:02:44
Item 5, the minutes, which are on pages 5 to 9.
Can we confirm the minutes from the 18th of November?
Cllr Alan Lion - 0:02:57
On the question minutes, I did give my apologies via Councillor Bailão at the last meeting,
which were not recorded, so if there could be a correction, I would appreciate it.
Thank you for that.
That is noted.
Thank you.
Cllr Roger Baldwin - 0:03:08
Can we confirm the minutes from the meeting of the 18th of November 2025?
Thank you.

6 Matters Arising and Outstanding Actions

Then we go to item 6, which is matters arising and outstanding actions.
Members, are there any other matters arising or outstanding actions?
Any matters?
No?

7 Public Questions & Requests to Address the Overview and Scrutiny Committee

8 Executive Decisions - Call-In

Laura Kirman - 0:03:55
Cllr Roger Baldwin - 0:04:00
No?
decisions are called in. There have been no executive decisions called in since our last

9 Organisational Performance Quarter 3 Outturn and Priority Projects update

meeting. We go on to item 9, which is a substantial item in the agenda, which is organisational
performance quarter 3 out turn and priority projects update on pages 10 to 45 of the main
agenda. Mandy, could you introduce the report, please?
Mandy Thompson - 0:04:35
Thank you, Chair. I am introducing the report this evening. Members have had the report,
so I will take it as read and summarise it. The KPI suite collects data on 34 indicators
across the Council. Of these, 23 are quarterly KPIs, 4 are annual and 6 are quarterly datasets.
Datasets are for information only and do not have any target. Our quarterly performance
reporting presents actual results against a target set for each indicator accompanied
by contextual commentary. Each indicator is assigned a RAG status, providing a clear visual
summary of performance and helping to quickly identify areas requiring
attention. In summary the council demonstrated good performance overall
with 17 KPIs either meeting the target or within tolerance. Six KPIs
require further attention and they are shown on pages 11 to 14 of the report
and officers are present as we go through the the actual appendix of all
of the performance indicators if there are any questions to be asked. I would like to
just draw members' attention to on page 14 of the report with the fly -tipping KPI that
the Quarter 2 information is incorrect and if you refer to page 26 of the actual appendix
that gives you the accurate information. When the appendix was updated unfortunately it
through into the report and it was spotted too late. So apologies for that.
Projects – there are three corporate priority projects currently in delivery and forming
part of the overall portfolio. They are the waste programme, the Epping Leisure Centre and
the Broadway refurbishment. Project status reports provide the information such as updates
on strategically identified priority projects, RAG status for the current reporting quarter
and previous quarter, key milestones achieved and planned, and any significant risks and
issues. So if everybody is happy, we will move on to the appendix and go through the
out -term report. Without going through each line, I am happy to take questions on any
indicators that people would like to ask questions on.
Cllr Roger Baldwin - 0:07:05
Thank you very much for your report.
As usual, I will open things up to the committee.
Any questions on that from the committee?
Councillor Murray, please.
Thank you, Chairman.
Cllr Stephen Murray - 0:07:20
I am going to start my contribution tonight by criticising myself.
Like other members, I have spent hours reading this agenda.
I have made copious notes.
I have made page references to what I want to refer to and what is sitting on my table at home.
Precisely that.
I am probably not going to struggle too much on this issue, but I am just so angry with myself because I am going to struggle on the budget papers,
remembering where I wanted the reference points and so on.
But that's my fault. I didn't pick it up.
And I'm chastising myself publicly.
Page 13.
Is there someone who could take me
through what appears to have happened in quarter three
with the average re -let time?
Because that does seem a really big increase.
I know that we've got the general commentary
about the outer management properties being brought back
into use.
Is that simply because we have had quite a lot of out of management properties brought
back into use in that quarter?
Because obviously the time we are told is key to key, old key being returned, new key
being issued I am assuming.
It just seems a really large increase if that figure is accurate.
Can I just have a bit of explanation of that really large increase in the third quarter?
Mandy Thompson - 0:08:57
Thank you. I refer that to the director Dawn Harrison. She's online. She'll respond to
you, Councillor Murray. Good evening. Yes, Councillor Murray, you are right in your assertions
Dawn Harrisson - 0:09:08
there. We have had a number of out -of -management properties come back into use, and this is
a long -term void turnaround time, so it's where more than one component has been required.
So it could have been for a kitchen, bathroom, and in some cases we've had to wait for utility
companies to reinstall metres so that's the reason for the really high
turnaround time in Q3 and we're confident that that number will get back
down to the usual figures.
Cllr Stephen Murray - 0:09:34
Cllr Roger Baldwin - 0:09:38
Councillor Lyon please. Thank you very much Chairman. On page 14
Cllr Alan Lion - 0:09:40
there's quite a lot of information about fly tipping and that is a particular
beef as far as I'm concerned. We do seem to be looking at it from after the event.
I don't know whether there's anything, perhaps not in this report, but something
we could do to actually address fly tipping in a more positive way rather than collecting
but looking at a campaign to actually prevent it happening in the first place. Thank you,
Thank you for the question. Who could come back on that? Mandy, thank you.
Mandy Thompson - 0:10:15
Thank you, Councillor Lyons. Yes, a detailed update and report is going to come to place
scrutiny on the 17th March and that will give you a district -wide comprehensive update on
what we are doing to tackle fly -tipping. Since the reporting on the last quarter, the figure
for this quarter is down so it has improved. The flight even compared to quarter two has
reduced and that's really down to a lot of the work that's been going on in terms of
introducing new processes. We're working very closely with TVS now. We've had other reports
dealt with and what comes through to the team for investigation. We're also working closely
with the police and have agreed today that we're going to do some more op waxen patrols,
that's where they do the waste carrier cheques and catch the commercial waste dealers. That's
with cross boundary with colleagues from Brentwood. There's a whole host of work that's going
on behind the scenes. We'll bring a comprehensive update to you on the 17th of March.
Cllr Roger Baldwin - 0:11:30
Cllr Alan Lion - 0:11:33
I think there is a particular problem and I don't know whether a task and finish panel
should be looked at for members to get involved in this, but particularly in those areas,
rural areas where there is no street lights, where there can be no actual investigation
or cameras put up to monitor.
So is there a suggestion or could there be a suggestion to have a task and finish panel to look at this?
Cllr Roger Baldwin - 0:12:02
And you want to reply to that we can certainly look at having a
Mandy Thompson - 0:12:04
Setting up a task and finish. We're quite happy to work with
Councillors certainly in the rural areas. So yeah, we can take that offline and have a look
Thank you
a
Cllr Roger Baldwin - 0:12:15
Council whisking, please
Thank You chairman, I've got two points
Cllr Graham Wiskin - 0:12:20
Firstly, on fly tipping, I have asked before and I will ask again, are we doing any work
trying to encourage Essex County Council to open their tips, either on a semi -commercial
basis to allow commercial vehicles to responsibly dispose of waste and maybe more for the general
public? I will have another question for May I ask after that.
Mandy Thompson - 0:12:47
Yes, the waste team may actively engage with Essex County Council. I will take that away
and give you an update from the waste team on that. As far as I am aware, they still
have not engaged particularly well with providing figures and having a look at maybe opening
them up, but I will happily take that away and come back to you.
Cllr Graham Wiskin - 0:13:11
My second question was on planning. I see it is on page 13 of the report. The RAG status
is red. It has been since quarter one. The narrative assures us that things are going
it better. I may have missed it in other proceedings, but I would like to know where we are with
any PAS recommendations or considerations they have taken. Given, and it is a particular
bug bear of mine, currently this chamber is a minority. The planning committees still
reflect a majority. There is no representation of the ruling group in
Loughton which is the largest town in the district and all decisions are made
and overridden by a ruling group who have no presence in our town. I find it
particularly undemocratic and I'm hoping the new recommendations may reflect that
given that it's galling to see the lack of democracy and to watch
Councillor Williamson in front of the High Court moaning about the lack of democracy when the
government effectively overruled Epping Forest District Council's proceedings at the temporary
junction. So will the PAS report reflect any better representation of local areas
Cllr Ken Williamson - 0:14:58
given this will get worse with LGR? Thank you. Thank you chair. I think thank you
Councillor Whiskin for your comments but what the Bell Hotel has to do with KPI's
I'm not sure. On the KPI figures as we've explained several times in this chamber
The percentages that are before us that are red are appeals, decisions on the previous
system that are still going through the appeal planning spectrum.
So the small variance going up is purely on the ones that are in the back coming forward.
PAS are very happy with the changes we made.
I think most members of this council are happy with most of
the changes we made.
And as for the LRA and undemocratic decisions,
politics has no place in planning, absolutely no place.
And if members are making decisions on political reasons
or the geographical reasons, that's totally wrong.
It's on planning law.
and the Planning Committee make decisions on planning law.
Can I come back on that?
Thank you for your reply.
Cllr Roger Baldwin - 0:16:12
Can I have Councillor Bassett please, you have a question.
Thank you.
Cllr Richard Bassett - 0:16:17
Can I just add to Councillor Williams,
one of the things that come out of the PAS was
you try to put the planning groups have got nothing to do with the area,
and therefore members of that area
can come to the planning meeting unfettered
and can put their total expression of how they feel
and why to the committee.
We are there on those planning committees
to look at things from planning reasons
and planning reasons only.
And the only thing I would say is looking at,
oh, sorry, looking at the numbers,
