Cabinet approved a £500,000-plus CCTV deal with Castle Point, KFC won a nine-month 3am trial and the £805,608 minibus call-in failed. What each meeting decided.
Six council meetings have published agendas for the week of 12 to 20 October. Cabinet decides on Monday whether Southend’s CCTV control room takes on Castle Point’s cameras for a fee of around £100,000 a year. The Planning Committee rules on KFC’s 3am drive-thru on Wednesday. On Thursday, the scrutiny committee gets the public toilet review, the Thorpe Hall Avenue flood update and the first-year report on the SUEZ bin contract.
All meetings are at the Civic Centre, Victoria Avenue, and the Cabinet, Planning, Place Scrutiny and Audit meetings are webcast (council meetings calendar, October 2026).
| Date | Meeting | Main business |
|---|---|---|
| Mon 12 Oct, 6pm | Cabinet | Food control plan, Castle Point CCTV contract, stairlift contract |
| Wed 14 Oct, 1pm | Standing Advisory Council on Religious Education | Agenda published, routine business |
| Wed 14 Oct, 5pm | Planning Committee | KFC Greyhound Way drive-thru hours, 43 Woodgrange Drive HMO |
| Thu 15 Oct, 6.30pm | Place Overview and Scrutiny Committee | Public toilets, Thorpe Hall Avenue flooding, SUEZ year one, bulky waste, environment strategy |
| Fri 16 Oct, 10am | Licensing Sub-Committee B | David Lloyd, Snakes Lane, licence variation |
| Mon 19 Oct, 6.30pm | Audit and Governance Committee | 2025/26 accounts, KPMG audit, counter fraud |
| Tue 20 Oct, 6.30pm | People Overview and Scrutiny Committee | Agenda due in the week before |
Monday: Cabinet
Updated 14 October: Cabinet approved all three items on 12 October. The Castle Point CCTV contract runs for five years from about January 2027, with officers given authority to finalise it. The stairlift framework goes out to tender, with the award delegated to officers. The food plan now goes to full council for adoption (draft minutes, 12 October 2026).
CCTV for Castle Point. Cabinet is asked to approve a five-year contract, starting in or around January 2027, under which Southend’s Community Safety Unit monitors Castle Point Borough Council’s CCTV network from the Southend control room, seven days a week (Contract with Castle Point Borough Council for CCTV System Management). The report says:
- Castle Point won Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner funding in 2024 to upgrade and add cameras in Benfleet, Hadleigh and Canvey Island, but has no staff to watch them
- around 50 to 60 extra cameras would join Southend’s system, with the cameras and connections paid for from the PFCC grant of about £1 million
- Castle Point would pay Southend about £100,000 a year, a gross income of more than £500,000 over the contract
- Southend expects to recruit one extra part-time member of staff to cover Castle Point’s cameras at peak times
The food control plan. Cabinet also approves the Official Feed and Food Control Service Plan for 2026/27. We reported last week that the plan shows the food safety team is 1.73 posts short of what it needs.
Stairlifts. The third decision is the procurement of a stairlift installation, maintenance and removal service (Cabinet, 12 October 2026, agenda).
Decisions already taken. The report of decisions by individual Cabinet members since September records four (Decisions taken by or in consultation with Cabinet Members, October 2026):
- an application to the schools adjudicator to cut the reception intake at Leigh North Street Primary School from 90 to 60 places from September 2027
- the award of the contract for the new bus service to the east of the city, which we reported as the 62A and 62B starting on 25 October
- the start of consultation on the fourth Local Transport Plan
- the appointment of Vimal Amin as a non-executive director of Vecteo Ltd, the council’s passenger transport company
Wednesday: Planning Committee
Two applications are up for decision at 5pm (Planning Committee, 14 October 2026, agenda):
- KFC, Greyhound Trading Park, Greyhound Way. An amendment application to run the drive-thru until 3am, which officers recommend for approval despite 11 objections.
- 43 Woodgrange Drive. Officers ask members to change their September resolution on this HMO to “would have granted”, after a planning inspector allowed an earlier scheme for the house on appeal.
We set out both in our report on the Woodgrange Drive appeal.
