Agenda and draft minutes

To confirm and sign the minutes of the meeting of 19 January 2026.

The minutes of the meeting of 19 January 2026 were confirmed and signed.

To receive an update on the performance of the Council’s Revenues and Benefits Service under Anglian Revenues Partnership.

Members considered information provided by Councillor Lorraine King, Theresa Mann, Katey Mills and Phil Butler from ARP together with Mrs French, Anna Goodall,

Members made comments asked questions, and received responses as follows:

·        Councillor Miscandlon raised concerns about delays by the Valuation Office Agency, stating that he has a constituent for example who has been waiting for eight-month for a valuation officer to come and value joining two properties into one and, could the panel explain the delay on these sorts of items? Lorraine King responded that the Valuation Office Agency changed its systems last year and as a result they have seen some significant delays in processing. She continued that the Valuation Office Agency is a separate entity to ARP and managed by HMRC.

·       Councillor Roy asked about recovery and collection levels for fraud debt? Katey Mills responded that the 70–75% collected/active arrangement figure at the nine months period, any debt that was not collected will then go through the usual recovery cycle and moved through to enforcement.

·       Councillor Hay asked with the collection of Council Tax, particularly fraud, a large proportion of that collection goes to County Council, are County Council now giving Fenland District Council sufficient money to help with this collection? Councillor Mrs French confirmed that County Council are helping Fenland District Council.

·       Councillor Miscandlon stated that the assumption from ARP is that most people are online and happy to deal with modern technology, which is not true and he would like to understand how ARP are planning to alleviate this? Lorraine King responded that ARP’s view is, if they can encourage as many people as possible to use the online service this gives the customer an automated, efficient service which then free’s up officer time to help the deliver the service in a variety of ways to other customers.

·        Councillor Miscandlon challenged the level of public promotion of ARP services, suggesting posters and better engagement with Town and Parish Councils, noting they had not seen any promotions. Lorraine King stated that there are a variety of posters across all the contact centres along with rolling promotions on social media. Anna Goodall added that the model Fenland utilises in conjunction with the partnership, is that customers can contact the Council through the contact centre then that way staff can follow the process through. Councillor Miscandlon suggested contacting Town and Parish Councillors as there has not been any leaflets that come through their offices and this can be a fast way of getting information across to members of the community.

·        Councillor Barber asked what Fenland DD projects stands for? Theresa Mann confirmed that the DD stands for Direct Debt. Councillor Barber also asked what WSIT means on the presentation? Phil Butler confirmed that WSIT stands for West Suffolk IT.

·       Councillor Barber stated that she had noted that ARP are dealing with 1,500 changes of address each week and asked, is this across all nine areas or just the Fenland area? Theresa Mann stated that this was  ...  view the full minutes text for item OSC42/23

To receive an update on the Road Safety Partnership.

Members considered the information provided by Simon Burgin, together with Dan Horn and Councillor Susan Wallwork.

Members made comments, asked questions and received responses as follows:

• Councillor Miscandlon asked what the Road Safety Partnership (RSP) are doing in conjunction with Cambridgshire Highways about the state of the roads and what pressure can the Partnership put on Cambridgeshire County Council (CCC) to improve the state of the roads, and what affect are they seeing due to the condition of the roads in relating to accidents? Simon Burgin responded that the RSP carry out scene visits with the Police and where a fatality or serious incident indicates a road surface issue, changes may follow through surface improvements or speed reduction. He provided an example of the A10 being reduced to 50 mph following a motorcycle fatality involving loss of control after hitting an undulation.
• Councillor Hicks stated that the speed cameras appear to be the wrong way around for motorcycles as they are facing you rather than taking the rear number plate because motorbikes do not have a front number plate. Simon Burgin agreed with the statement and added that the way the system works is for ‘best evidence’ and the speed camera is looking not just for the number plate but the person driving, with mobile vans having the ability to capture motorcycles with oncoming pictures for the speed and picture proof once the vehicle has passed.
• Councillor Hick commented on 3.20 of the report it refers to the fatal review of all local road traffic collisions, and asked why this information is not being used proactively rather than reactively when someone has died? Simon Burgin responded that the fatal review is a separate process, the RSP carries out yearly cluster site analysis looking at collision hotspots, to work out why this is and what changes can be made to the network to change it.
• Councillor Hay asked why this subject has come to the Fenland District Council (FDC) O&S committee as everything on the report relates to CCC and she is concerned that members of the public reading the report will be confused as to who is responsible for the roads and road safety in the area. Councillor Wallwork agreed that FDC do not need to take responsibility for the roads as this does come under the umbrella of CCC and explained that the only reason it has come before this committee today is because it is part of the Community Safety Partnership group and this is part of that partnership and part of that shared knowledge of the area can help form best decisions to be made in certain situations.
• Councillor Murphy asked what the process is with road signs that have been damaged and left on the roadside. Simon Burgin stated that the highways network has an asset register and it is the job of the highways manager to review their part of the network and order news parts for missing signs to be repaired or replaced.  ...  view the full minutes text for item OSC43/23

