Agenda and draft minutes

To agree the minutes of the previous meeting.

The minutes of the Strategic Planning and Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting held on 13 October 2015 were confirmed by the members present and signed by the Chairman. 

To receive any apologies for absence.

Apologies were received from Councillor S Hearn and Councillor Bateman

Councillor Birnie substituted on behalf of Councillor Bateman

To receive any declarations of interest.

A member with a disclosable pecuniary interest or a personal interest in a matter who attends a meeting of the authority at which the matter is considered -

(i)            must disclose the interest at the start of the meeting or when the interest becomes apparent

and, if the interest is a disclosable pecuniary interest, or a personal interest which is also prejudicial

(ii)           may not participate in any discussion or vote on the matter (and must withdraw to the public seating area) unless they have been granted a dispensation.

A member who discloses at a meeting a disclosable pecuniary interest which is not registered in the Members’ Register of Interests, or is not the subject of a pending notification, must notify the Monitoring Officer of the interest within 28 days of the disclosure.

Disclosable pecuniary interests, personal and prejudicial interests are defined in Part 2 of the Code of Conduct For Members

[If a member is in any doubt as to whether they have an interest which should be declared they should seek the advice of the Monitoring Officer before the start of the meeting]

There were no declarations of interest.

An opportunity for members of the public to make statements or ask questions in accordance with the rules as to public participation.

There was no public participation.

None.

None.

C Thorpe introduced the report and advised the Committee that quarter 2 had been slow which may be the calm before the storm at Christmas time. C Thorpe went through the key service achievements in quarter 2. Waste services carried out an induction was provided to St Albans staff who are temporarily tipping their food waste at Cupid Green and they hosted the Mayor’s visit to Cupid Green where worked with teams emptying bins and picking litter for the day. With regards to Environmental Services Projects, the Clean, Safe and Green Community Champion award was awarded to Friends of Chipperfield Common and the individual award was presented to John Savage from Tring. There were also highly commended runners up: Berkhamsted based litter picker Colin Garrett and Boho Boxmoor. The Clean, Safe and Green department have set up a new team with new equipment dedicated to cleaning the new Town Centre removing graffiti and fly posting. The Green Flags awards saw Dacorum retain its three existing flags and were awarded one new flag for Bunkers Park. C Thorpe also advised the committee on personnel changes and they have recruited new drivers which reduces the use of agency workers. Also, the new FirstCare system is working well after a few teething problems but sickness rates are still high. Return to work compliance is being monitored however it is difficult to complete these assessments in the recommended 8 days as many staff members are not office based. Furthermore, co-mingled waste recycling decreased from quarter 1 as did garden waste but that is to be expected at this time of the year. All targets have been achieved on the performance report but the recycling rate target was 60% but for this quarter it reached 53.6% and this is slightly down on quarter 1 where the recycling rate hit 56%.

Councillor C Wyatt-Lowe thanked C Thorpe for the useful report highlighting the work that the service carries out. Councillor C Wyatt-Lowe questioned whether the new Town Centre cleaning team would also be focussing on the Old Town as the town now has two new, beautiful zones to up keep.

C Thorpe said that the new cleaning team has been brought in for both the New and Old Town, it just happens to be that the launch of the new team coincided with the completion of the New Town.

Councillor Matthews referred to page 9 in the agenda and asked why there were no figures provided for general waste collection.

C Thorpe said that he has never reported these figures to the committee but that information is supplied by Hertfordshire County Council so it is possible to report on residual waste figures in the future if members would find that useful.

Councillor Matthews stated that in his street, he was aware of residents putting out their food bins religiously every week at the beginning of the scheme. However, he said he had noticed a drop in the number of food bins being put out. Is the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 41.

This item was deferred to the next meeting.

J Doe introduced the report and told the committee that there were no performance indicators showing as reds to report, but workloads remain high. Also, performance is improving with regards to planning applications. Applications that have been refused and then subject to an appeal has risen and this trend needs to be monitored. The success rates at defending appeals in Dacorum is good. There has been improved performance within the land charges service which is above target with the average turn around, running at 8.2 days compared to the target of 10 days.

The number of new homes completed is monitored closely because there are Core Strategy targets to meet. The target is 430 houses a year and only 47 new homes had been completed in quarter 2. This is not something the Council can directly control because aside from the council house new builds programme, Dacorum Borough Council is not a developer but often a facilitator. This might be something the committee ought to keep under scrutiny because delivery rates are quite low. With regards to the risk register, J Doe has carried out a fundamental review of risks and there will be new risks to report on in quarter 3.

Councillor Ashbourn referred to paragraph 6 of the report regarding the rise in appeals. Are we able to determine the proportion of private applications versus developers?

J Doe said he did not have these figures but typically, when the economy is performing well, the larger developers will challenge more if they believe there is chance of getting planning permission on appeal.

Councillor Birnie suggested that the rise in the planning application appeals could be affected by publicity from the government and people presuming that their planning application will be approved. Also, there have been a large number of contentious planning applications in front of the Development Control Committee.