The only thing I have a bit of a concern for, if you remember, we did have issues with the
government and the number being overturned on appeal.
Are they going to look at us a bit unkindly, shall we say?
Have we been able to tell them, look, we have just got the new scheme, we are not all the
way through it yet, wait until we are through on the new scheme?
Thank you.
Cllr Roger Baldwin - 0:17:22
Councillor Williams, do you want to add something?
I think one word answers that, yes.
Cllr Ken Williamson - 0:17:25
Yes, we have written to the housing,
whatever they call themselves, DCHA or GE,
whatever these days.
Yeah, they're happy with the changes we've made.
Otherwise we would have been a designated council.
We would not be making any planning decisions at all
anywhere in the districts if it wasn't for that.
And they are quite happy with the way we are heading
and what we've done to get us back on track.
Thank you.
Cllr Roger Baldwin - 0:17:59
Council, I think I maybe cut you off.
Do you want to come back?
You wanted to reply?
You had a supplementary question.
Cllr Graham Wiskin - 0:18:08
I just wanted to say that the notes do imply
that things are gonna get better.
I do accept that, but I still stand by my previous comments.
Okay, thank you.
Cllr Roger Baldwin - 0:18:18
And now can I go to Councillor Rackham
I think you had a question.
Thank you, Chair.
Cllr Sheree Rackham - 0:18:22
I'm going on to fly tipping and grass verges,
which are probably two of my favourite subjects.
I'm pleased to say that both Lisa and I
are working with an officer who has said,
which is all good news,
that letters will be going out to residents
regarding waste disposal, parking on grass verges,
garden maintenance and general maintenance.
I bring this up as well because
some of the views from residents that I'm getting on the new green waste proposals that are coming in are like,
basically, oh well, I'm not going to bother. I'm getting quite a lot of that now.
So I think that this approach where we will be writing to residents will be really helpful.
The other thing I just wanted to mention as well is with the fly tipping,
I'm getting a lot of residents fly tipping that actually live in the flats and houses,
which I find really, really frustrating.
So I'm hoping that some new initiatives will come into play
and I will be fully supporting this officer, and so will Lisa,
to try and get some of these issues that we're having
all across Epping Forest
and especially our patches sorted out once and for all,
because I think people have got to the stage where they think,
well, no -one's going to come for me, I can do whatever I like,
So it would be really, really good to put in some robust
measures to actually stop people from doing whatever
they feel they can.
Thank you.
Paul Beame - Thank you as well.
Mandy, can I go over to you?
Do you want to respond to that or?
Mandy Pang - Yes, no, thank you.
Mandy Thompson - 0:19:58
It's good to hear that you're working with the officers and
any sort of like information that you can give us where if
it's happening, certainly in flats and that, we will tackle
that with the landlords, leaseholders or indeed if it's
our own tenants.
So any information, any intelligence is always gratefully received.
Thank you.
Cllr Roger Baldwin - 0:20:17
Can I just ask a supplementary myself there?
On page 14 we've got some comments there about some of the fly tipping.
And there's a further bid for PFCC funding.
Is there any sign of us getting additional funding for further patrols?
Is that something that's...
Yes, that's been agreed.
Mandy Thompson - 0:20:37
So that's why we'd be putting that to good use with the police for Ockwaxon, which is
the waste carrier cheques and extra patrols for that.
Sorry, that is good news in that case.
Councillor Murray, can I go over to you please?
Cllr Roger Baldwin - 0:20:49
Cllr Stephen Murray - 0:20:53
I did want to move on to something else and it's something that we have interrogated quite
carefully in Quarter 2.
So I'm not keen to generate another big discussion on it, though it is important.
And I wanted to note, unfortunately,
that there has been another increase,
a slight increase this quarter in the number of,
so I'm looking at 15A, sorry, page, whatever it is,
page 23, number of households in temporary accommodation.
So we've had another slight increase
and the commentary is telling us that we've,
It has been a big increase over the three quarters.
I think the thing that worried me, and it was obviously there again in quarter two,
commentary that over 60 per cent now of the approaches for temporary accommodation are
being driven by victims of domestic abuse, which is very disturbing, isn't it?
So hopefully our relevant officers are working with the police and so on to do what we can
on that difficult issue.
Thank you.
Mandy Thompson - 0:22:10
I would refer that to the Director Dawn Harrison to respond.
Let's not put a camera on.
Oh, there we go, thank you.
Thanks, Mandy.
Dawn Harrisson - 0:22:22
Councillor Murray, the rules around homelessness
and domestic violence are partly the reason
for the increases of approaches
from domestic violence survivors.
And the team do work closely with all of the relevant parties
to ensure that where prosecutions can be made
that they are done, but the safety and security
and wellbeing of the survivors is paramount.
Thank you.
I'll come.
Cllr Roger Baldwin - 0:22:52
I'll go to Councillor Morgan first, I think, if you've been waiting, you have a question.
Thank you very much, Chair.
Cllr Lisa Morgan - 0:22:58
It's on fly -tipping again, and the green bins.
I've spoken to a lot of residents really since Christmas, when they got notification out
that they could apply for stickers for their bins and it cost £60.
The amount of them that have turned around to me and said, well, I'm not going to bother,
I'm going to literally just dump it and maybe in the forest or something because it's green
waste what they can do and how they can know it's us.
Well because you've just told me but that's not the point.
The point is what we're going to do to tackle that because that is a big concern of mine
now.
We have fly tipping and even though we have heard it's decreased I know last month I reported
11 fly tips just in the Grange Hill and Chippewa Row area and I'm really concerned now what
we can do with all this green waste.
I know it is biodegradable, but I do not want that forest filled up with the green waste
that is supposedly going to be tipped by residents.
Cllr Roger Baldwin - 0:23:53
Mandy Thompson - 0:23:56
When the waste side of things was looked at, it was demonstrated that there was no demonstrative
any evidence to support the fact that when the green waste had to be paid for in other
areas there was an increase in the fly -tipping. If that is demonstrated then obviously we
will work very closely with the waste team and intelligence to bring the culprits to
bear. It will be a work in progress but we will monitor it.
Thank you very much for that.
Cllr Roger Baldwin - 0:24:33
Thank you.
Cllr Lisa Morgan - 0:24:39
Can I presume by that that there will be fines as well, rather than just a £400, naughty
person, like proper fines?
Mandy Thompson - 0:24:50
We can only set fines in line with statutory limits.
We are looking to increase the FPNs that we can issue and that will come forward as a
portfolio holder decision and then there will be a staged process.
So that will come through.
Thank you very much.
Councillor Lucas, did you have a question?
Thank you, Chairman.
Mine was just an observation on the KPI for customer.
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 0:25:15
I see, I think we have got Tracy online.
In Quarter 3, we are demonstrating the reflection of...
Sorry, I have a little background.
Put someone's microphone on.
We are suggesting that people are self -serving more,
which is obviously having an impact on the negative of the KPI.
So is it worth actually addressing the actual KPI to truly reflect what we are trying to achieve?
That was just my observation. Thank you.
Thank you for that point.
Mandy, do you want to come back on that?
Should we change the KPIs?
Mandy Thompson - 0:25:51
Tracy is online and I'll bring Tracy in.
Thank you.
Tracy, thank you.
Thank you, thank you Mandy.
Thank you Councillor Lucas.
Tracy Scott - 0:26:00
So as you quite rightly pointed out, the more we are residents channel shift, it does have
almost a detrimental impact on the KPI.
So there is something around reviewing at the next stage where we review the KPIs for
what is the right fit for purpose measure
for the contact centre does need to be looked at
and is first point resolution even the right KPI?
Because another, I guess, information that sits behind that
is the contact centre that I oversee,
only 45 % of the councils actually transitioned in.
So there is still an amount of calls
for the other percentage of that, 55%.
that has to be transferred anyway.
So there is something around looking at either opportunities
to either, there are other transactions to either bring in
or looking at what is the right K -Plan to measure
the health and the experience of the contact centre.
But it is something that I do have,
I have been exploring and looking at.
So thank you.
Thank you as well for that.
And can we go to Councillor George please,
do you want to, I've been waiting to come in.
Cllr Roger Baldwin - 0:27:10
Cllr Mandy George - 0:27:14
Hello, good evening everyone. Tracy, while you're online, well done. I'm going to page
17 and it's pleasing to see that the KPI for Contact Centre call answer rate is shut up
to 95%. Really good. I know I've had the struggles last year when I've tried to contact them
and I was pulling my hair out, but no, it's pleasing to see and well done to you and your
team. Excellent. Thank you.
Thank you, thank you, Councillor George.
Thank you for that.
Did you want to start?
Cllr Roger Baldwin - 0:27:40
Councillor McCann, I think you have a question.
Yes, I'm going to go back to fly tipping.
Cllr Craig McCann - 0:27:45
Obviously, my wall, Chigwell and Lambourne has suffered a lot from fly tipping very recently,
very big industrial, big fly tips.
I welcome the suggestion from Councillor Lyon about the task of finish groups.
Again, conscious we'll loop back to this on the 17th of March.
Is it the place committee?
I suppose my question is on this KPI, I suppose it's the, it's how smart is this KPI?
Because as a KPI, it's number of flight of an instance, that tells me nothing about council
performance.
It tells me this is the number of flight tips we've had.
And it doesn't go into the kind of granularity of flight tips on council land, private land.
There's a different way of responding to that as we found out very recently.
So I suppose the question is, during the place scrutiny meeting, can we possibly look at
the way that we capture council performance within these KPIs as part of that conversation?
Absolutely.
It's something that I've tasked.
Mandy Thompson - 0:28:47
I've got a new service manager that started last year, Brian Elick.
He's fantastic at problem solving, this type of problem.
He's very experienced in that.
The issue that we've got at the moment in terms of separating the data out is the system
that we are using is quite old. We are moving to an updated version, the assure project,
