Overview and Scrutiny Committee - Thursday, 4th September, 2025 7.00 pm - Agenda and minutes

To confirm the Minutes of the Meeting held on 31st July 2025 (copy attached).

The Minutes of the meeting held on 31st July 2025 were agreed as a correct record, subject to the inclusion of some additional wording (in bold italic) relating to Union Yard, Aldershot, as agreed with Cllr Trussler and the Portfolio Holder and set out below:

“The Committee discussed the 82 units at Union Yard, Aldershot, that had been allocated for key workers for which contract negotiations were still ongoing. It was noted that arrangements were in place with the provider and Frimley NHS Trust to ensure key workers and critical members of staff had access to the accommodation. In addition, it was advised that, a condition of the award of contract had been that all staff housed at Union Yard would work primarily at Frimley Park Hospital.

It was also advised that a condition of the award of contract had been that there would be an Estate Officer, employed by the registered provider, permanently located at the site to manage the 82 units, this individual would have strong links with Human Resources (HR) at Frimley Park Hospital (FPH) to manage any matters arising. The Portfolio Holder advised that he was confident that that all the checks and balances were in place to deal with the Committees’ concerns and it was confirmed that once the deal had been completed the Committee would be provided with the detail of the contract documentation.”

1)    To note the appointment of Cllr Rhian Jones as a Member of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee in place of Cllr Thomas Day and Cllr M.J. Roberts as Standing Deputy for the Overview and Scrutiny Committee in place of Cllr Sarah Spall for the remainder of the 2025/26 Municipal Year.

The appointments have been made by the Leader of the Labour Group in accordance with Standing Orders and arrangements to secure political balance.

2)    To appoint a new Member to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee Progress Group as a replacement for Cllr Thomas Day.

The Committee NOTED changes to the Membership of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee, for the remainder of the 2025/26 Municipal Year, as set out below:

·                     Cllr Rhian Jones to be appointed to the Committee in place of Cllr Thomas Day

·                     Cllr M.J. Roberts to be appointed as Standing Deputy for the Committee in place of Cllr Sarah Spall

The Committee DEFERRED the appointment to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee Progress Group pending changes to the membership of the Committee to secure political balance.

To receive Report No. ED2505 (copy attached), to allow for pre decision scrutiny on the Council’s response to the Governments proposals for Local Government Reorganisation, prior to the Cabinet meeting on 16th September and the Council Meeting on 25th September, 2025. Appendix B, C and D, attached to this report, are exempt until full publication on 3rd September, 2025.

The Leader of the Council, Cllr Gareth Williams, has been invited to attend the meeting.

The Committee welcomed Cllr Gareth Williams, Leader of the Council and Mrs Karen Edwards, Executive Director, who were in attendance to provide an update on the development of the Council’s proposal for Local Government Reorganisation (LGR) as set out in Report No. ED2505.

Members were reminded that the proposal would set out how a single tier of local government could be established across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. At its meeting in July, 2025, the Cabinet had recommended to the Council that a unitary council based on the areas of Rushmoor, Hart and Basingstoke and Deane councils should continue to be the preferred option for Rushmoor as, in line with the assessment criteria, it represented the best balance of a Council large enough to deliver high quality services and value for money but small enough to be connected to the place and needs of the people the council served. At its meeting on 10th July, the Council had agreed that recommendation and had noted the programme of engagement being undertaken to ensure that all residents, businesses and partners had had an opportunity to feed into the process. KPMG had continued to support twelve Councils across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight to prepare the necessary evidence base and support the development of a business case to enable final proposals to be agreed and submitted to the Government. The Report also set out the arrangements for engagement with residents, businesses, partners and voluntary organisations. This engagement had included seeking residents’ views on the establishment of parish councils and/or Neighbourhood Area Committees, as part of a Community Governance Review.

The Report set out the three options that were contained within the draft proposal as Options 1, 2 and 3. In each of these, the preference for the north of the county was a unitary council based on the areas of Rushmoor, Hart and Basingstoke and Deane councils.

In discussing the content of the presentation, the Committee raised the following points:

·                     Clarification of some of the language used in the six criteria would be helpful, eg ‘stronger’ in Criteria 6 and ‘financial shocks’ in Criteria 2

·                     It was clarified that this Report was only dealing with the three options drawn up by the twelve authorities with KPMG, not Hampshire County Council’s preferred options

·                     Projections showed that the costs of the LGR process would be recovered within the first 2-3 years of operation but this was felt to be optimistic

·                     Concern expressed over the robustness of the sign off of the KPMG work

·                     Several Members expressed the feeling that not enough financial detail had been included in relation to the thirteen councils being merged into four, including which had considerable deficits etc.

·                     Do we sufficiently understand what the County Council currently does and how this will be provided in the new model?

·                     View expressed that work by KPMG was almost all based on assumptions – viability of Council Tax Base, how social care would be handled and spending on key services before and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 12.

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

The Committee noted the current Work Plan.

With the next meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee due to be held on 18th September, 2025, it was agreed that potential future items would be considered at the following Progress Group meeting.