Agenda item

To consider a request to establish a Climate Emergency Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

The Committee considered a report, set out at Agenda pages 173 to 178, which gave details of a Member request to establish an additional Overview and Scrutiny Committee to focus on the Council’s response to the Climate Emergency via scrutiny of the Climate Emergency Action Plan.

The report stated that the Council had declared a Climate Emergency in 2019 with the aim to playing as full a role as possible in reducing the Borough’s carbon footprint to achieve Net Zero by 2030. Scrutiny of the Council’s Climate Emergency Action Plan, to date, had taken place through the establishment of an Overview and Scrutiny Task and Finish Group which produced reports in 2020 and 2021.

The Overview and Scrutiny Management Committee’s terms of reference enabled it to propose amendments to Council in relation to the Overview and Scrutiny function, including the establishment of a new Committee. Any new Committee would be established on the basis of political proportionality.

Appended to the report were draft terms of reference for the proposed Climate Emergency Overview and Scrutiny Committee. The potential role of the new Committee was summarised as scrutinising, reviewing and assisting with policy development relating to:

a)     the Council’s commitment to play as full a role as possible to reduce the Borough’s carbon footprint to be Net Zero by 2030;

b)     implementation of the Council’s Climate Emergency Action Plan, including the annual progress report to Council;

c)     progress against recommendations, agreed by the Executive, from the Climate Emergency Task and Finish Group and the proposed Overview and Scrutiny itself;

d)     examples of Climate Emergency “best practice” from other local authorities and public/private sector organisations.

In the ensuing discussion, Members made the following points:

If a new Committee was established, what would be the impact on Democratic Services in terms of supporting the Committee? It was confirmed that Democratic Services had successfully supported the Climate Emergency Task and Finish Group in 2020 and 2021. Also, the recent external review of the Council’s Scrutiny function would make recommendations about structure and resourcing.

The report suggested that the new Committee be made up of nine Members (five Wokingham Borough Partnership and four Conservative). Could the Committee have a smaller number of Members? It was confirmed that the Committee membership could be 5:4 or 4:3. This would be clarified in relation to the political balance issue.

Rather than setting up a new Committee, could climate emergency be a standing item on each of the Overview and Scrutiny Committees? This could reduce the workload for officers currently supporting the Council’s work programme. It was confirmed that this was possible, but this approach would also generate additional work for Democratic Services and the officers working on delivery of the Climate Emergency Action Plan, for example in relation to the number of meetings requiring attendance.

Were the proposed Terms of Reference too narrow? It was confirmed that the Committee could expand/refine the draft Terms of Reference before submitting the report to Council.

Following the discussion, the Chair suggested that consideration of the report be deferred to the next meeting in order to provide further clarity on the issues raised by Members – officer workload, political balance, Terms of Reference and how the proposed Committee would fit into the existing Overview and Scrutiny framework.

RESOLVED: That consideration of the request to establish a Climate Emergency Overview and Scrutiny Committee be deferred to the next meeting, to enable further clarity to be provided on the issues raised by Members.