it is one of the Council's priority projects and we will develop a suite of reports through
that that we can get that granular detail that we lack now in terms of being able to
pull it off as a report. So yes, certainly.
Cllr Roger Baldwin - 0:29:22
I have a question myself.
Can I have a bit of a clever question?
Cllr Stephen Murray - 0:29:31
Are you going to be doing the three progress reports as a separate thing?
I want to comment on those at some stage.
Cllr Roger Baldwin - 0:29:41
I did want to ask myself about housing under the category of housing and property, about
the average re -let time for standard voids was quarter three, 39 .75 days, quarter three.
That's nearly double the 20 -day target. I just wondered what changes can we make in
the key to key process to improve that target? Thank you, Chair. I would refer that again
to my colleague Dawn Harrison online.
Mandy Thompson - 0:30:10
Okay, thank you.
I can take, oh, she's there, that's fine.
Dawn Harrisson - 0:30:18
Okay, so we are working closely with colleagues
and we are looking at ways in which
to improve the turnaround times.
We have changed the way that we are doing decorating
into properties, the type of decorating packs
that we could offer residents.
We have reduced the number of major voids,
which before we were reporting major voids
and standard points all as one indicator.
And we are confident that some of the things
that we're putting in place will actually drive down
and turn around to one from key to key
in terms of doing multiple viewings
and often taking one resident round to view
and then refusing and then having to take
the next person around.
So we're seeing what we can do to try to shorten that time
and end to end.
Thank you very much for that Dawn.
If there are no more questions,
Cllr Roger Baldwin - 0:31:05
Should I go through these?
Are there any questions on the KPIs, pages 19, 20, 23, 27?
Any questions on those remaining KPIs?
If there are no questions, maybe we could go on to the...
Oh, I'm sorry.
Thanks, thanks Chairman.
Cllr Martin Morris - 0:31:44
Yeah, just one, sorry, going back to fly tipping again.
There's a big uptick in fly tipping inside Epping Forest itself.
You mentioned a number of bodies that you're coordinating with.
I'm just asking whether you can coordinate with COL as well,
over the fly tipping that is going on inside the forest because it is really noticeable.
Mandy Thompson - 0:32:06
We actively coordinate with them and work with them. That is all part of the overall
project.
Thank you.
Cllr Roger Baldwin - 0:32:15
Okay, can we now move on to the projects, the substantial projects?
And we have one that the, I think one notable one is the Epping Leisure Centre.
Now I think the Epping Leisure Centre, I think we deserve to pat ourselves on the back with
this one, because, you know, we have managed to deliver this
under budget with savings achieved through value and
engineering measures.
So I think we, you know, for once,
I think we've done very, very well to deliver this.
And I was wondering if the leader would like to make any
comments about that.
Cllr Chris Whitbread - 0:33:01
Thank you, Chairman.
Yeah, I think our officer team should definitely pat
themselves on the back.
I think James and Amelia and the team are monitoring it,
have done brilliantly well.
It goes without saying.
I think Pelican delivered a project that is first class,
and they should be applauded, and Places for Leisure
should also be applauded.
It's also great to see so many people using the centre.
It's very busy.
Whenever I go to the gym, not often at the moment,
but whenever I go to the gym, it's packed out.
And so it is a first -class facility,
and we should be proud of it.
All of us as a council should be proud of it.
It's a wonderful piece of showing what a council can do.
And bearing in mind, we're one of the few councils
that's actually bringing on stream, not literally streams,
a new leisure centres within their district.
It's the second one we've built in the past decade.
And I think there's a lot to be said for that.
And of course our partnership with Places for Leisure
is a strong partnership.
Thank you.
Cllr Roger Baldwin - 0:34:06
Councillor Martin, did you want to have a...
Cllr Stephen Murray - 0:34:11
I wanted to say a few things, but if I just reinforce the point that Councillor Martin
made.
Don't hold me exactly to these figures, but I think they're made basically a ballpark
figure accurate.
City of London has a budget, the charity arm has a budget of three million for Eppenfroys,
and 10 % of that is dealt with thryatibin.
So they're spending £300 ,000 a year dealing with thryatibin.
It's a narrow charity, isn't it, Epping Froyes?
It's an arm's length charity,
but it gets most of its funding from the corporation.
Yeah, I just wanted to say something about Epping as well.
Very impressed.
I was fortunate enough, because I asked, basically,
to have a good 90 -minute tour of the centre on the Friday of the week that it had opened.
I was very impressed.
The enthusiasm of the project manager shone through.
I do have some friends in Louton and I do have some friends in Epping.
I have to say that the members of the people I know in Eppenhurst are very impressed.
The one point I will make, because I can make it very safely as an independent, is that
we are running up to May and I am fully aware that the Eppen Sports Centre will have lots
of people claiming credit for the centre.
So I have got no stake in it.
So I can be very honest and I can be very clear and say that the Eppen Sports Centre
was supported by all groups on this council as equally as anyone else.
And I just think I want to put it out there because, you know, the Epping Sports Centre
is going to have lots of people claiming, or groups claiming, that they achieved the sports centre.
Everyone supported it and everyone in the role of councillor did their bit to help deliver it.
And as I say, I can say that as someone who's in Loudon and a bit in Omates.
I do want to say something about the Broadway refurbishment progress, because there has
been a couple of things that have happened since the last report.
And again, a mixture.
I think the way it was dealt with was really good.
I had the pleasure of meeting, oh, I suppose it was about 20 residents on the Friday before
Christmas.
I kind of got a summons.
Could you come and see us, please, because we've got lots of concerns about how the project
is going and issues.
They could have used some of the other avenues before that date and that became part of the
discussion, but I went round to see them on the Friday before Christmas because half the
project is in the Rodingwald, and it was the Rodingwald half that asked to see me.
What I wanted to mention here was I think the way that the officers dealt with that,
and I'm referencing particularly the project manager whose name is on the report, Tunde
Afew Loli Brown, was absolutely first class.
Because it was those two weeks where, you know, between Christmas and the New Year,
But even at that stage, he was able to organise a meeting in the local hall that's behind
the boardway with the appropriate officers by the first Friday in the new year, or it
might have been the second, the first working week.
And Councillor Rackham was there, Councillor Niecki was there, and the appropriate EFDC
officers were there, the consultants were there, the contractor was there.
I just wanted to reference that because it was dealt with very well.
The residents were given the answers and the reassurances that they were looking for.
So I just thought that was worth sharing with members.
Thank you, Chairman.
Thank you very much, Councillor Murray.
Cllr Roger Baldwin - 0:38:25
Lastly, there is the Broad Bay Refurbish on progress report, which is on AMBA there, RIG
State AMBA.
and there is quite substantial cost over on there, 7 .25%,
a number of 371 ,000.
I wonder if it's worth saying anything about that.
Would Dawn like to say anything about that?
Thank you, Chair.
The 7 .25 % overspend is the worst case scenario.
That's not the final figures at this stage,
Dawn Harrisson - 0:38:59
and we are looking to recoup some costs,
potentially from the previous employer's agent,
but also by looking at different work streams,
particularly around compartmentation
and there's drainage repairs as well
that need to be undertaken.
But 7 .25 % is the worst case scenario
and we're hoping not to reach that limit.
Thank you for that clarification.
Cllr Stephen Murray - 0:39:26
I've got another point and this is where I am suffering
from not having money to go to.
Yep, certainly.
Councillor Murray, yep.
I did just remember another point.
I obviously, like other people, read the agenda in the order that it's received.
And once I had the budget papers, it generated a question around the Broadway refurbishment.
Yes, there is a budget, and yes, I understand the importance of keeping to that budget as
far as possible, but I would like a reassurance as a member that we are doing everything that
we feel is absolutely necessary to be done as part of the refurbishment project, because
we're not going back there for at least another 25 years.
Given the underspends that we then read about in the budget papers in terms of HRA revenue
and HRA capital, there is my reading of it.
There would be the ability to allocate more money to this project if it was required.
So what I think I'm really asking as a member, a layman at this stage is we're not doing
things in a way or not doing things that we should really be doing just because we feel
we have to keep in budget given that there does seem to be things that aren't being spent
elsewhere in the HRA.
Cllr Roger Baldwin - 0:40:53
Dawn Harrisson - 0:40:59
We are not looking to cut any cuts, we are not looking to go back and do any work at
all. All works will be done, we are just looking at different ways of doing it. There is no
sense in doing such a big refurbishment of this nature and to miss things out and have
to come back at a later stage to do them. In terms of budgets, that is a week I can
come back to one, but it's certainly a point for discussion internally.
Cllr Roger Baldwin - 0:41:23
Thank you as well. If there are no more questions.
Cllr Lisa Morgan - 0:41:32
Mine is not really, just a light -hearted question really. When Epping, which is fabulous, we
have a new sports centre, I'm really pleased about that. Still unfortunately I haven't
been to see it, but I will do.
But I do remember the leader turned around and said he was
going to have a swim race with another counsellor.
And I do hope that he actually invites ONS along to cheque
that no cheating takes place.
If you'd like to let us know when it will be, please.
Cllr Chris Whitbread - 0:42:00
You missed it.
Actually, what we can promote here is the main opening of
the poll, because there's been a customer opening.
The main opening report will be in March and I'm sure Rose and myself will be planning,
but it gets a bit warmer to have that race.
Cllr Roger Baldwin - 0:42:19
Thank you for that.
If there are no more questions on that report, can members agree that there are no areas
for review and no specific recommendations to cabinet?
Agreed?
Right, thank you for that.
Now, before we move on to the next item, I just have to read this paragraph out.
Okay, which I will do now.

