Place Scrutiny Committee minutes (draft)

Decided · A decision has been taken.

The Place Scrutiny Committee resolved on 22 July 2026 to establish a Joint People and Place scrutiny board for Reconciling Policy, Performance and Resources (RPPR) planning. p20

The Committee resolved to add several items to its work programme, including a rapid review of the Household Waste Recycling Site (HWRS) booking system to report back by 30 November, reports on the Asset Management Strategy and the Queensway Gateway Road project, and the highways winter maintenance policy and Veteran's Bus Travel. p22

The Committee noted that East Sussex Highways achieved 87.8% against a target of 93.3% on its contract performance indicators for 2025/26, and resolved to hold a closed session to examine the highways contract in more detail. p24p28

The Committee resolved to endorse a Scrutiny Review of Street Works and to submit its recommendations to Cabinet for comment and to County Council for approval. p33

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• p20Carbon reduction was included as part of Business as Usual activities, such as in the corporate estate where more energy efficient options may be identified as part of necessary essential maintenance such as replacing end-of-life boilers or windows. This would mean that through the course of operational resilience, schools and council buildings could cope better under pressures in the long term. 5.15 The Chair of the Place Scrutiny Committee raised some areas for potential scrutiny focus as part of RPPR planning including: tracking of temperatures in schools and monitoring of climate-related risk; Artificial Intelligence, cyber and digital; financial breakdown and distribution of charge points for the electric vehicle scheme across East Sussex; an examination of the length of time to complete projects, the processes behind those, and investigate how to expedite them; and to gain an understanding of the role of scrutiny in the work of the Sussex and Brighton Strategic Authority (SBSA), especially in regard to skills, economic development and transport strategies. 5.16 The Committee RESOLVED to: (1) consider and comment on information within the 2025/26 end of year Council monitoring report and State of the County 2026 report and the implications for services within the remit of the committee; (2) identify potential areas for scrutiny focus as part of RPPR planning, for consideration as part of future RPPR reports or the committee’s wider work programme; and (3) establish a Joint People and Place RPPR scrutiny board.
• p226.5 The Director of CET raised that the highways winter maintenance policy is an upcoming issue that would benefit from scrutiny input. The Committee agreed to include this on its work programme. 6.6 The Committee RESOLVED to: (1) Agree the agenda items for future committee meetings; (2) Re-establish the corporate climate target board with People Scrutiny Committee, with a broader remit focussed on health; (3) Schedule reports on the Asset Management Strategy and lessons learnt from the Queensway Gateway Road project, and the ESCC Road Safety Strategy to future meetings; (4) Undertake a rapid review of the Household Waste Recycling Site (HWRS) booking system to report to the Committee on 30 November; and (5) Add highways winter maintenance policy and Veteran’s Bus Travel to the work programme for potential future review.
• p247.1 The Assistant Director of Operations introduced the report on East Sussex Highways (ESH) Year 3 Contract Performance, which summarises the performance of the contract through the third year (2025/26) in achieving the Service Performance Indicators (SPIs) and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Year 3 ended on 31 March 2026 and the contract was midway through Year 4 of the 7-year contract, which had the option for a 7-year extension if KPIs were met. 7.2 Scrutiny was significantly involved in setting up the contract over 2-3 years, and made recommendations to Cabinet throughout the process, before the detailed business case went to Cabinet in July 2021. The contract was outcomes-based, centred around quality assurance, stakeholder management, sustainable economic growth and carbon management. The outcome themes were agreed by a previous Place Scrutiny Committee and performance measures were built into the contract and endorsed by Cabinet. SPIs and KPIs set targets for ESH to achieve, which are designed to stretch the contractor and increase year-on-year, to encourage improved performance. There were two incentives to reward performance in the contract: if SPIs were achieved, a financial reward would be unlocked for ESH; and achievement of the KPIs would be key in determining whether the contractor would be eligible for an extension to the contract. The overall outturn for the year was 87.8%, against the target of 93.3%, so while there had been some improvement in the contract, they had not achieved their targets for the year. 7.3 Scott Dalton, Deputy Contract Director, Balfour Beatty Living Places (BBLP), presented the report, outlining performance against the 17 SPIs and six KPIs for the 2025/26 period. While improvements had been made in some SPIs, many were not achieved.
• p287.15 The Committee RESOLVED to: (1) Schedule a closed session to view the highways contract in detail, and following this consider what future scrutiny sessions are required including with BBLP and ESCC officers; (2) Receive disaggregated data by division and sub-contractor; (3) Note the performance of the third year of the Highways Infrastructure and Services contract with Balfour Beatty Living Places.
• p338.11 The Committee asked if the system for surveying all roads could be used to correlate damaged roads to where street works have taken place. The Assistant Director Operations responded that developments in AI would enable ESH to map the survey of defects with where permits have been granted (and to which utility companies) and could identify areas of concern. 8.12 The Committee RESOLVED to endorse the report and agree to submit the recommendations to Cabinet for comment and County Council for approval.