Updated 24 October: the committee granted KFC’s 3am drive-thru, but only for a nine-month trial, and changed its Woodgrange Drive position to “would have granted” (draft minutes). Our report: KFC Greyhound Way gets 3am drive-thru for a nine-month trial. The committee also receives the appeals bulletin and the September appeals summary.
Thursday: Place Overview and Scrutiny
This is the fullest agenda of the week (Place Overview and Scrutiny Committee, 15 October 2026, agenda).
- Public toilets. Officers propose a new large block on Marine Parade, a second near Thorpe Bay Corner and standard seasonal hours. Our full report: the toilet review.
- Thorpe Hall Avenue flooding. The attenuation tank is due by the end of October and installation runs into winter. Our full report: the Thorpe Hall Avenue tank.
- SUEZ, year one. The contractor’s own report on the first year of the waste, recycling and street cleaning contract, April 2025 to March 2026, is presented to be noted (SUEZ Contract, Year 1 Scrutiny Report).
- Free bulky waste. The free service began in October 2025 alongside wheeled bins, allowing one collection of up to five items per household. The slides say both the free and the paid services are oversubscribed, that the paid service completed more than 85% of bookings and the free service more than 65%, and that the free service will continue (Free Bulky Waste Service, scrutiny slides).
- Environmental Stewardship Strategy 2026 to 2036. The replacement for the 2021 Green City Action Plan is out for a four-week public consultation and goes to Cabinet in January 2027 (Environmental Stewardship Strategy, public consultation).
- Better Queensway. A verbal update, with no paper.
Friday: David Lloyd’s licence
Updated 14 November: the sub-committee granted the variation, with the conditions agreed with the council’s environmental protection team, its printed minutes record. None of the three objectors attended. The applicant told the hearing the spa garden music would stay at background level (printed minutes).
Licensing Sub-Committee B hears an application by David Lloyd Leisure Ltd to vary the premises licence for its club on Snakes Lane, Eastwood (Licensing Sub-Committee B, 16 October 2026, report). The club wants the licensed area extended to cover its spa, spa garden and padel social areas, with minor changes to the club room layout. It is not asking to change its hours: alcohol is licensed from 11am to 11pm daily and the premises open from 6am.
Three interested parties objected. None of the responsible authorities, such as the police or environmental health, made a representation. The hearing was delayed while the applicant and the council’s environmental protection team agreed conditions.
Monday 19 October: the accounts
The Audit and Governance Committee adopts the 2025/26 Annual Governance Statement and Statement of Accounts, hears KPMG’s progress report on the audit of the year to 31 March 2026, and takes quarterly reports from the counter fraud and internal audit teams. It also gets an update on progress against the Regulator of Social Housing’s judgement on the council’s homes (Audit and Governance Committee, 19 October 2026, agenda).
Last week: the £805,608 minibus contract was called in
The Policy and Resources scrutiny committee added an urgent item on Thursday 8 October: a call-in of the decision to award a five-year contract for ten minibuses for Vecteo, the council’s passenger transport company (Call-in, Vecteo Fleet Procurement Framework, supplementary pack).
The decision, taken by Cllr Paul Collins on 1 October, awards a contract hire deal for ten minibuses to London Hire Ltd through a national framework, at an estimated £805,608 over five years from October 2026. The report says the previous arrangement with London Hire expired on 31 July 2026 and had been running on a three-month rolling basis with one month’s notice. The vehicles carry children with special educational needs and adult social care users.
Updated 24 October: the call-in failed. The committee’s minutes record that a motion to refer the decision back to Cabinet was lost by 2 votes to 5, with 1 abstention, so the contract award took immediate effect. Members were told five suppliers had tendered and London Hire scored highest on price and quality. The committee asked for the wider Vecteo purchasing framework to come back as a future scrutiny item (Policy and Resources Scrutiny minutes, 8 October 2026).
What it means for you
If you want to speak at the Planning Committee or ask a public question at scrutiny, the council’s deadlines fall before the meeting and are set out on each agenda page. The Cabinet, Planning, Place Scrutiny and Audit meetings are webcast, and the recordings stay online.
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