10 Quarter 3 Budget Monitoring Report 2025-26

So, anyway, before we move to the next item, I would like to inform scrutiny that under
section 100B of the Local Government Act 1972, as the chairman of this committee, I am satisfied
that due to the time constraints associated with the compilation of financial data, that
The following two items, item 10, the quarter three budget report and item 11, the budget
setting and the medium term financial plan update should be considered at this meeting
as a matter of urgency and have be added to the agenda.
These reports are shown in the supplementary agenda.
So I think now we can go over to the supplementary agenda, which is item 10.
On supplementary agenda something that shows kind of item 16. Anyway, it's pages 2 to
20 on the supplementary
and this is the budget monitoring report and
As I say starts on page 2 and to introduce the report
Owing can you take us through?
Oh, sorry, I didn't
Cllr Chris Whitbread - 0:43:59
Yeah. Thank you, thank you Chairman and apologies from Councillor Hollywood -Bred this evening
who is on a LJ peer review so the reason why she's not not here. And I appreciate members taking
these reports without everything before them immediately but of course we had a very late
settlement this year. I think Ian was just tucking into the turkey when it finally arrived and
fair funding review, it gave us all calls for some
intergestion.
Obviously, the first part of this report is the scene
setter for the budget, and very much is the quarter
free piece, which tells you how much room you've got
really within the budget as well for the coming year.
So the good news was that the third quarter ended up
with a revenue surplus of 120 ,000,
which was an improvement of 460 ,000 compared
to the end of quarter two.
So that was the good news part.
And of course, the real drivers of this
were the additional grant income for waste services
and homelessness of 640 ,000,
and additional forecast income from car parking of 250 ,000,
and projected terra -furne services surplus of $300 ,000.
So that's where the good news came from.
Of course, reduced spending on capital financing costs as well at $350 ,000.
The general fund revenue key pressures, which is obviously important to take into account
alongside the other spends was homelessness forecast
overspend of 790 ,000 within housing property
driven mainly by bed and breakfast accommodation
as Councillor Murray picked out earlier on.
This is one of the biggest pressures we currently have
and this growth is not budgeted from 24 to 25.
So that's an issue.
Dry recyclables.
We've seen a forecast net cost overspend of $700 ,000 due to volatile global markets.
We always see this with that particular marketplace.
It goes up and down at the moment.
It's on a down.
And that's a real problem to us.
And quarter has been reflected in the medium term plan.
And planning forecast overspend, $310 ,000, driven by planning appeals, enforcement cost
of $170 ,000, and income shortfalls across building control and PPA income shortfall
referenced of $330 ,000, partly offset by vacancies and other efficiencies.
The other pressures are staffing and operational pressures across chief executive and finance
budgets, increased cost for revenues.
The principal mitigating underspends included ICT
slippage of $490 ,000 due to projects being popped back,
elections, full cost saving of $170 ,000,
and financing cost underspend of $2 million and $2 million,
just over 2 million, let's keep it easy for tonight,
reflecting reduced borrowing from capital programme slippage.
There are a number of other key points around the reserves
that members will be aware of from reading the report.
The housing revenue account and such is all clearly set out.
Happy to take any questions on this part
before we go on to the budget,
which is really the main part of this evening's debate.
Cllr Roger Baldwin - 0:48:08
Thank you. I will open it up for questions.
Cllr Mandy George - 0:48:15
Councillor George. This is for you, Councillor Whitbread. I wonder
if you could give me some more detail on the increase of 240 ,000 for the CEO Department.
I would like more details. I did ask last year, it is on page 7, so let me go to page
So it's got an increase here, chief exec, the variance of 240.
So could you give me some more detail?
I did ask last year, but it's either gone into my junk box or I haven't received it.
I'd like more detail, please.
Thank you.
I will hand over to Mr Sparks, who's already got the answer.
Ish.
Owen Sparks - 0:48:57
Yes, that relates predominantly to monitoring officer costs that weren't budgeted and obviously
So that's that and there are some other minor underspends within the finance department.
That's what that mainly relates to.
Cllr Mandy George - 0:49:12
So could you elaborate more on the minor underspends then, just so I can get an idea, because 240 ,000
is quite a lot of money.
Owen Sparks - 0:49:20
I'd have to look at the actual breakdown, but there's some overspends in the finance
department and some agency costs within the finance department as well.
So it's a mixture of the two between money and office costs and finance department costs.
But the breakdown I'd have to give you separately.
Okay, thank you for that, please.
Cllr Mandy George - 0:49:38
Yeah, coming back to agency, agency staff costs quite a lot of money because then you're paying the agency
and then the staff obviously get in their part.
So how much money was spent on agency staff?
Obviously, do you have that data now or can you send that to all of us too?
Owen Sparks - 0:49:56
In that particular instance or generally are you...
I would have to look at the idea of hand.
Could you come back to everyone please?
Thank you.
Thank you for that.
Cllr Roger Baldwin - 0:50:08
Councillor Murray please.
Cllr Stephen Murray - 0:50:13
Thank you, I want to ask a couple of questions on the housing revenue account.
I was fully aware that it was ring fenced in a separate account, but at the briefing
last night and I have to thank the officers for the two briefings so far.
We've got two more to come.
Whether the capital one is going to interest me as much as the first two, I don't know,
but I will do my best.
But seriously, I thought last night was really positive.
I didn't realise this.
I knew it was separate and I've always regarded the HRA as a separate account and in one sense
it is, but we learned last night, or I learned last night for the first time, that it is
actually legally part of the general fund,
but it is re -entrenched.
So hands off for Councillor Whitburn.
We experienced that in the 1980s, massive transfers,
but it is technically and legally still regarded
as part of the general fund,
but it is completely re -entrenched.
And it's one of the ones that I look at him in particular,
as much as the, what we normally understand
as the general fund proper for want of a better word.
I have a couple of questions on page 13 that did concern me a little bit.
At the top of page 13, we are told that there was a saving of half a million, which is good,
on utility costs.
And then we were told in the first line that this is mainly due to lower management costs
at Norway House.
Is that completely utility costs or were there other savings in management areas of Norway
house and given that that is full all the time are we happy that the management
of Norway house is as it should be or as I say always the saving completely from
lower utility costs
Cllr Roger Baldwin - 0:52:05
Dawn Harrisson - 0:52:12
but I will double cheque and see what those savings were.
Lovely, I would be interested in that.
Cllr Stephen Murray - 0:52:26
And then the next bit really interested me even more maybe,
because it set alarm bells ringing,
but I want to be assured that I'm not getting overexcited.
It's repairs and maintenance, and it's telling us
that there's a $1 .626 million underspend,
and this was because of the open book review
review of QALYST expenditure. I know members can read, but people on the
webcast haven't got this necessarily in front of them. This was following an open book review
of QALYST expenditure and therefore the forecast for the year is reduced. We did have a credit
for quarter one. If I've interpreted that correctly, and as I said before, I'm only
a teacher so I'm capable of getting things wrong, that tends to suggest to me that we've
overpaying QALYs and the open book exercise has kind of indicated that.
QALYs have been doing repairs maintenance now for a number of years.
We've got a receipt credit for quarter one. What about previous quarters before
that or are the alarm bells ringing inaccurately?
I'm afraid I don't know the answer to that question Councillor Murray and I would definitely have to go away and look at that.
Dawn Harrisson - 0:53:43
I think Mr Sparks has the answers.
For five years.
Owen Sparks - 0:53:52
The new arrangement was put in place for this year, so it relates to this year only.
And obviously what's happened is, the quality has been working jointly with the councils to review that charging mechanism.
So again, they're working together jointly to work out what the cost should be and that's part of the resolution that's been brought forward and that will continue for this year.
Cllr Stephen Murray - 0:54:12
That's good and that's reduced to saving on our part but that does kind of imply
that the previous arrangement before that that has been in operation I don't
know how many years QALYST have been doing our repairs but it's it's a number
of years might have been operating in favour of QALYST rather than EFDC.
Cllr Roger Baldwin - 0:54:34
Yes, please. Thank you Chairman. One of the things that has happened since QALYST
Jennifer Gould - 0:54:36
took over repairs and maintenance to now is that they have built their own staffing structure
in a way that they weren't able to do right from the get -go. Initially, Qualis were still
reliant on contractors and other staff. What they've been doing over the last couple of
years particularly is to build their own directly managed staff, which of course is a lot cheaper.
So I do know that that is one of the things that has contributed to the lowering in the
cost.
Cllr Roger Baldwin - 0:55:10
I think I may just have one more question then.
Cllr Stephen Murray - 0:55:13
Is there a legal, even if we wish to pursue it, is there a legal cut -off where we can't
kind of backdate arrangements and say that on the basis of this open book review it is
estimated that you owe us a further,
is there a kind of legal cutoff point where, you know,
the past is the past?
Thank you.
Owen Sparks - 0:55:40
So I can say it's not a historic issue.
It's an issue in this financial year going forward.
So we confident it doesn't impact past years,
but we are doing is making sure that everything is
flashed through in this year.
And there'll be another reduction in the next quarter,
which will bring us back to the decision we should be in.
Thank you.
Thank you as well.
Cllr Roger Baldwin - 0:56:00
Can I go to Councillor Whiskin, you want to ask a question?
I've got four points.
Cllr Graham Wiskin - 0:56:06
I don't think we've taken one by one or...
Taken one by one?
One by one, okay, thank you.
Brief one on the TVS surplus of £300 ,000.
I've said it before, I'll say it again.
I think it would be quite nice to actually spend some of that on providing a few more services.
and the weed spraying would be an excellent way
of spending a little bit of that surplus
rather than pressing it straight into our coffers.
And I think the residents would appreciate that.
Do you want to make any further points at all?
Yes, I do.
Cllr Roger Baldwin - 0:56:35
Cllr Graham Wiskin - 0:56:37
I was gonna ask two questions about some explanation.
There's on page seven, there's line with Qalis
and there's a variance of a million pounds.
Can someone explain to us in simple terms how that factors into the picture?
That's on page 7 .2 .3.
Is it 2 .3?
Yeah, 2 .3.
Is it a deficit of 1 .3 million, I think, there?
Bottom of page 7.
Owen Sparks - 0:57:17
That relates to capital financing and that's to the debt profile of Qadis, what they've
borrowed and that's the premium bit that relates to the council.
So that's debt financing, so that's how that's arrived at.
Cllr Graham Wiskin - 0:57:32
The other point was on the planning overspend.
It may be useful to have a split between the costs for enforcement
and appeals separated, because I understand that with enforcement
of planning action, you can actually recover some of that.
You have a view on that.
Thank you.
Cllr Roger Baldwin - 0:58:05
I can reply to that, Chair.
Matt Winslow - 0:58:11
I think I would have to go back and determine how to articulate that split, but that's something
where you can come back to your own.
Okay.
I don't need to come back here.
I've got one more point.
Okay, Councillor Whiskin, if you'd like to reply.
Cllr Roger Baldwin - 0:58:27
My last one is on the recyclables income.
Cllr Graham Wiskin - 0:58:28
It's very disappointing to see that there are market forces against us in terms of the
dry recyclables which are not getting us the money which we'd hoped for.
Hopefully that doesn't reflect along the way into people's behaviours and they become more
sloppy about it and don't recycle
because I'm great believer we must be recycling
as much as possible.
So we need to send a message somehow
that some of these things are beyond our control,
but we should keep at it.
Yeah, absolutely.
Cllr Roger Baldwin - 0:59:02
Okay, so thank you.
So can we just, sorry.
So before we move on, I think Councillor Whiskin,
you had four points.
Cllr Craig McCann - 0:59:08
I think we've got substantive answers to two, three, and four
but not number one.
So just to say completeness, can you ask it again
and just get a response?
Cllr Graham Wiskin - 0:59:19
The question was about could we not use some of the TVS surplus of £300 ,000 on services
such as Weespring.
I know we have had cuts on that.
Thank you.
Councillor Balke, would you like to respond?
Cllr Raymond Balcombe - 0:59:29
The simple answer to that is yes, we are in negotiations about that at the moment and
there will be a difference next year.
Councillor Murray, yes?
Cllr Stephen Murray - 0:59:40
Yes, I won't keep on referencing this because I haven't got my notebook in front of me.
I was amazed by rereading page 16 about the capital underspend within the HRA of nearly
£5 million.
Yes, we have got some explanations for why, but all those programmes are absolutely essential.
We are underspending on kitchens and bathrooms.
We are underspending on the electrical budget, the environmental budget.
I am tempted to say that I am quite happy to take a couple of housing offices around
Rogenwald and I am sure we will soon get rid of that half a million under spend under the
environmental budget, but other wards deserve something.
We are either too ambitious in our capital programme, which I suppose is a good fault,
or we really should be more successful in delivering these projects, I think.
I don't want to be too harsh, and as I say, we have got kind of detailed explanations.
But a capital works underspend of £5 million is an awful lot of money, given the nature
of where these underspends are.
all things that I would have thought tenants and estate environments are calling out for.
So perhaps that's something that the portfolio holder can have a closer chat with the main
officer, which I'm sure she probably is anyway, because I'm just bringing it up as an area
of member concern.
Cllr Roger Baldwin - 1:01:20
So if I may just come back myself, it's all there on page 20, appendix C, and that outlines
in detail, all the total forecast underspent, which is 18 ,278 ,000. So basically that means
our updated budget, it was previously 46 million and now the forecast out turns out to be 27 .87
million so yeah if that that details is actually where the under spends have
gone yeah. Owen if you want to add any more to that about Appendix C. I think that's fine that breaks
then obviously where the under spends are in categories I don't know if Dawn's got any more detail on
Owen Sparks - 1:02:08
obviously some of the work that she's doing around that she might be able to go back on.
Okay, so Councillor Murray, you're absolutely right.
Dawn Harrisson - 1:02:16
That's a lot of money to be under spent on capital works.
We have just had to delay some of the capital works.
It's not that we're not going to do them.
We've been working with Corliss with their DPM
to procure contractors to carry out this work.
And we've had to engage in 20 section,
sorry, section 20 consultation with leaseholders.
So the work is still absolutely planned to go ahead.
And section 20 now sees as recently gone out
bathrooms, roofs and cyclical works.
So work will be carried out,
it's just not within this financial year.
Thank you, yeah.
So would I be right in saying that the,
this money is not being saved,
Cllr Roger Baldwin - 1:02:52
but it's simply being delayed or slipped
into the next financial year?
You'll be okay, don't you?
Exactly, okay.
Thank you very much.
And right, so do we have any other questions at all?
Yeah.
About, yep, okay, yeah, Councillor George, please.
Just coming back to the capital works
Cllr Mandy George - 1:03:08
with the kitchen and bathrooms underspend.
What actually has been taken to ascertain why council tenants
don't want a new bathroom or a new kitchen?
Those council tenants that I know that do have council properties,
they are crying out for a new kitchen, new bathroom.
Granted, not a lot in Epping.
There's in other areas.
But I'm just surprised that there's such a huge underspend
and what's been taken to ascertain why you can't get access.
I have to come back to the exact details of why people are refusing, but the overspend
Dawn Harrisson - 1:03:50
isn't in its entirety due to people refusing kitchens and bathroom replacements.
That's fine.
Oh, Councillor Lee, do you have a question as well?
Cllr Roger Baldwin - 1:04:01
Thank you, Chairman.
Cllr Jeane Lea - 1:04:03
It wasn't really a question, but actually the lady just now has answered what I was
going to say.
Because I know people that moan that the council come around to say, well, they've got to have
a new bathroom or a new kitchen and they don't want one because there's this lovely already.
And then on the other hand, I've got people moaning that with qualities that they've got
all this damp and this mould and it's taken months and months and months.
They keep coming and putting a bit of paint on it to find out that all this time that
they've got a leak.
So, I'm not, with some things I'm not happy about because some of the workmen are just
sticking a bit of paint on and saying, oh that's alright, cover up the mould and then
it goes on and on and on and this isn't just one case.
But I think you're in a difficult position because there's a lot that don't want you
in and a lot won't let you in.
So yes, there could be an underspend.
So I don't know how you're supposed to sort it because whatever way you look at it, I
get complaints.
They're not doing it and on the other hand, they don't want it done.
Why are you interfering?
So I've no idea how you're going to work it out.
Cllr Smruti Patel - 1:05:20
Just to add to that as well, I think it's also the time that it will take.
If it's a big job like that, replacing bathroom or kitchen, it takes so long and then there
might just don't want to build us in there for that long, so they're probably just going
to don't want it.
Cllr Roger Baldwin - 1:05:33
I was going to say, I think you also had that new rule about, is it RWABS law that we have
to take priority, don't we, on things like mould? Okay. If there are no further questions,
I know the substantial item is the next one.
If you have no further questions, members, we have considered and commented on this report
before this goes to cabinet.
Now let's move on to the next item.
I have got myself lost now.
Let's move on to the next item.

