This meeting is scheduled to involve discussion of a wide range of issues, from the appointment of community safety leads and scrutiny of the council's waste improvement programme, to the ongoing challenge of ensuring the council’s domiciliary care procurement exercises represent value for money for residents. It also includes pre-decision scrutiny of the Mayor’s cabinet meeting scheduled for the following day.

Please bear in mind that this article simply summarises what is included in the meeting pack for discussion, and we do not know for certain whether these topics will actually be discussed, or whether any decisions will be made.

Mayors Waste Improvement Programme

The Overview and Scrutiny committee will receive a presentation on the Mayor’s Waste Improvement Programme. This follows a period of significant concern about the performance of the borough's waste services, which led to the Mayor declaring a waste emergency at a council meeting in November 2022, and an investment of £5 million in 2024/25 to improve the service. This investment funded a range of improvements, including additional waste collections at night and on weekends, the introduction of time banding in some areas to better regulate commercial waste collections, and additional street cleansing. The presentation will highlight some of the apparent achievements of the project so far, including the fact that:

95% of inspections for street cleansing undertaken in Tower Hamlets by Keep Britain Tidy (KBT) were graded as acceptable.

The Overview and Scrutiny Committee are also likely to discuss the longer-term sustainability of the project, which appears to rely upon a major restructuring of the waste service to succeed.

Appointment of a co-opted member to the Health and Adults Scrutiny sub-committee

The Overview and Scrutiny Committee are being asked to approve the appointment of Alia Begum to the position of Resident Co-optee on the Health and Adults Scrutiny Sub Committee for the period of the current administration.

Scrutiny Executive Protocol

The Overview and Scrutiny Committee will be asked to approve a new Scrutiny Executive Protocol. The document sets out how the different parts of the council are expected to work with one another, and covers topics including scrutiny of policy development, holding the executive to account, access to information, and scrutiny of confidential decisions. On the topic of scrutiny of decisions that are being made in private, the protocol states:

Should Scrutiny wish to ask questions around an exempt decision at a public Committee meeting, the press and public will be excluded as per the Council's Constitution and the Cabinet Member will be expected to answer openly and transparently.

Forthcoming decisions

The Overview and Scrutiny Committee is scheduled to review the Forward Plan for the council, which lists all of the decisions that the council anticipates it will be making over the coming months. There are 26 items listed on the agenda, including proposals to:

• Continue the council’s participation in an 8-borough pooling arrangement for business rates.
• Approve a council housing acquisition programme that will deliver 237 new homes in the borough.
• Determine whether to grant planning permission for the Skylines Village Regeneration Scheme.
• Approve the council's budget for 2025-26.

Scrutiny Lead updates

The Overview and Scrutiny Committee will receive updates from its Scrutiny Leads on their work across the council. Councillor Nathalie Bienfait, Scrutiny Lead for Environment and the Climate Emergency, will provide an update on her preparations for a review of the council’s response to flood risk. She will also discuss her progress on a review of the council's progress toward its Net Zero Carbon target.

Chief Executive Spotlight

The committee will engage with Steven Halsey, the council's Chief Executive, for a 'spotlight' session. In it they will have an opportunity to question him on the council’s strategic priorities, how the council is performing against them, and what challenges it faces.