Agenda and minutes

There were no substitute members required.

Members are reminded of their obligation under the Council’s Code of Conduct to disclose any Disclosable Pecuniary Interests and Other Significant Interests in any matter(s) to be considered or being considered at the meeting. These are explained in the Code of Conduct on the Council’s website at Code of conduct for members – Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council (tmbc.gov.uk).

Members in any doubt about such declarations are advised to contact Legal or Democratic Services in advance of the meeting.

There were no declarations of interest made in accordance with the Code of Conduct.

To confirm as a correct record the Minutes of the meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee held on 23 January 2025

RESOLVED:  That the Minutes of the meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee held on 23 January 2025 be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

Representatives of Citizens Advice North and West Kent will provide a summary of their recent activities.

The annual report for the period January to December 2024 is attached.

Representatives from the Citizens Advice In North and West Kent (CANWK) provided an update on activities undertaken during January – December 2024 and  advised that extremely high demand continued to be experienced as people struggled with the ongoing pressures of high costs of living.

The complexity of cases, time in supporting clients and Adviceline appointments had also increased.  During 2025/26, the CANWK would focus on maximising the efficiency of the service to meet high demand, aimed to increase specialist advice services and committed to explore how to be more accessible to the community.

Reference was made to Kent Advice Hub which was a video advice kiosk and was a way of ensuring that the Service connected with some of the most vulnerable residents.  Options around extending the Kiosk provision in rural communities would be explored although the difficulties with funding and staffing were recognised. 

The organisation recorded appreciation for the continued support of the Borough Council in enabling them to support residents within Tonbridge and Malling with the issues they faced.

Members were pleased to note that approximately 3,000 clients had been assisted in Tonbridge and Malling and welcomed the support and advice offered to some of the most vulnerable people in the Borough.

Representatives of South East Water will be available to participate in discussions relating to the Tonbridge water outage in January 2025.  A report is attached summarising the events leading up to and during the incident and forms the basis for discussion.

A verbal update on the recent incident affecting West Kent will be provided at the meeting

Consideration was given to the events leading up to and during the recent loss of water supply in Tonbridge on 26 January and in West Kent on 23 March 2025.

The timelines of both incidents were set out by representatives of South East Water who were in attendance at the meeting.  The Borough Council’s response was also outlined.

Particular reference was made to the lack of communication and notification of any disruption to the water supply with the Borough Council and Kent County Council in respect of the earlier incident.  The first awareness of an issue was via the office of Tom Tugendhat MP for Tonbridge. 

Following this incident a full debrief was held on 12 February 2025 to build a shared understanding of areas of good practice and lessons learnt with a view to improving plans and resilience moving forward.    The areas of good practice were set out in Annex 2 and included improved communication with multiagency partners, targeted and effective communication and better coordination.

Members were pleased to note that these areas of good practice had been implemented for the later incident.  However, concern was also expressed around the operation and management of alternative water provision, the lack of co-ordination with county, borough and parish councils who had local geographical knowledge in respect of water stations, the lack of communication with those not on the internet or with mobile phones and the lack of water supply delivery for some residents on the priority service register and to livestock.  

Representatives of South East Water responded to these concerns, noted potential areas of further improvement and indicated that in order to improve resilience of the water supply there needed to be investment.  

Finally, it had been announced that South East Water had asked Ofwat to refer its PR24 Final Determination to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) for review as it was argued that the regulator's decision did not adequately support necessary investments and improvements.  A public consultation would open mid-April in which feedback would be sought from customers and key stakeholders.

This covering report and annexes provide data on Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that are aligned to the Corporate Strategy 2023-2027 and monitored on a quarterly or annual basis. These KPIs cover Quarter 3 of 2024/25 which covers October to December 2024.

The report provided data on Key Performance Indicators for the period October to December 2024 (quarter 3) that were aligned to the Corporate Strategy 2023-2027 and monitored on a quarterly or annual basis.

This data was a key tool in assessing performance management, helped to deliver positive change and provided Members with an insight into areas where the Borough Council were performing well and areas that needed greater focus.

Members welcomed the reduction in reported anti-social behaviour, the reduction in reported fly tipping incidents and the good performance in respect of waste collection rates.  Negative trends included a slight increase in reported victim based crime, reduced social media engagement and reduced recycling and composting.

The Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee requested more meaningful data related to planning applications (KPI 100) and how many were outstanding, length of time they were outstanding and the numbers of case/applications rather than percentages. 

It was also noted that, whilst progress was currently slow in addressing the housing register backlog, to maintain improvement additional staffing was being considered and it was hoped this would assist in accelerating the progress being made.

RESOLVED:  That the positive and negative trends identified in the report be noted.

To consider options for future meetings of Parish Partnership Panel

The report of the Chief Executive considered options for future meetings of the Parish Partnership Panel.

All members of the Panel had been invited to share their views on the current   venue, style and format of meetings.  The responses were set out in Annex 1. No significant issues had been raised other than the preference for in person meetings.  However, it was also recognised that online meetings possibly achieved higher attendance and it was proposed that the option to join remotely be retained.