11 Final Draft Proposals for Budget Setting 2026-27 and Medium Term Financial Plan Update

Item 11, the draught reports for budget setting 2020 to 2007 and medium -term financial plan
update.
It is a bit confusing.
It is marked agenda item 17.
It is pages 21 to 24.
Yes, supplementary, sorry about that.
So on the agenda's budget setting and medium term financial plan, this is an important
and detailed report. The finance service have offered several briefings which have proved
useful background and insight into the MFTP and I would encourage you to watch the recordings
if you get the opportunity.
Cllr Chris Whitbread - 1:07:25
Thank you for reminding the members to look at the various presentations that have been
done. It is a good point to thank all the officers who have been involved, particularly
the financial team, but obviously all service areas, because these budgets are not done
with the easiest of backdrops.
When you look at the local and national picture at the
present time, with inflation still at 3 .4 percent,
very stubborn to get out of the system.
The Bank of England's target rate being 2 percent.
Whilst we are seeing interest rates drop,
they are dropping very slowly.
And of course, whilst we've seen a slight improvement
in our own position in Q3, we have to bear all these
things in mind as we're setting the next year's
budget in February.
So there has been an amazing piece of work,
and I have to pay tribute to the finance team for doing the
additional presentations to members,
as well as making sure it's come before overview and scrutiny and
joint panel meetings on a regular basis.
I think the way they've worked over the past year to get this
budget in place is first class and really should be paid
tribute to.
The backdrop, as I say, is difficult.
We are pleased that the government has now given us a three -year settlement.
We are not pleased that that settlement isn't quite what we would have wanted it to be.
And we will see future years challenges.
So it's largely flat for this coming year and then it's flat for 27, 28.
And gradually our position and the pressures that we are feeling get worse and worse.
And actually, it's probably one of the reasons that we need local government reorganisation
to address some of these funding challenges that we face.
But that is a storey for another day.
Obviously, the key headlines for this budget, which is all set out before you, is the fact
that the 3 .4 million general fund budget gap for 26 -27 has been fully closed.
I think that's taken an awful lot of work to get to that position and it brings about
further efficiency savings and income generation as well to try and get to that position.
It has not been easy.
Council tax will have to be raised by the full amount of 2 .98%, which is available to
us, which aligns us with the government's assumptions within the core spending power
model.
There is still issues later on during financial forecast around council tax equalisation,
which will become an issue to us as well.
If you don't put your council tax up by the full amount in future, the government will
penalise you in grant funding and we have to take that into account.
We have got a 4 .8 % increase in HRI rents, which is recommended to you.
It's based on CPI at 3 .8 % plus 1%.
We have a balanced general fund budget proposed for 26 -27.
Forecast deficits, which is what I'm really worried about,
of 870 ,000 in 27 -28, rising to 2 million in 28 -29.
That means we have real challenges ahead of us when it
to finding further efficiencies and further savings.
If LGR does not happen in 28, we will be looking for substantial
savings during that year, and that means we'll be looking for
a real transformational change rather than anything else.
So I think that has to be taken into account.
And there are challenges to local government reorganisation
that you're only too aware of, as we've seen in recent times.
We're looking at a delay post elections at the best to local government reorganisation.
There are a number of key areas that are focused upon as part of this budget, temporary accommodation
and homelessness, reduced homelessness through increased access to affordable housing and
tailored support services.
These obviously very important, bearing in mind the pressures that we now see and have
seen for a period of time.
Waste collections, obviously that's an important part.
The statutory requirements for waste collection
are changing and have changed,
and we have had to move with them.
We are still continuing to support residents where we can,
including significant grant activity.
Now I will come on to the Citizens Advice Bureau
at this point because I think they do a brilliant job
for us as a district, and we continue to support them
and will continue to support them because of the work that they do for us, an important
part of our arsenal when we're looking at debt management and homelessness.
And we are intending to make sure that we secure their funding up until the first year
of local government reorganisation, so we will not be coming back with worries for citizens'
advice in future years for at least the next three years of this medium -term strategy.
So that will be taken care of.
You will also want to know about VAEF and what we plan to do there.
Because of our slightly improved position, we will be able to meet their funding for
the coming year.
We will also be putting in place, and our officers have already been working on this
with the cabinet member, we will be putting in place a very, very firm SLA agreement with
them to make sure that they come to you because they should be coming to you as one of the
select panels or the scrutiny panel on a regular basis.
Quarterly I would have hoped to show that they're performing according to that new SLA
agreement that will be put in place.
We also have to bear in mind that there will be the new Google Community Fund which is
in association with Google and there will be benefits from that and we will need to
review over the coming year, how those benefits deliver for the
services that are currently supported by the VAEF and may be
done differently, and we will take that into account.
But it's an important part of what we do in supporting those
different organisations, in particular the CAB,
which we've had a really positive meeting with and they
always come forward to us and talk to us,
and therefore we are going to make sure that they are funded
into the first year of local government reorganisation.
But VAEF, we are putting in place a new SLA agreement.
It will be for a one -year term while we see what the new
community fund looks like, which we're doing in association with
Google, and move forward from there.
Cleansing and grounds maintenance, clean,
it's important.
We heard it earlier on from Councillor Whiskin about the
weeds and everything else.
It's really important to us that that is dealt with.
And of course, I know that my colleague is taking that forward and the conversations
are ongoing, along with the chairman of TVS to make sure that we improve some of those
areas and I'm sure there'll be more said about that as we move along.
Maximising our commercial income.
Obviously we are, one of the benefits of Epping Forest is that it has got a very large commercial
estate and making sure that is working effectively and bringing in commercial rents and income
for this council is important.
That is what enables us to keep our frontline services running and able to fund the most
important services to our residents.
Investment in the ICT infrastructure, we need to continue to make sure that we run effectively
with technology.
Of course that will change and again with local government reorganisation there will
be a need to align ourselves with eventually our new partner authorities.
Hopefully by March we will have the government's mind to decision and we know who our future partners will be and then we can start that
realignment of some of those
infrastructure as well, of course as
Councillor Murray's just picked up on the investment into our council housing stock is essential to us and it's important that that's working
efficiently for the future
You have set out the medium -term financial plan within your papers.
I think unless Mr. Ewing or Nuala wants to make any further comments, I think we can
be ready to take any questions.
Cllr Roger Baldwin - 1:16:24
Thank you.
In that case, I'll open things up for questions.
Councillor Rackham.
Councillor Murray next.
Thank you, Chair.
On our commercial properties,
Cllr Sheree Rackham - 1:16:36
obviously we're all seeing that a lot of businesses
are leaving our shops.
What are we doing as a council to entice new businesses
into the properties that become vacant?
Thank you.
We actually have a really good uptake of our properties.
I believe it's around 97 to 98 % of the present time.
Cllr Chris Whitbread - 1:16:53
and we do very well with our premises.
Actually some of our old hatches in residential areas
are very good and effectively priced rents,
but of course we have a really big stock of properties
of different offers including pubs and such as well,
and it's really important that we keep those left,
and we do, and we do it very well.
Thank you very much for that, and Councillor Morgan.
Cllr Roger Baldwin - 1:17:20
Cllr Lisa Morgan - 1:17:25
It is very good news to hear about the full interaction of Ephraim and Vyres and we have
managed to support them fully on their 30 grand that they wanted for their grant this
year. With their SLA agreement, does that still mean that we are going to be phasing
out over the next few years, so 10 ,000 in 2028 and then zero in 2029? Can I come back
after the answer, please?
Cllr Chris Whitbread - 1:17:48
Yeah, thank you, thank you Chairman and thank you Councillor Morgan.
I think what we have to recognise is that we're working through a different landscape.
The SLA agreement is really important because one of the things that we've failed to do
with VAEF over the years is to get them to come here on a regular basis and make sure
that we're getting good value for every pound that we spend.
Remembering that grant money is our residents' money and we have to make sure that it's getting
to the right places.
Things have changed for VAEF over recent times.
the handyman scheme has now been chipped over to POLIS. That's one element of it. If you
look at the new community fund that we'll be doing in association with Google, that
means that some of that funding will change and will come from different sources. So we
have to take it into that wider review. You can never promise that forever. And I think
there's a fundamental difference between what we do for VAEF and what we do with the Assistance
and the advice bureau which has got a purpose and is important to us as an authority.
Did you want to comment?
After Councillor Murray said his name.
Cllr Roger Baldwin - 1:18:49
Oh, yeah, okay.
Sorry, because I think you might be saying it afterwards.
Okay, fine. Councillor Murray, do you want to go next?
If Councillor Morgan wants to say it first.
No, no, it's for his sake first.
Cllr Stephen Murray - 1:18:57
I'm very impressed that she knows what I'm going to say because without my little notebook,
I am not sure I know what I am going to say, but I know the spirit of what I want to say.
First of all, I want to echo some of the remarks that the Leader has said, because the parameters
are set for us and I think we are right that we have to do the 2 .99 per cent, or in fact
we are just a little bit below that, aren't we?
Because we don't really have a choice about that in terms of how the government has funded
and the parameters in which we operate in.
I would imagine that still keeps us as a relatively low council tax.
It's important what you deliver with that.
I always say that being a low council tax authority isn't just the end in itself, it's
what you manage to achieve with a low council tax as well.
I think the officers have obviously clearly done a lot of work on this and I'm sure that
There are decisions hidden between the lines that aren't as clear to us as they might be,
not because of how they're presented but our lack of understanding where difficult decisions
have had to be made.
And officers might not be entirely happy with all of them, but that's kind of life.
I welcome what he says about the CAB.
As a former trustee of the CAB, like other members, I know exactly what they do and what
they deliver.
I am not sure I agree with the distinction he makes between the importance of the CAB
for Ephraim Foyst and the importance of the VAF.
Their contribution is different, but I think it is just as important.
I know he won't have done this deliberately, and I am not suggesting for one minute he
has, but on page 55 it is made clear that the proposed cut in the VAF grant operates
from next year. I think he either said or certainly implied that we were protecting
their funding for one more year. That's not the case.
Page 55 clearly shows that in 26, 27 it goes down. The proposal is 20 ,000, so that's a
third cut. Ten thousand out of 30 is a third. Then it goes down to 10, and then in the final
year it goes down to nothing. So essentially over a three year period where VAEF would
have been getting £90 ,000 they are getting £30 ,000. So it's essentially over a three
year period a £60 ,000 car. I mean in a budget this size to argue over £60 ,000 is perhaps
It is a really important organisation.
We are told very clearly that the withdrawal of this grant really does threaten almost
their existence.
They have put it, I don't want to overstate it, that it is essential to their existence
in terms of the infrastructure of the organisation.
I think we know many of the really important projects they do or enable in terms of vulnerable
groups within our society.
I just think that within a budget that we have got to find an extra $10 ,000 this year
is a mission impossible.
to find an extra $20 ,000 next year.
When I say extra, I mean not making the cut.
But in terms of the budget,
it would be a...that's proposed, it would be an extra $20 ,000.
And then in three years' time, $30 ,000.
I just don't think if there was...
..if there was the political will to support the VAF in its entirety,
which I have to be blunt and say I don't feel...
I have heard more critical contributions.
I just don't think that is valid.
I just really do think that if we take a look at the numbers,
there was the political will, we could find the $20 ,000 for next year, we could find the
$10 ,000 for next year, the $20 ,000 for the following year.
I wanted to finish with two other points.
Do we really want to go towards the local government review?
And I think that's still on schedule and Ephraim Foyes will not be here in 2008 without really
seriously threatening the assistance of VAFE. I just don't think that is really
good. They've brought in half a million pounds worth of funding this year. Now
I'm not saying that if we withdraw their grant by the small amount, percentage
wise it's a large amount, it's a third next year, then that's going to lose all
their ability to bring in that grant. But I just think what they're
doing on the ground and what they're doing to support other voluntary organisations,
because they do run voluntary sector forums, they do run a volunteer recruitment service
for local charities, so they do a lot of enabling of other groups. And the fact that they're
drawing in half a million in the last year, I just think all that points to it's £30 ,000
are well spent and we should be spending it next year, the following year and the year
after that.
I'm probably going to set myself a few targets to achieve in my last two years as a Councillor
on a senior authority, but I have to say trying to safeguard essential funding for the VAFE
will be fairly near the top of the list.
It is flatlining funding as well, which is essentially still a cut, but I think that
is something that we really should send a clear message as a scrutiny committee that
that is one aspect of the budget we are not happy with.
We ask the Cabinet and the leadership of the Council to go away and have another look.
It would be churlish not to say we recognise that it is better than what we had in December,
but it is only marginally better. So if I was a teacher I would say five out of ten,
