Dover District Council’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee met on 14 September 2026 to work through the practical and constitutional requirements for establishing a working group to monitor the future of Betteshanger Country Park.

Dover District Council’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee considered a report at its 14 September 2026 meeting setting out the steps needed to establish a task and finish working group on Betteshanger Country Park, following a decision taken at the committee’s previous meeting on 13 July 2026 to create such a group.

Why the group is being formed

The committee resolved in July to set up the working group to monitor developments regarding the park, with the ability to co-opt non-voting external interested parties and meet flexibly to respond to ongoing changes. The stated intention was to monitor and engage with the ongoing situation regarding the viability and long-term sustainability of Betteshanger Country Park.

The report, prepared by Rebecca Brough, Head of Corporate Services and Democracy, noted that the council does not own Betteshanger Country Park and that formal external negotiations and discussions are a matter for the Executive, not the scrutiny committee.

Key constraints identified

Officers highlighted several significant constraints facing the proposed group. The council has had no dedicated scrutiny officer since 2006 and no budget for Overview and Scrutiny Committee activity for a considerable number of years. Democratic Services was described as a finite resource due to other committee commitments and staffing levels, with limited capacity for additional formal meetings or research.

The report also noted that working group meetings are informal and are not clerked like formal meetings; formal agendas and minutes are not prepared, and meetings are not broadcast. The group cannot issue press releases or direct the use of council resources without the agreement of the Executive.

Membership and timing

Officers noted that previous working groups have been based on three members, and that if the intended membership exceeded five it would be questionable why the matter was not being dealt with by the full committee. Up to four non-voting external co-optees may be appointed under the council’s Overview and Scrutiny Procedure Rules.

A deadline was flagged for completing the work: because pre-election period arrangements are expected to come into effect in March 2027 ahead of ordinary council elections in May 2027, any recommendations to Cabinet would need to be agreed by no later than the February 2027 meeting of the committee.

Options before the committee

The report set out three options: to answer a series of questions in order to form the working group and set its membership; to defer further consideration to the next scheduled meeting; or to rescind the July decision and deal with the matter through the full committee instead. Officers noted that option three would have minimal practical difference in outcome from a task and finish working group but would involve all members of the committee.

The council had not published the minutes of the meeting at the time of writing, so the committee’s decision is not yet on the public record.

Sources

Top image: illustrative, computer-generated. Illustrative AI-generated image of an English country park in autumn. This is not a photograph of Betteshanger Country Park or any real location.