RECOMMENDED*:  That meetings of the Parish Partnership Panel be held in the Council Chamber with the option for members to join remotely retained.

*Recommended to Cabinet

To update Members on the current national issues with securing affordable housing in new developments and to highlight local issues and measures in place to mitigate this issue.

Members were provided with an update on the current national issues with securing affordable housing in new developments.  Local issues and the measures in place to mitigate these issues were also highlighted.

It was reported that there was a growing national issue with delivery of affordable housing via the standard route of a s106 agreement. The Local Government Association (LGA) had been convening roundtable discussions to look at issues and solutions in which Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council were actively involved. 

In addition, the Borough Council continued to work closely with developers and Registered Providers and an action plan (detailed in 6.1)  had been produced to ensure that this important issue was being closely managed.   

The Committee recognised the challenges around the provision of affordable housing,  welcomed the provision of more detail at future meetings of the Housing and Planning Scrutiny Select Committee and recognised the importance of benchmarking against neighbouring authorities.

Following a request from the committee chair for a review of primary care capacity to be presented, due to member concern regarding the pressures being placed upon GP practices especially in the northeast of the borough arising from ongoing growth and development, the report provides an overview of current capacity and future requirements and has been prepared in collaboration with the Kent and Medway Integrated Care Board (ICB).

The report of the Director of Planning, Housing and Environmental Health provided an overview of current capacity and future requirements in respect of primary care in Tonbridge and Malling and had been prepared in collaboration with the Kent and Medway Integrated Care Board.

The role of the NHS Kent and Medway Integrated Care Boards (ICB) in planning and commissioning healthcare services to meet the needs of residents in the county was outlined.  In relation to the delivery of health and community facilities, the Borough Council’s primary role was that of planning authority.  Developer contributions were sought by the ICB to support the expansion of premises in response to individual planning locations.  In some locations, new sites might be required to mitigate the impact on health services, including general practice.  If the option of expanding provision to a proposed development site was not a viable option, then developer contributions towards the cost of new or enhanced premises at an alternative site could be sought in order to mitigate the demand created.

Members expressed concern regarding the pressures being placed upon GP practices especially in the North of the Borough arising from ongoing growth and development.  Concern was also expressed in respect of the lack of access to GPs, the lack of consultation with GPs via the ICB, the risk of local doctor surgeries being overwhelmed by demand and whether the ICB provided meaningful engagement in respect of planning applications.  In addition, disappointment was expressed at the lack of information around the number of residents registered with GP surgeries, those not registered locally and those not registered at all as this detail could inform the Infrastructure Delivery Plan. 

It was recognised that whilst the Borough Council had no responsibility in respect of the provision of health services it would be challenging to address demand during the lifetime of this Local Plan especially if the ICB did not undertake effective engagement.  With this in mind, the Leader of the Borough Council offered to write to the Kent and Medway Integrated Care Board expressing disappointment at their lack of engagement and invite them to address a future meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee so that Cllrs concerns could be voiced.

In accordance with the Council’s Constitution this report advises of the recent use of Overview and Scrutiny Procedure Rule 15 (i) to ‘suspend’ the call-in procedure for decisions relating to the Local Development Scheme, the Local Housing Authority Fund, both taken by Cabinet on 4 March 2025, and the interim draft submission to MHCLG relating to local government reorganisation taken by an extraordinary meeting of Cabinet on 19 March 2025.

In accordance with the Council’s Constitution the report advised of the recent use of Overview and Scrutiny Procedure Rule 15 (i) to ‘suspend’ the call-in procedure for decisions related to the Local Development Scheme, the Local Housing Authority Fund and the interim draft submission to MHCLG related to local government reorganisation.

The decision notices were attached at Annexes 1, 2 and 3 of the report.

Members noted that the need for the ‘suspension’ of the call-in procedures had arisen from a recent pattern of very short response timeframes being set by Government that were not easily accommodated within the normal pattern of meetings and arrangements.

A record of the decisions taken by portfolio holders since the last meeting of Cabinet are attached.

The decisions taken by Cabinet and Cabinet Members during March 2025 were presented for information and noted by the Committee.

A draft Notice setting out the key decisions anticipated to be taken during May to June 2025 is attached.

The Notice setting Key Decisions anticipated to taken during May to June 2025 was presented for information.  It was also noted that the Notice was subject to change if adjustments were necessary to the reporting timetable.

If there were any issues that the Committee wished to scrutinise, they were invited to raise these with the Chair.

The Work Programme setting out matters to be scrutinised during 2025-26 is attached for information.  Members can suggest future items by liaising with the Chair of the Committee. 

The Work Programme setting out potential matters to be scrutinised during 2025/26 was noted.  Members were invited to suggest future items by liaising with the Chair of the Committee.

Reference was made to the ongoing Independent Audit review of the Agile implementation project and it was expected that outcomes and lessons learnt would be presented to the next meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee, subject to confirmation.

The Chairman to move that the press and public be excluded from the remainder of the meeting during consideration of any items the publication of which would disclose exempt information.

There were no items considered in private.