but room for improvement and go away and have another look at it.
Thank you, I would like to reply to that.
Cllr Chris Whitbread - 1:26:13
Thank you, Chairman. I appreciate what Councillor Murray said, and he is thoughtful and has
always been true to that point around VAF, so I accept that. However, the world is changing
and it's changing quite rapidly.
I think members have to be really, really aware
of that gap that we had to close this year, 3 .4 million.
That hasn't been done without pressures
and pressures on service areas and tough decisions.
And that pressure has to be spread around
across the whole of what the council does.
We've had to make some really, really
long -term tough decisions and we continue to do so.
We are fortunate that we're in a slightly better position
and we thought we would be in the Q3, which enables us to have a degree of more flexibility.
We are still facing real challenges for the future.
As I've just explained to two members, our funding is flatlined as a council.
Fairer funding wasn't very fair to us.
The only thing it's actually given us is some certainty that we will get three years' worth
of grant funding from government.
But it's not been fair to us.
Let me just underline that again, because I think when we're making these tough decisions,
people need to take that into account.
What I've actually said on the AEF, and a budget is a live document until the day we
take it to full council.
There are always tweaks and tunings to be done right up until the very day it goes to
full council.
And what we've actually said this evening is, because this is a change and it's happened
We have had a conversation over recent days with conversations between the portfolio holder
and officers with regards to the SLA and with regards to our slightly better position.
We will pot the 30 ,000 in for this year.
We will pot in place a service level agreement.
We will expect VAEF to come to us and talk to us about how that SLA has been achieved
and the targets that are set within it.
We will look, obviously I should imagine,
hope to look at the finances of the AEF because they have done
brilliantly well in raising grant funding and ours is a
minor part of their budget in that respect,
but I accept every part of every budget is important.
So that's the way forward.
We also have this new community fund that we're doing in
association with Google.
I think members need to see how that operates as well.
So that can change the need for that type of funding.
So we certainly, you know, it's in a very different place to where we find CAB.
But for this year, within the budget as it stands tonight, we've put the 30 ,000 in, we've
put in place some targets and agreements that need to be reached for an SLA.
They need to come to you, whether it be place, communities or this committee, there needs
to be regular oversight of what VAEF is achieving with our residents' money, because it's our
residents' money in the end.
So that's where we are.
I'm happy that the report goes back from Scrutham to say you'd like us to put it into the medium
term strategy, but at this moment in time, I would still recommend to you that we need
to see how they're performing.
We haven't seen them this year. Can I just clarify Chairman then is what the
Cllr Stephen Murray - 1:29:41
leader is saying to us verbally superseding what is in front of us on
Cllr Roger Baldwin - 1:29:50
Cllr Lisa Morgan - 1:29:56
page 55 music to my ears. Thank you and thank you for confirming that
Councillor Whitbread, it was very good to hear. I'm still very concerned because they
do, the absolutely fantastic organisation do so much and actually save us money in the
long term. So I am really concerned about that. Maybe looking at the budgets, we could
consider phasing out, we're phasing out their money, maybe we could consider doing a phasing
of a reduction in Councillor allowance of £500 a year plus the money we're saving,
Therefore, we would bring in 32 ,400 including the money for the allowance that we didn't
have the increase of.
In three years' time, they would still have their money, a 7 .5 % increase on what they
would have been asking for, over 100 % increase on what they wanted.
I am quite happy for the Councillor to take £500 out of my money at source to support
such a great organisation. Probably should book this up at full council but it's just
come to me. Thank you.
Okay, thank you for that. Thank you. Okay, Councillor Whiskin.
Councillor Whiskin please.
Cllr Roger Baldwin - 1:31:06
Cllr Graham Wiskin - 1:31:10
Thank you, Chairman. Two points. I see quite a lot of references to car parking. The question
is how long are we going to keep squeezing our motorists? It's not a popular thing and
I do have concerns about impact on the footfall in our town centres.
And the second point was about, I noticed, and it might be out of turn, but I noticed
there was a move from reserves of 250 ,000 for legal fees.
Can we clarify where that is in relation to legal fees we may have accrued for the defence
the Belmont Hotel injunction.
Okay, thank you.
Yep, that's a response.
Sorry, Council Williamson, you got your response.
Cllr Chris Whitbread - 1:32:01
Oh, sorry, first of all, on car parking, there's no plans within this budget to put car parking
up.
But we can't reduce car parking because we couldn't afford to.
We're at the stage in the budget now where every change we make, you have to find an
equivalent saving form.
That's where we are.
One of the things I would say, unlike a lot of areas, we have still got in some of our
town centres free parking, Epping, Onga.
In Roydon they have a car park that's not charged for because they've got no actual
commercial centre.
But actually at least we have well run car parks and we have a system that works.
In fact car parking charges were raised last summer and they were still seen to be reasonable
That's that's pretty much what I was gonna say chair, thank you
Cllr Ken Williamson - 1:32:59
Yeah, I think our charges are quite reasonable for parking
When I go to other districts
You're paying four or five pounds sometimes. I
That they were peer -reviewed. I think the they're certainly not excessive
Cllr Roger Baldwin - 1:33:19
Thank you for that. Can I go to Councillor George, please? I think you had a question.
Cllr Mandy George - 1:33:22
Hi, thank you, Chair. I'm going to come back to the VAEF. I hear what Councillor Whitbeader
said, Councillor Murray and Arthur Morgan regarding VAEF, but I'd like to make a few
comments. I've looked into VAEF. They've been in our community for about 30 years now, if
if anyone can correct me on the period of time.
And they're just as good as CAB.
CAB do a wonderful job.
VAF also do a wonderful job looking after those
that are unable to fully voice for themselves.
I've got a whole list to ask Councillor Whitford
what they're actually doing.
They should come back to us.
And okay, maybe we can arrange another meeting
where we speak to someone from VAF.
that I've got here where my own channels that I've looked at is
that at the moment they're looking at supporting over
1 ,500 residents.
And I've got a whole list of different data here.
I do like my data.
So they've also got 70 VAF internal volunteers who came
for being part.
They have 230 EF residents who have benefited from the weekend
hospital service, discharge service.
They've also got 1 ,200 community interventions to support 230 Epping Forest District residents
discharged from Whips Cross Hospital.
The list goes on.
So they go across the community, they go across the district, helping and advising those that
need our support.
Now, if you take that away, you're saying about Google with collaboration.
That's in its infancy.
We don't know what it looks like.
So if you're going to take, well, what is Google going to bring to the table?
we don't know what they're going to bring to the table.
At least we know with VAF what they're supporting,
what their ambition is, and what they want to achieve
within the district.
We don't know what Google can.
So 500 ,000 pound they have put aside
and got in to help the organisation.
30 ,000 isn't a lot.
It's a drop in the ocean.
Now, I'm gonna go back to the wasted charge
that's coming to effect on the 31st of March.
Now here, looking back on my notes from when Owen and I were communicating last year,
there's £596 ,000 at 40 % uptake that will cover the cost of the wastage
and also bring in a surcharge of £21 .52 if that still stands.
So that's a 40 % forecast.
So we have other income streams coming in now, i .e. the car park,
i .e. the leisure centre and also the wastage that if more than 40 % of people take this
up that's 100 % money coming in.
So hopefully with all this, of course it will be Chris, if you're looking at 40 % forecast
which is going to cover the cost, which is going to cover the profit that you gain from
each resident, then anything coming in is only going to increase with money coming into
the kitty so therefore we can quite happily and comfortably cover the money needed for
a VAEF each year. Thank you.
Thank you, Councillor George. Thank you.
Cllr Roger Baldwin - 1:36:43
Cllr Chris Whitbread - 1:36:45
Thank you, Chairman. I think I have been really clear. We are not funding VAEF. What we have
said sensibly is we are in a changing environment. VAEF need to come to us on a regular basis.
is they get a lot of outside grant funding,
thankfully as well, large sums of money.
We have already said that we want to come here
on a regular basis to a new SLA
so we know what they're delivering on our behalf.
It's wonderful the things you've just said,
and that's great to hear,
but we need them to come to us on a regular basis
with an SLA that shows that our residents
are getting value for money from that service.
That's just a prudent thing to do.
I don't think you should try and conflate the two things
with the green waste charge, which is helping to make pay for the additional service of
collecting.
Green waste wasn't charged, was not a free service until 2009, and it just came as a
byproduct of when we could do commingled waste.
And that's what's changed.
We no longer can do commingled waste.
So we either stopped doing a green waste service altogether, which would cause all types of
or we charge for the service.
And if you look at how the figures work,
I'm sure Mr. Sparks will be happy to go through the figures
of how the Greenways service works.
It helps us to balance the budget.
It's not a plus, it's helping us to balance the budget.
And I have to tell you, every council,
because the Greenways debate has been had numerous times,
but every council of all different complexions,
whether they be independent, liberal, Democrat, conservative,
all across Essex, we are the last ones to bring in a green
waste charge, the last ones.
I don't want to do it, but the world has changed.
Bit like the world for grant funding is changing,
the world for waste has changed.
You've heard how we've seen the value of recyclers drop
massively this year.
Well, that's just the way of the world.
The new requirements of waste collection and disposal mean that we have to do things differently.
We were the last council to end commingling the waste.
We are the last council in Essex to introduce charges for green waste.
Every single political party has done it and anyone who says they're not going to do it
is being hypocritical and they are lying to people if they say they're not going to do
it.
It's just a fact of life.
is where we are with the new waste collections
that we have to do.
It's just a fact.
Thank you for the answer.
Cllr Roger Baldwin - 1:39:24
And Councillor Rackham, please.
Could you come back briefly?
Councillor George, that'd be possible.
Cllr Mandy George - 1:39:37
I do understand that council waste now needs
to be chargeable, but what I don't like,
what don't sit right with me is a council is there to provide a service to the residents,
not there to make a profit, even if it does help.
No, we are taxpayers' money.
Our tax pays for services here.
So when there's an inflation, like there is now as we know of it, because Owen confirmed
of my data that I had, that it's great that this money is coming in and it's covering
services so the money that was spent initially for this service is now being covered, but
anything on top is to me in the kitty, in the pool that can be shared out for a service
like VAEF.
Cllr Chris Whitbread - 1:40:27
I'm sure Owen will come back on this, but there is no extra money at the moment.
We are estimating around 40 % and I think that's what was being achieved by most local authorities
when they first introduced green waste collection because obviously some people do not want
green waste collection.
They've got, they've either got a very small garden, they might not have a garden at all
and therefore you will see a drop in the number of people who have green waste collected.
We still have to collect their food waste of course which is what we have to do by statutory
right and that's the difference.
At the moment we don't know this year what percentage will take up green waste collection.
We're estimating it at 40 % might come in at 35 % then what we're going to do, you know
so but we have a duty to make sure that we
are
Open and transparent about the money that we're getting from these things and we will be
And then we also have a duty when we're giving out grants to make sure we're getting good value for our residents money
And that's what we're going to do. I think that's the sensible thing to do and I don't think anyone will thank us for not doing
it
Thank you very much, Dela, for that clarification.
Cllr Roger Baldwin - 1:41:36
If I could just move on to Councillor Rackham, please.
Thank you, Chair.
Cllr Sheree Rackham - 1:41:40
I'm delighted to hear that Voluntary Action will get their full £30 ,000 this year.
It's great news.
I know from a lot of my residents how well respected they are and how much they value the service.
What I did want to ask is how do we actually reach out to them to get them to come to us on a regular basis to report back?
And also, I'm just going to be like a grim reaper here.
We were talking about car parking.
I've identified at least one area, and I know this wouldn't
be very good for people that are visiting the shops, with quite
a few shops in them that don't have any restrictions.
Is there anything that we could put in place, if we needed to,
to actually put in machines so they would charge the people
that we use in the businesses?
Cllr Chris Whitbread - 1:42:32
Thank you. Yeah thank you and I'm pleased that Councillor Rackham is happy that
we're giving the money to the AEF that's good news. How are we going to reach out
to them? I've already said Fabrizio has already been speaking to them and the
cabinet member as well so we're already putting that in place the
discussions have already been had over the SLA and we're already getting on
with the job of doing that. With regards to places with no parking restrictions
There's not many people who want additional parking restrictions,
but obviously the first port of call is NEP, the North Essex Parking Partnership,
and if they can make money from a parking scheme they will.
Okay thank you.
Cllr Roger Baldwin - 1:43:10
Okay can I go to Councillor Lyon please, you've been waiting.
Cllr Alan Lion - 1:43:19
Thanks Chairman. I don't really want to go back but VAEF, I have been working with them quite
closely on the system whereby we're actually looking at supporting those who are digitally
excluded and there's been a digital project that's been running and there have been a
few wrinkles. But what I don't understand that I think it's absolutely imperative that
we get a full understanding of what they actually do. Everyone said how wonderful they are,
But what do they actually do and how much of our community is actually supported?
So if we can encourage them to come to either this committee or a place committee, then
I would really like to see that, because I think it's actually fundamental.
We've been talking about how wonderful, and some of the quotes we've seen or heard are
great, but what do they do and how do we actually measure that?
Cllr Roger Baldwin - 1:44:17
I do completely agree of course and I think that's something we can work on to call the
