Agenda and minutes

Venue: Committee Room 1, Appletree Court, Lyndhurst

Contact: 023 8028 5588 - ask for Jan Debnam  E-mail:  jan.debnam@nfdc.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

Apologies

 

Apologies for absence were received from Cllr Blunden and also Cllr E J Heron (Planning and Infrastructure Portfolio Holder)

 

 

33.

Minutes

To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 11 January 2018 as a correct record.

 

 

Minutes:

RESOLVED:

 

That the minutes of the meeting held on 11 January 2018 be signed by the Chairman as a correct record.

 

 

34.

Declarations of Interest

To note any declarations of interest made by members in connection with an agenda item.  The nature of the interest must also be specified.

 

Members are asked to discuss any possible interests with Democratic Services prior to the meeting.

 

 

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest made by any member in connection with an agenda item.

 

 

35.

Public Participation

To note any issues raised during the public participation period.

 

 

Minutes:

No issues were raised in the public participation period.

 

 

36.

Portfolio Holders' Reports

To receive an oral update from the Portfolio Holders for Environment and Regulatory Services and for Planning and Infrastructure.

 

 

Minutes:

Cllr E J Heron, the Planning and Infrastrucutre Portfolio Holder was unable to attend and had requested the Service Manager (Policy and Strategy) to present the information that he wished to report to the Panel.

 

Work on the Local Plan was progressing with some evidence-based work by consultants yet to be received.  This work was on air quality, water quality and a viability study to inform the level of developer’s contribution for affordable housing.  This latter viability study was expected within the following few days.

 

Members were reminded that their final informal briefing session on the Local Plan would be held on 20 March and this would be the final opportunity for them to influence the Plan, prior to its submission to the Cabinet and the Council for approval on Wednesday 6 June 2018.

 

The Panel’s attention was drawn to recent government announcements on measures to improve the delivery of additional house building, which included the publication of 5 consultation documents on 5 March. The most significant of these included some proposed policy changes that were of significance to the Council and were currently being evaluated.  In general terms the direction of travel of government policy remained broadly similar, which suggested that no major changes would be needed by this Council.  Some of the proposed policies looked potentially helpful, while others could be problematic.  It was likely that the Council would submit a response to the consultation prior to the deadline of 10 May.

 

The Panel was advised that the Portfolio Holder was intending to take a Portfolio Holder’s decision with respect to the fees and charges for the transportation function.  Increases were necessary to respond to the significant reduction in funding from the County Council; and also to bring this Council more into line with the charges levied by other authorities in Hampshire for temporary road closures.

 

In answer to questions the Panel was advised that, following the concerns expressed at their last meeting about a potential shortfall of parking in Hythe following the closure of the St John’s Street car park in early April, some initial preparatory work, such as evaluation of the existing surface and investigation of the need for planning consent, had been done to increase capacity elsewhere in the village.

 

Cllr Hoare, the Environment and Regulatory Services Portfolio Holder, thanked all the Council’s Operations staff, particularly the Street Scene and Waste Collection teams, for their work to maintain services and also keep essential town centres, car parks and footpaths open for the public during the recent snow and icy conditions.  She also commended the Cemeteries staff who had managed to ensure that 2 burials scheduled for Friday had still been able to go ahead.

 

Cllr Hoare was pleased to report that the work to recharge Hurst Spit had started and was progressing well, and the work to recharge Milford beach would start at the end of April.

 

An anti-idling campaign had been launched in Lyndhurst to encourage drivers to turn their engines off when queuing  ...  view the full minutes text for item 36.

37.

Traffic Management Programme 2018/19 pdf icon PDF 129 KB

To consider the Traffic Management Programme until 31/3/19 and to recommend it to the Portfolio Holder for Planning and Infrastructure for approval.

 

 

Minutes:

The Panel considered the proposed traffic management programme for 2018/19.  It was noted that the severe reduction in resources and funding available to this Council and the County Council meant that strict criteria were now applied effectively limiting potential works to casualty reduction.  This Council’s staffing resource was now also limited to one highways engineer to develop projects.

 

The programme of work attached at Appendix 1 updated the interim programme that had been approved in June 2017 and added those new projects agreed at traffic management meetings with ward councillors and local councils.  Each project had been assessed and rated as high, medium or low priority based on the scoring against the County Council’s criteria.  As part of this scoring the 5 year accident record and, where available, speed recordings were used.  Five new projects had been accorded a high score, 5 as medium and 3 low, with 17 referred to the County Council as not satisfying the criteria.

 

The cost of implementing the proposed programme would be met from existing budgets, except for those schemes where a charge was made to the applicants, such as for access protection markings.

 

RESOLVED:

 

a)           That the Portfolio Holder for Planning and Infrastructure be advised that this Panel supports the Traffic Management Programme for period until 31 March 2019, as set out in Appendix 1 to Report Item 5 to the Panel; and recommends that the programme is implemented, subject to detailed design work and careful consideration of objections to proposals that require statutory public advertisement; and

 

b)           That the Service Manager (Policy and Strategy), in consultation with the Portfolio Holder for Planning and Infrastructure be authorised to amend the traffic management programme should a specific need arise.