To receive an update on North Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Care Partnership.

Members considered the information provided by John Rooke from the NHS.

Members, made comments, asked questions and received responses as follows:

·        Councillor Roy raised concerns about underutilisation of the new Community Diagnostic Centre (CDC) in Wisbech and said residents’ feedback indicated poor uptake, with GP preference being to refer to King’s Lynn. He stated that the Wisbech CDC had not worked as well as expected and linked this to how it has been established and operated, plus GP referral routes and potential cross-border referral opportunities. John Rooke stated that increasing utilisation of the CDC is on the agenda and agreed Wisbech has not been used as they would like and the system used does need encouragement for change to drive up the usage.

·       Councillor Foice-Beard asked if the authorities involved could not fund the local hospitals such as Wisbech and Doddington, to utilize the area in a more efficient way as many local people struggle in the Fenland area to get to the bigger hospitals for appointments. John Rooke agreed that local hospitals do need to be utilized, the location and funding of diagnostic centres are set nationally,there had been an application for national capital funding to upgrade local X-ray equipment that the Integrated Care Board had applied for, and he is anticipated a decision around March.

·       Councillor Hay stated that in the presentation diabetes was mentioned but pre-diabetes was not mentioned and, she is aware there is additional support for people and asked if this is something that is being used regularly? John Rooke responded that, to identify prediabetes and undiagnosed cardiovascular risk (high blood pressure and high cholesterol), GP data is used to offer earlier prevention and support.

·       Councillor Carney stated that one of the biggest issues people come across is transport to and from the local hospitals in Huntingdon, Peterborough and Kings Lynn, and asked if some of these transport barriers could be broken down? John Rooke responded that two partners are looking to move their services outside of the main hospitals to alternative facilities and utilize the local services more efficiently, this will also include a digital service.

·        Councillor Hicks ask what is being put in place to change the mindsets of the local GPs to use the CDC facilities? John Rooke stated that GPs send people for specialist investigations for a reason based on clinical judgment, during Covid everything was sent through to the hospitals, but the authorities are now looking at bringing back minor procedures to local provision.

·       Councillor Miscandlon asked if anything was being changed to the current system regarding getting a doctor’s appointment and service? John Rooke stated that since October the GP contract changed so that patients can contact their GP practice 24 hours a day to request appointments to stop that funnel of 8am calls into the surgery, but what it has not been solved is patients getting appointment quickly and conveniently. He continued that what is coming in from the 1 April 2026, with the new contract is  ...  view the full minutes text for item OSC44/23

To provide notice of decisions taken without the need for notice to be given on the Forward Plan and/or for the call-in procedures to be applied.

Report to Follow

Councillor Woollard confirmed there was nothing to report at this meeting.

Members to receive an update on the previous meeting’s Action Plan.

Councillor Woollard confirmed the previous actions were duly noted.

To consider the Draft Work Programme for Overview & Scrutiny Panel 2025/26.

Councillor Woollard confirmed that there was nothing further to report