AEF to one of the scrutiny committees and we can look at exactly what they do and the
value for money we're getting and that's something that we can arrange.
So your comments on that are noted as is the comments of the leader.
Councillor Whiskin, you'd like to have a question?
Thank you, Chairman.
Cllr Graham Wiskin - 1:44:42
I didn't get a response to my first part of my question about the transfer of legal
fees from reserves, but whilst you're considering that one, could I also implore that we've
heard a lot about planning department and reductions and vacancies in the notes.
Could we have some reassurance that on the back of the PAS report that there was a big
emphasis on the training for notoriously the staff so that the end result is to get quality
decisions. Can we have some assurance that those proposals are not suffering from any
cuts?
I want to go back on the first part of that question.
Cllr Ken Williamson - 1:45:22
Owen Sparks - 1:45:30
The allocation from reserves, that is a vision for potential costs that could come from legal
fees from the action in next year so it's not committed it's not committed
but we've earmarked it depending on the outcome and the actual final costs.
Cllr Roger Baldwin - 1:45:45
Cllr Ken Williamson - 1:45:46
Thank you. Thank you, on the training certainly on the member side I think it
is been quite a full programme and is continuing I'd have to defer to the
director Matt on the training on officers I'm sure he's on top of it.
Cllr Roger Baldwin - 1:46:02
Matt Winslow - 1:46:08
That is why we have the emphasis too, is toabases of James talking about how I have to
work on Apporem.
decisions.
Cllr Roger Baldwin - 1:46:36
Thank you, and now can I just go to Councillor White, Councillor White, Janet Whitehouse
please.
Thank you, Chairman.
Yes, BAF.
Cllr Janet Whitehouse - 1:46:43
I would like to start with comments about not knowing what they do and communication.
Jacqui Foyle, the Chief Officer, did send an email to all of us a couple of weeks ago
which in which he said a lot of what they do and
Also, if you look on the website, there's loads of information there
It's regard to communication. We've heard more than one person say they don't come on a regular basis
They ought to come and tell us what to do at the annual meeting
A member was appointed to attend their meetings an officer is also
designated to attend their meetings
But they don't go if they went like John Scott years ago those who remember him corporate director
used to attend their meetings regularly.
There's a very close working relationship then
between VAF and the council.
So it's not all one sided.
They don't come to us.
The people who should be going to them and keeping in touch
are not going.
I've long felt that the council doesn't understand
what VAF does.
And I think tonight's been an example.
Council Whitbread said the handyman scheme
has moved to QALIS.
The handyman, there were two of them, the handyman who goes to tenants, he moved to
Qalis, the one who is there for owner -occupiers does not, he works from BAF and I have to
declare an interest because I've used it on many occasions and it's an absolute lifeline
when you're stuck with a small job and you don't know who to go to to get it done and
it's absolutely marvellous.
I just want to go back to the joint meeting we had of the Cabinet and the OSCE way back
in October. I was shocked then to hear that the whole grant was being removed and when
I expressed that shock, Jen Gold gave me a list of four or five different funders that
could provide funding for all VAF's activities.
I have asked Jen for a list of those funders so that I can pass
those on to VAF because, as I may have said at the meeting,
if you suddenly cut funding off, you know,
an organisation just can't continue.
They need time to make the grant applications.
And I was very pleased when I heard about the transitional
funding, but, you know, if it doesn't come next year,
then they're going to need to bridge those gaps.
So really need to pass on to them the funders
that you gave me so they can look to those
to try and get extra funding.
I am pleased to hear that the whole grant
is going to be given this year,
but there are the worries for the next two.
They do a fantastic amount of wellbeing work,
community and wellbeing work.
I'm a great admirer of what our officers do in Community and Wellbeing in the Council.
If you look at the grant, they have £125 ,000.
I know some of the things they do, but not all of them.
If £10 ,000 came off that grant, it would be a small proportion of their total grant
compared to £10 ,000 off £30 ,000, which is the VAF grant.
And I think that should be looked at to cover next year's funding. They're both doing the same sort of work
Thank you
Cllr Roger Baldwin - 1:50:12
Thank you, counsel general house. Yeah, I can move on to that council Brooks. Did you did you want to have a question or
Yeah
Cllr Rose Brookes - 1:50:19
Perhaps more a comment and I'll try not to repeat what other people have said
Firstly I would like to make this comment and
We are the lay people here.
Some of us know more about finance than others,
and I would never profess to be an expert economist.
But I have appreciated the extra training we've had this year,
because it's been quite hard to get your head around some of the
changes the government have made.
And the effort that Mr. Sparks and Nuala have made to try and
educate us, not everyone has perhaps had the time or felt
inclined to take it up but it will be there for them to look at and I think
the way he explained to us in plain English how the Metropolitan's had done
a lot better the other night was extremely helpful. I'd like to welcome
the fact we're not putting car parking charges up because I do actually think
that we've in Loughton there's hardly anywhere to park that's free these days
and I still have regular communications from traps
hill users of the leisure centre that it adds considerably
to the air use during the main part of the day.
It's free at night and it's free if you're an early bird
user of the centre, which we've matched in Epping.
But I think actually that if you go to the broad way,
even on a Saturday, often there are not that many people
there. I do think that free parking, I know you're all going to tell me it doesn't make
much difference, but actually when I see how difficult it is to park at the shopping park
further down the road for three hours, then I think actually people are drawn to free
parking. And as I've said before, the hour and a half in Waitrose you can do quite a
lot in Butka's till in an hour and a half. I would just like to add my support for the
fact that citizens' advice have been allocated some money. I won't repeat what others have
said. But I would like to just add one thing where I think VAF have been criticised a bit
for their communication. Ever since I've been a Councillor, I have had regular communications
from VAF about their activities. That was when I was a counsellor from 2008 to 2012
and more recently. So if people don't know what they do it's not because they
haven't tried it's just because you know we all get overwhelmed by an inbox at
times and I do hope that we can continue to support them. Whereas I felt and I did
sit on Citizens' Advice for a year. I've regularly had battles with them. I go to the AGM almost
every year about their communication, which they have upped the game in the last year,
but often they've been years that we've heard very little. Years ago we were always invited
to the annual general meeting. Recently they did that again. But you have to remember that
A lot of the people now are paid, not a lot, I agree, but the actual number of volunteers
in Citizens' advice is relatively small now.
They're working on a different model a lot of the time.
But nevertheless, this is an excellent contribution.
So thank you.
Cllr Roger Baldwin - 1:53:57
Thank you, sir, for Councillor and Roxy.
Councillor Morris.
Thank you, Chairman.
Cllr Martin Morris - 1:54:03
I'd just like to come back to VAF to start with.
I think they're an absolutely vital organisation.
I'm pleased to hear that their grant will be maintained
for the coming year.
And I think it's also important that they come
to give an accounting to the council about their activities.
And I think if they do that,
they will justify retaining their budget
for the subsequent years,
because it will become clear exactly what they do.
I know it's not that difficult to find out what they do, but if they come and tell us,
it will be a lot easier.
I do have another couple of other points on the medium -term MTPF that I just would like
to see a bit more information, and I think it would be good to have more information
on this.
I see we've got $2 million allocated for LGR costs.
How did we come up with this?
it seems pretty light for some such massive piece of work.
And so why have we got two million in there?
You know, is that something that,
how much confidence do we have in it?
And the other thing I noticed was we've now got
some provisions against QALYIS,
both for lost interest payments and write downs,
which will be write downs on the capital loan amounts.
These accounts, these come up to nearly two million
over the next few years.
Nothing set aside provisions for the coming year.
How confident are we in these estimates?
I mean, I'm surprised to see that we aren't making
provisions in this budget actually for this year,
given what we know about what's happening
in Qalis at the moment.
So those are my two additional points
over and above my VEA support for PAEF.
Thank you very much.
Cllr Roger Baldwin - 1:55:52
Thank you Chairman.
Cllr Chris Whitbread - 1:55:57
I will let Mr Sparks deal with the apportionment of capital
sums in the short lead.
With regards to LGR, it is always very difficult to put a
sum of money in there.
You have to put something in there.
I think $2 million probably will be light when we come to it.
But of course, majority of the biggest part of local government
reorganisation is around the county council with their larger
reserves and of course their larger role that they play
within local government with the social care elements as well.
So I think there's, it's a matter of putting markers down
to now, we will end up having a cost to local government
reorganisation and the benefits come in the future.
I'm not gonna say any more about VAEF tonight.
I think I've said enough.
I think everyone's had their opportunity
to say how wonderful they are, which they obviously are.
And we have put in place a plan for the future,
I think with the SLA and such.
So there's nothing more to add.
I know there's also an outstanding question
on reserves from Councillor Whiskin,
but I will leave those to Mr. Sparks to deal with.
Owen Sparks - 1:57:10
I think you're okay with the reserves question?
So the provision for quality sustainability that is modelled on cash flow, it is dependent
on obviously how the remaining commercial enterprises go, so that's when we think it
will be due and that's an estimate of the provision we need, but that will be refined
as we approach it as we go forward, but that's the latest provision and when it will need
to be made from our modelling.
Cllr Roger Baldwin - 1:57:40
Thank you.
Do we have any other questions?
I have a great deal of respect for the Leader of Council.
Cllr Stephen Murray - 1:57:53
That does not always mean that I agree with him.
I certainly would never, ever question the fact that he is 100 per cent trustworthy.
I would like to please, somehow, in the minutes of our meeting, to build in the fact that
we are prepared to go along with the budget, if that is what we feel, on the basis that
we have heard that there is this significant change.
On all the paperwork, it is still saying, so I think anyone would expect us to do that.
Somewhere within our minutes, I want to please incorporate that we have had the clear indication
and verbal assurance, which I 100 % trust that the VAF is getting this full grant next year
and can we build that somehow into our minutes please?
Cllr Chris Whitbread - 1:58:45
Chair Miller, I'm happy. I think actually Mr Sparks might be able to just confirm what
I've said is actually achievable through the budget because that's what's important and
that I can honestly say to you that that is a position that we'll work to. Conversations
have already been had between portfolio holder and officer around an SLA and of course the
sum of money I'm sure in a moment Mr Sparks will confirm that the 30 ,000 is achievable
it's 10 ,000 more than what's in the budget and we'd work through all that before I even
came here this evening.
I fully understand that Chairman but I just wanted in our minutes of our meeting.
Cllr Stephen Murray - 1:59:24
That's fine, I'm sure that will be noted in the minutes.
Cllr Roger Baldwin - 1:59:28
I'd just like to ask a question myself.
It's partly answered by the leader, actually.
It's about the government reorganisation provision for that.
I thought it was, I think, one million.
I think the leader mentioned two million.
I always wonder how that figure was arrived at.
Is it intended to cover any redundancy or administrative kind of winding up costs,
or does it include things like service transformation costs to prepare for the new unitary authority?
Owen Sparks - 2:00:03
So it's a million pounds in 26, 27 and then a million pounds the year after.
At this point it is an estimate and what we're doing is working across Essex,
we need to see what those costs will be, when they'll be incurred and then how they'll be funded.
So it's a working assumption at the moment but it's going to be refined.
Once we have the money to incision and start working more closely, then we will review
it on an ongoing basis.
But really it is to give us some scope to start planning, start some of that work and
it will give us a lot of time.
Cllr Roger Baldwin - 2:00:31
Sorry, I had to look up just to cheque this.
Cllr Lisa Morgan - 2:00:35
We were talking about the person that went along to support, I will start again.
We were talking about the council that went along to VAEF.
Now, unfortunately, the person that it was, obviously,
doesn't live in this country any more,
so have we got somebody else that we're replacing them with
so we can get the feedback, please?
So, was it like a liaison or...?
Cllr Roger Baldwin - 2:01:05
Chairman, I was just going to say that that appointment will be made at the annual full
Cllr Chris Whitbread - 2:01:16
council which is only a couple of months away.
Cllr Roger Baldwin - 2:01:21
Cllr Lisa Morgan - 2:01:23
So what has been happening in the interim?
Yes, please.
Thank you, Chairman.
So an officer does attend.
Jennifer Gould - 2:01:30
We have got an officer in the contracts and procurement team that attends those meetings
and manages the current SLA, which is not quite as detailed.
It doesn't have the sort of robust measures of performance
that we're looking at.
In the meantime, what the director and I will do
is talk to the portfolio holder of communities
and also the portfolio holder for contracts and procurement
to see whether we can put somebody just as an interim
in place if the current member can't attend
and there are any meetings before full council.
Cllr Roger Baldwin - 2:02:05
Thank you very much. I was just a bit concerned about that when I looked at it, but thank
you very much.
Cllr Lisa Morgan - 2:02:08
Cllr Roger Baldwin - 2:02:10
Thank you as well. So, maybe it's time to bring things to a conclusion.
It is in the papers, I just want to draw to members' attention that we've had the
Owen Sparks - 2:02:23
provisional settlement, so the final settlement is due next week, so again obviously we'll
update that next week as we get it, but just to let you know that that funding amount is
still changeable. Hopefully it won't be significant, but just to bring that to your attention.
Cllr Roger Baldwin - 2:02:40
Thank you. Okay, so I'll bring things to a conclusion at that point. So there are several
members of cabinet here tonight and I'm sure that your comments and questions have been
have been taken taken on board and members please confirm that we support
the proposal and the medium -term financial plan agree thank you very much

