Overview and Scrutiny Committee - Thursday, 23rd October, 2025 7.00 pm - Agenda and draft minutes

To reconfirm the current Chair of the Committee, Cllr Halleh Koohestani, or appoint a new Chair, for the remainder of the 2025/26 Municipal Year.

RESOLVED: That Cllr Halleh Koohestani be appointed as Chair of the Committee for the remainder of the 2025/26 Municipal Year.

To appoint two Vice-Chairs of the Committee for the remainder of the 2025/26 Municipal Year. (The current Vice-Chairs are Cllrs Nadia Martin and M.J. Tennant).

RESOLVED: That Cllrs Thomas Day and M.J. Tennant be appointed as Vice-Chairmen of the Committee for the remainder of the 2025/26 Municipal Year.

To confirm the Minutes of the Meetings held on 4th September and 18th September, 2025 (copies attached).

The minutes of the meetings held on 4th and 18th September, 2025 were agreed as a correct record.

To receive a presentation from Alex Shiell, Service Manager – Policy, Strategy and Transformation and Sharon Sullivan, Policy Officer on Community Engagement and how the Council consult with and understand the views of our residents.

The Leader of the Council and Cabinet Member responsible for this area, Cllr Gareth Williams, has been invited to attend the meeting.

The Committee welcomed Service Manager – Policy, Strategy and Transformation, Alex Shiell and Policy Officer, Sharon Sullivan who attended the meeting to report on community engagement and how the Council consulted with and understood the views of residents. The Leader of the Council, Cllr Gareth Williams, was also in attendance as the Cabinet Member responsible for this area.

It was noted that the majority of Rushmoor’s consultations and surveys were carried out in house using the SurveyMonkey platform, this allowed for consultation on a wide range of issues from service delivery, structural changes and understanding residents’ views and priorities at a considerably reduced cost. However, online platforms, such as SurveyMonkey, were often self-selecting, allowing anyone to fill in a survey. This raised concerns around whether responses were representative of our residents.

The Committee were advised that the cost of using external companies to undertake surveys on the Council’s behalf, varied depending on the type, survey and sample size, method and analysis required. For example, a face-to-face residents’ survey of 500 people could cost in the region of £15,000 - £25,000. However, by using a company to carry out a face-to-face survey, measures could be taken to ensure results were more representative of the community. For example, a population of 106,000 would require a response rate of 383 with a 5% margin for error and 1,067 with a 3% margin for error.

It was advised that at the end of each survey a series of questions were asked to help understand if the responses were representative of the community. This was done through cross referencing the information with the most recent Census data. This exercise helped identify groups that were underrepresented, such as the Nepali community, those under 34 years of age, residents of Aldershot and the male population (dependent of the topic). It was advised that options were being considered to increase the total numbers responding to surveys in general and those underrepresented groups. Options included, a prize draw, attendance at events/colleges, translation of surveys into Nepalese and working with partners to widen the reach.

The Committee were apprised of the budget available to carry out surveys and consultations. It was noted that some consultations had their own budget, such as the Leisure Centre, however, others had to be funded from the £600 annual budget, which included the cost for the license to use SurveyMonkey. It was noted that this budget had been increased for 2025/26 to £4,200 to account for the additional need around Local Government Reorganisation (LGR) and the Community Governance Review (CGR) but was expected to reduce back to £600 in 2026/27.

In summary, it was noted that twelve consultations and surveys had been carried out in the past twelve months, aimed at informing decisions made on Parish Councils and Neighbourhood Area Committees (CGR), LGR, Farnborough Leisure Centre, polling places, planning policies, community safety and the Council’s Delivery Plan.

The Leader of the Council acknowledged that the topic of community engagement was much wider than surveys and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 19.

To consider the Work Plan for the 2025/26 Municipal Year (copy attached).

The Committee noted the current Work Plan and the changes to the arrangements going forward with the introduction of the Programme Management Group, which would consider the work plans of the Audit and Governance, Licensing and Corporate Business, Overview and Scrutiny Committees and the Policy and Project Advisory Board.  

For future meetings, it was advised that SERCO would be attending the December meeting to provide a report on their Annual Report 2024/25, and a report would be made on the Walk this Waste pilot that had taken place earlier in the year. It was also noted that the date of the January 2026 meeting had been moved to 5 February, 2026, and the meeting would be dedicated to pre decision scrutiny on the Farnborough Leisure Centre.

In response to a query on the progress of the Council Tax Support Group, it was noted that a meeting was scheduled between the Managing Director, Executive Head of Finance and Section 151 Officer and the Revenue and Benefits Service Manager to discuss the proposals. Members were advised that, as things stood, it was thought that no changes would be made to the current scheme.