Agenda and minutes

To confirm and sign the minutes of the meeting of 9 June 2025.

The minutes of the meeting of 9 June 2025 were confirmed and signed.

To receive a presentation on the leisure operating contract.

Members considered the Freedom Leisure Operating Contract Annual Report, which was shared in the form of a presentation, welcoming Dan Palframan, Matt Wickham, Carol Pilson, Phil Hughes and Councillor Wallwork to the meeting.

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

·         Councillor Barber referred to the figures shown in the presentation for the past year but there is nothing to base this on as there is no evidence of the previous year’s figures. She asked for an explanation as to why the participation figures were down from last year as stated in the presentation. Dan Palframan responded that George Campbell has some competitors emerging locally, and in cases like this, if a low cost operator opens customers will tend to try it out and swap memberships, but then over time there is a turnaround and customers start to return and when looking quarter on quarter George Campbell is recovering in terms of numbers of participation on the gym and the fitness side. He continued in terms of the aquatics this is up year on year, however, there were some closures due to unplanned repairs that needed to take place.

·         Councillor Barber stated two-thirds of the staff are female and only a third are male, is there a reason for this?  Dan Palframan stated the reason for this is that there is a large learn to swim school scheme for swimming lessons and a high proportion of those employed are women, with it being a sector industry standard across the country, with a lot of the teachers being female. Matt Wickham added from a national perspective the statistics in Fenland are slightly skewed and there is an overall good mix to create a balance to the business, but locally this is a consistent trend.

·         Councillor Barber stated that looking at the presentation she found it hard to read the small print around the pie charts. Dan Palframan agreed with the statement and noted it for future presentations.

·         Councillor Barber stated that she had noticed that some of the customers had mentioned that there were not enough evening swim sessions and wondered if this was going to be reviewed. Dan Palframan responded that a review on the pool programme takes place quarterly and the approach is that as long as there is a balanced programme across all the pools with the idea that the customer can swim at any pool at any one time. He continued the programme does get reviewed and changed based on user trends.

·         Councillor Sennitt Clough asked what the plans are there to improve the cleanliness of the Leisure Centres and to improve the maintenance of the gym equipment? Dan Palframan responded that recruitment had been a struggle, especially at the Manor Leisure Centre, this has now been resolved with a new manager in place, and he is slowly building his team around him to improve the service. He continued in regard to the maintenance of the gym equipment, this remains to be an ongoing challenge,  ...  view the full minutes text for item OSC12/25

To consider progress in delivering the Environment Corporate Priority.

Members considered the Progress of Corporate Priority – Environment, welcoming Councillors Boden, Mrs French and Tierney together with Carol Pilson and Garry Edwards to the meeting.

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

·         Councillor Sennitt Clough asked how are the priorities decided generally and what impact will Local Government Reorganisation (LGR) have on overseeing and managing the priorities or what the predicted impact will be? Councillor Tierney responded that the priorities are decided through the Council’s procedures, councillors and officers feed into the process then it is shared with all the committees it needs to be shared with including O&S, and then the priorities are finalised and pushed forward. He continued how this will be affected by the LGR he could not comment on as there was not enough detail out yet and stated that the priorities will be decided on a year-by-year basis using any new information to adjust as and when necessary.

·         Councillor Sennitt Clough asked considering the changes about to take place, the Corporate Priorities model of a one-year plan with three-year aspirations, i.e. a medium-term strategy, is no longer the most effective suitable model and how will the changes taking place affect the viewing process? Councillor Tierney stated that he thinks the model is right, the medium-term plan is a four-year plan which is reviewed every year allowing the team to feed in and adjust accordingly.

·         Councillor Sennitt Clough asked for an update on the Fenland Inspire projects. Councillor Boden responded that at the last Cabinet meeting which took place on the 16 June a report was given on Fenland Inspire and where the Council is with the projects divided into two tranches. He stated that the first tranche will be going ahead this year within the capacity available and the second tranche will be going ahead, when the Council has reasonable confirmation that the LGR is going to go ahead, which is going to take place from the 1 April 2028. Councillor Boden continued the Council is expecting legislation to be laid before both Houses of Parliament as statutory instruments in the spring of 2026 and as and when this happens will unlock the remaining part of Fenland Inspire because without that certainty of termination of FDC there could be difficulty in financing what it is that is being suggested. He continued having said that, at the meeting of Cabinet last month, it was announced that one of the projects will not be going ahead and that is the Wisbech Chapel project, with the reason being on the preliminary examination of the project it was evident that it would not be sustainable so hence it was removed from the list.

·         Councillor Foice-Beard asked why there are 40 plus street light units still awaiting inspection and is the inspection in relation to the low-level lighting bulbs or the columns, and what is the risk if these are structurally unsafe? Councillor Mrs French responded that the outstanding street light testing works related to  ...  view the full minutes text for item OSC13/25

To consider progress against the Transformation and Communications Corporate Priorities.

Members considered the Progress of Corporate Priority – Transformation and Communications, welcoming Councillors Boden and Tierney together with Anna Goodall, Stephen Beacher and David Wright to the meeting.

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

·         Councillor Roy stated that he would like to understand the real time cost savings regarding the digital switch over to the Council and has there been any significant impact on staffing levels? Councillor Tierney responded this has been a smooth transition with no costs or savings and no significant changes to staffing levels.

·         Councillor Mrs Davis asked since the move over to the Cloud infrastructure and the Team technology, what is the contingency plans for data loss, cyber-attacks and service interruptions? Councillor Tierney stated that there is sufficient cover for data loss, with Cloud backup in place with on and off-site backup and this system is regularly tested. Stephen Beacher confirmed that there is regular patching, fire walls and network segmentation in place to protect from any cyber-attack.

·         Councillor Mrs Davis asked how can the service-level improvements be quantified resulting from the £214k in cashable savings and 7,000 officer hours saved and specifically how have these gains transferred into better outcomes for residents and what governance or audit mechanism are in place to independently validate self-reported achievements and figures? Councillor Tierney stated that this is quantified through the Council’s procedures, data and analysis are measured, tested and recorded, once the figures have been checked through the various departments the results are reported back to the committees, who can then question individual things if they feel there has been a mistake.

·         Councillor Mrs Davis asked how the Council is ensuring that consultations are reaching underrepresented or digitally excluded groups in Fenland and how is it ensured that the automation of services does not negatively impact those with complex needs or low digital literacy? Councillor Tierney stated that lots of people are ready to go digital and the more that can be encouraged the better it is because that frees up resources for those who cannot be supported. He continued with underrepresented people they are approached in lots of ways such as the Golden Age Fairs, press releases and the website alongside a variety of other actions within each community and in regard to others who are not digitally represented there are other methods like phone calls and the library. Councillor Mrs Davis asked if there are any information leaflets that can be shared at local coffee morning and events that councillors attend to spread the word? Councillor Tierney responded there was not but there is a hard copy of the information available which councillors could take with them with all the information inside.

·         Councillor Mrs Davis referred to the Transformation Agenda (TA2) and asked how are the objectives aligned with the Council’s long-term strategic goals especially in light of the LGR and Fenland Inspire Programme? Councillor Boden responded that it has changed, TA2 considerably especially around how FDC performs its services without harming  ...  view the full minutes text for item OSC14/25

To consider the work that has been undertaken and achieved by the Panel during 2024/25 and a forward look into 2025/26.

Councillor Mrs Davis presented the Annual Report to be submitted to the next Council meeting.

Members approved the draft Annual Report for forwarding to Council.

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

Members considered and noted the update on previous actions.

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

Members considered and noted the Future Work Programme.