12 Chairmen to Report on their Scrutiny Committee Business

so that concludes item 11 and I'm sorry to press the point chairman we are going
Cllr Stephen Murray - 2:03:15
to include on the basis of the verbal assurance yep I think that's what we
I agree to.
Cllr Roger Baldwin - 2:03:22
I will personally assure Councillor Murray we will do that.
Stand on me.
You have a guarantee.
There you go.
Stand on me.
What more can you want?
Okay, so then we go to agenda item 12, which is a report on the Community Security Committee
and we just go through the subcommittees.
So this is the, so over to you basically Councillor Lucas.
Thank you chairman.
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 2:03:57
And I appreciate that it's been quite a long meeting,
so I'll keep this quite brief,
but there's been good progress on the work programme
and the community scrutiny,
as you will see detailed in the agenda.
We've scrutinised a variety of housing policies this year.
I thanked the housing team,
particularly Dawn Harrison and her officers
for attending the community scrutiny
over the last few months
because there's been significantly more than usually,
which have all been very well scrutinised by the members.
So thank you to all of the members
and everybody else that's attended those meetings.
We recently also had the council housing development programme
annual update, which highlighted the lack of engagement
at a pre -planning stage with ward members.
The portfolio holder, Councillor Patel,
committed to review the process
of ward member engagement.
At this stage, I'd also again like to reiterate my thanks to Councillor Patel for all of your
efforts in presenting the reports at Communities of Scrutiny.
More recently as well, we reviewed the mid -year tenant satisfaction measures, which is a key
part of the regulatory assessment of the council as a social housing landlord, and members
acknowledged the efforts of the service, noted an impending inspection and raised concerns
about the satisfaction of complaints, handling and antisocial behaviour case management.
I would suggest that an updated report after the next survey is brought back to communities
for further scrutiny. Coming up, we have got our last meeting of the municipal year where
we will be hearing from the Community Safety Partnership, the Waltham Abbey Museum Trust
and we will have a quality performance update as well. Thank you very much.
Cllr Roger Baldwin - 2:05:38
Thank you. That is a very full report there.
I think Councillor Murray, do you have a comment or question?
Cllr Stephen Murray - 2:05:48
Just two quick points, Chairman. I wanted to thank Councillor Lucas for her continued
excellent chairmanship of the Community Scrutiny Committee. I just wanted to say to her in
all candour, the last couple of meetings have made an old man very happy. I better quickly
clarify what I mean. It's brought back memories of the old housing committee
because that's that's what the last two meetings because of the nature of the
agendas have felt like slightly different because we scrutinise and
rather than decision -making but I felt as if we were going back in time and I was at a
housing committee.
Cllr Roger Baldwin - 2:06:29
Thank you for that comment.
Unfortunately, the Councillor is not with us this evening.
Yes, it forces me to read out a statement on his behalf.
Cllr Craig McCann - 2:06:42
The place committee met on 27 January, which included the long -awaited scrutiny session with Transport for London.
Jasmet, Jamal, TFL's partnership and engagement officer, attended and provided detailed and
well -informed responses to the various points raised by members.
A written response from TFL was expected and members have already been provided with the
link to TFL's new business plan.
I would like to thank all members who submitted questions and showed great interest in this.
Given the high level of engagement and the importance of the issues discussed, I will
be proposing that TFL be invited to attend a future meeting.
We have a last place meeting on the 17th of March, I'll be going to that because we were
talking about fly tipping, which is dominating my world right now, where we look at the remaining
items on the work programme.
Thank you for your report.
Cllr Roger Baldwin - 2:07:39
I'm glad there's questions.
Is there a question?
Cllr Sheree Rackham - 2:07:47
Thank you, Chair. Just to say that it was a much better meeting, this TfL meeting. He
was a lot more prepared than he had been the year before. He did answer a lot of questions.
There were a lot of things about graffiti, this, that and the other. I'm actually, as
a Councillor, quite hopeful that we will start to see results. So that was a very good meeting.
Thank you for that.
Yeah, Councillor Murray.
I wanted to echo something similar.
Cllr Stephen Murray - 2:08:11
I wanted to thank Councillor Parsons even though he's not here because I thought the
way he chaired the meeting was excellent.
The way he involved members who weren't on place as well was really good, the forward
planning of the questions and obviously Laura played a key role in the way the meeting went.
Councillor Rackman is absolutely right.
The gentleman who came along was the same gentleman as last year, but he was much better
informed and I felt it was a much more constructive meeting.
What I don't share her views about really is I think TfL is such a large organisation
and such an amorphous organisation.
Though what we did was important and it's important that we speak on behalf of our residents,
I am not completely convinced it will have much of an impact, but it was still important
to do.
Cllr Roger Baldwin - 2:09:09
Thank you very much for the comments.
Just for myself and the Open Security Committee, I don't have anything too profound to add.
We are working our way through the work programme and we only have one more meeting this year,
which is always the highlight of the year
when we get to speak, scrutinise the youth committee
and hear their report.
So I know it's something that we all look forward to.
And that meeting was on the 14th of April,
and that will be the last meeting
of the Ovening Security Committee this civic year.
So that's really all I have to say.
Yep, Councillor Murray.
Cllr Stephen Murray - 2:09:56
Yes, it might just be worth telling members this,
I'm only aware of it because I work in the school.
That will be the end of the current Youth Council.
The elections are, nominations are being held at the moment.
I think the closing date is sometime in February and elections will be held on a secular basis
around the schools.
So I'm assuming this will be the old Youth Council.
It will be their final report and then we will have a new Youth Council in place for
the new council year.
Cllr Roger Baldwin - 2:10:30
Yep, exactly right.
Thank you for that clarification.
Yep, okay.
And now we go on to,

13 Overview and Scrutiny Committee - Work Programme

I think it's,
we go on to cabinet business.
I've lost my place as usual.
Cabinet business.
Sorry.

14 Cabinet Business

Members and comments or queries on cabinet business or queries on the forward plan?
Any comments or queries about the forward plan?
No?
Back from the relevant portfolio holder, do you have any comments at all to make?
OK.
So let me go on to agenda of cabinet business,
and then we go on to exclusion of public and press.
So members, we have no items that require the public

15 Exclusion of Public and Press

and press to be excluded from the meeting.
So in conclusion, I would like to thank the committee
and all other members for their attendance
at the meeting tonight.
And I close the meeting at 9 .12.
Thank you.
Cllr Raymond Balcombe
District councillor for Rural East ward
Conservative Party
View profile Cllr Raymond Balcombe
Cllr Roger Baldwin
District councillor for Loughton Forest ward
Loughton Residents Association
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Cllr Richard Bassett
District councillor for Roydon and Lower Nazeing ward
Conservative Party
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Cllr Rose Brookes
District councillor for Buckhurst Hill East and Whitebridge ward
Loughton Residents Association
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Cllr Mandy George
District councillor for Epping West and Rural ward
Liberal Democrats
View profile Cllr Mandy George
Jennifer Gould
Strategic Director - Chief Operating Officer
Epping Forest District Council
View profile Jennifer Gould
Dawn Harrisson
Service Director Housing & Property
Epping Forest District Council
View profile Dawn Harrisson
Laura Kirman
Democratic Services Officer
Epping Forest District Council
View profile Laura Kirman
Cllr Jeane Lea
District councillor for Waltham Abbey North ward
Conservative Party
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Cllr Alan Lion
District councillor for Grange Hill ward
Conservative Party
View profile Cllr Alan Lion
Cllr Jodie Lucas
District councillor for Waltham Abbey West ward
Conservative Party
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Cllr Craig McCann
District councillor for Chigwell with Lambourne ward
Conservative Party
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Cllr Lisa Morgan
District councillor for Grange Hill ward
Independent
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Cllr Martin Morris
District councillor for Waltham Abbey North ward
Labour Party
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Cllr Stephen Murray
District councillor for Loughton Roding ward
Independent
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Cllr Smruti Patel
District councillor for Buckhurst Hill West ward
Conservative Party
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Cllr Sheree Rackham
District councillor for Loughton Roding ward
Loughton Residents Association
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Tracy Scott
Acting Director - Customer
Epping Forest District Council
View profile Tracy Scott
Owen Sparks
Interim Strategic Director / S151 Officer
Epping Forest District Council
View profile Owen Sparks
Mandy Thompson
Service Director - Regulatory Services
Epping Forest District Council
View profile Mandy Thompson
Cllr Chris Whitbread
District councillor for Roydon and Lower Nazeing ward
Conservative Party
View profile Cllr Chris Whitbread
Cllr Janet Whitehouse
District councillor for Epping East ward
Liberal Democrats
View profile Cllr Janet Whitehouse
Cllr Ken Williamson
District councillor for Buckhurst Hill West ward
Conservative Party
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Matt Winslow
Planning Director
Epping Forest District Council
View profile Matt Winslow
Cllr Graham Wiskin
District councillor for Loughton St John's ward
Loughton Residents Association
View profile Cllr Graham Wiskin