 

 

38.

Project Integra Action Plan pdf icon PDF 208 KB

To consider the 3 year Action Plan for Project Integra to commend it to the Portfolio Holder for adoption.

 

 

Minutes:

The Panel considered the Project Integra Action Plan to cover the period 2018-2021.  The Plan was being submitted to each of the partner organisations for endorsement.  Once adopted the Plan was the mandate for the Project Integra Strategy Board to operate.  It also set out the cost of running the partnership, and the division between partners, based on the number of households in their administrative area.  It was noted that the overall cost to this Council was £15,225 while the Council was expected to receive £418,000 income from dry mixed recyclables and £66,000 from glass recycling.

 

The Panel was advised that there had been a meeting with Therese Coffey, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, shortly after the January Panel meeting.  They had held a short, but useful conversation.  While she was focussed on Hampshire being a relatively poor performer with respect to recycling rates, she recognised that they had extremely good performance in not using landfill for disposal.  It was anticipated that Defra would be publishing a Waste Resources Strategy later in the year, and this was reflected in Section 3 of the Action Plan.

 

Members requested that consideration be given to organising a visit to the Materials Recycling Facility, particularly for those Panel members who had not previously visited.

 

RESOLVED:

 

That the Portfolio Holder be advised that this Panel supports the Project Integra Action Plan, as attached as Appendix 1 to Report Item 6, and would commend its approval.

 

 

39.

Pest Control Service

To receive a presentation on a review of the delivery of the pest control function and the charges made.

 

 

Minutes:

The Panel was advised that, following the transfer of the pest control service to the Open Spaces team of the Operations service a review was underway to reduce the cost of running the service which was currently £90,000 per annum.

 

Of particular note was that benchmarking had established that the current charges were 85% lower than neighbouring authorities and 300% lower than the private sector.  It was proposed to increase charges over the next 2 years to bring them more in line with neighbouring authorities, while still remaining cheaper than the private sector.  As a consequence the cost of a call-out, survey and 3 follow up visits would increase from £45.83 to £85 in respect of rodents. Costs for the treatment of wasps would increase by 6%.

 

The charging structure for businesses was changing, with the initial call out and survey followed by a quote based on the hours the job was anticipated to take.

 

At present 15% of visits by the pest control officers were to this Council’s housing; 50% to private dwellings; 30% to schools and businesses; and 5% to offices and depots.

 

Members were advised that the pest control service worked closely with the Environmental Health Officers on issues such as the safety of premises selling food.  The Council could not however require a business to use this Council’s pest control service to remedy an infestation.  The Council could only require action to be taken to eliminate the pests, which could be done by a private enterprise.

 

Once the effect of the increases in fees was known, and had been reported through the normal budget monitoring processes, consideration would be given to the staffing structure.

 

The Panel noted that the Portfolio Holder for the Environment and Regulatory Affairs was intending to make a Portfolio Holder’s decision to give effect to the increase in charges for the pest control service.

 

 

40.

Air Quality Management

To receive a presentation on the latest developments with respect to air quality in the District.

 

 

Minutes:

The Panel received a brief update on work to introduce a clean air zone in Southampton, which affected a 1 km stretch of the A35 in this District leading up to the boundary with Southampton.  The officers continued to work closely with colleagues at Southampton City Council and other regulatory bodies on this significant body of work.  The key points for the coming months were:

 

        DEFRA/JAQU (Joint Air Quality Unit (Defra and Department of Transport)). had laid out a tight timetable to undertake studies to identify measures to reduce any exceedances

        A Ministerial Direction required this Council to submit the Outline Business Case to Defra by 31 March 2018

        A working group lead by Cllr Hoare would review the outline business case prior to submission on 23 March

        A workshop would be held on 15 March 2018 with JAQU, Southampton City Council, this Council and the consultants engaged to assist with the process to review the results and work on draft outline business case

        Work was underway on Governance timetable for the process – with a likely consultation process once the Government reviewed outline business case.

        Full Business Case must be submitted by 15 September 2018 and detail the preferred option(s) together with the actions to implement the option(s)

        Prior to submission of the full business case there would be further Member briefings, and report would be submitted to Cabinet and Full Council

 

The Panel noted the progress being made.

 

 

41.

Corporate Framework pdf icon PDF 49 KB

To be advised of the programme for the submission of the strategies for the delivery of the Corporate Framework.

 

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Panel noted the timetable for their consideration of the Local Plan and the Environmental Strategy.

 

 

42.

Work Programme pdf icon PDF 42 KB

To agree the work programme to guide the Panel’s activities over the coming months.

 

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Panel considered their work programme to guide activities over the coming months.

 

With respect to the Contaminated Land Strategy it was agreed that a task and finish group should be appointed to review the draft strategy document and make recommendations on further actions such as training for councillors.  The most significant contaminated site in the District was Eling Wharf and it was therefore agreed that Cllrs L Harris and Harrison should be invited to sit on this working group as the local ward councillors; together with Cllrs Armstrong, Bennison and Matcham from the Panel and one other member drawn from the wider Council.

 

RESOLVED:

 

That the work programme attached as Appendix 1 to these minutes be approved.