J Doe said that the department does not get a huge number of appeals and looking at the data for quarter 2, there were 34 planning refusals and only 13 of these resulted in an appeal. On page 45 of the agenda, there is a target number for refusals. Applicants are encouraged to get it right first time because if they resubmit a plan within six months, they do not have to pay another fee.

Councillor Matthews referred to page 46 with regards to enforcement cases. He asked why there was a large number of enforcement cases?

J Doe said that the priority 3 cases are the less pressing ones whereas priority 1 cases are usually listed buildings and preserved trees at risk of felling. Mainly, the point is that there is a lot more activity at the moment. The workload has increased generally and with that there is more building and people contacting the Council more often to check whether new developments have received the appropriate permission and are proceeding with no problems. A lot of the cases relate to neighbour enquiries regarding the building of domestic extensions and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 43.

C Taylor introduced the report and said that the report can be split into two parts, 1) the growth and activity of the Maylands area and 2) the activities that the Economic Wellbeing Team have been involved in across the borough.

Currently, the Maylands Gateway is waiting for the police service to decide whether they want to relocate to Maylands and vacate their current site in the Town Centre as part of the Forum development. The land is council owned and there has been persistent interest in the land. The land is in a good location and there are only a few sites of this size available. If the police decided not to move to the Maylands site then the land will be marketed. The Homes and Community Agency owned land was under a bidding process in August. They have received 15 bids for further consideration. On the Aviva owned land there is currently a proposal going to the Development Control Committee on 17th December for a retail development. There has been constant interest in the land at the Maylands site. It is important to consider the financial and employment implications of any new development in the Maylands area. 

An Enterprise Zone bid was unsuccessful in 2011 but a new application has been submitted by Herts LEP and if successful, it could generate enough money to pay for the road improvement/construction and site servicing infrastructure. The Maylands Urban Realm Improvements contract is about to be issued and they should be on site in the New Year. This project will involve widening the pavements, planting trees and improving the lighting. C Taylor said that this was something that the businesses in Maylands had been pushing for. The Maylands area is under independent ownership which means the urban realm then suffers. Hopefully this regeneration will also encourage walking and cycling through the area.

The Maylands Business Centre Extension on the site adjacent to the current site will aim to move forward providing additional industrial units and currently there are 19 businesses on the waiting list. Dacorum Borough Council have also purchased Woodhouse, a corner site at the Heart of Maylands and the plan is for the ground floor to become an office space acting as a satellite to Maylands Business Centre. It was agreed from the start that the site would need to have an active ground floor with residential units above as this is an employment site.

Councillor G Adshead asked if the Smiths building would provide 300 new jobs for the area or if these jobs will be transferred from Watford.

C Taylor said that these 300 jobs will be transfers from Watford but over time, people may leave due to the relocation of the site.

Councillor Ashbourn asked the officers that once all the parcels of land have been settled and developed, what is the long aspiration for the Maylands area.

C Taylor said that the last site has been taken and an employment study will be undertaken going  ...  view the full minutes text for item 44.

K Langley updated the committee on the Town Centre. The strategy was put in place in October 2014 and all the works in the centre are expected to be finished by March 2016. The department is working closely with Clean, Safe and Green to maintain the areas. The vacancy rates in the Town Centre have fallen from 22% to 13%. There is going to be a Saturday market in the Old Town hopefully starting in December. The Pavement Strategy will help to move and encourage shops to extend onto the streets.

Councillor Birnie said he was concerned about the Saturday market in the Old Town and was worried that it may cause problems for the existing market in the Town Centre.

J Doe said that the Old Town market will offer different specialised products to that of the current market. C Taylor added that it was focused on food and only there from 9am-12pm whereas the existing market is open all day. The aim is to encourage people up the Old Town and increase foot fall. K Langley also said that the markets will be owned by the same operator so it is not in their interests to have competitive markets.

Councillor Anderson said that Kings Langley have a very successful local produce market in the High Street and maybe a focus on local produce will help visitor numbers.

Councillor Hicks stated that the Pavement Strategy is quoted at raising £38,000 and was this in addition to the market income.

C Taylor said two contractors have seen the potential and have approached the Council about running the site and generating a steady stream of income. K Langley said that currently the income is about £10-15,000 and the Council struggle to find new audiences. The companies that have approached the Council already have the contacts needed to fill the space and have quoted an 80% occupancy rate with a trial to begin on 1^st April 2015.

Councillor Anderson asked what metrics had been used to review the Council's running of public events in the Old Town.  The previous organiser had been raising significant amounts of money for charities and community organisations, and what evidence was available to support the view that the Council was tapping into more income or investment.

C Taylor said that the team were currently working on the report for the recent Halloween event in the Old Town. She said that it was just as successful this year as last year. It is estimated that 4-5,000 people attended the event and in the future more security contractors may need to be brought in to ensure the event is safe and secure at all times. Next year, the task is to generate some income from the event.

K Langley said that currently, there is a small amount of income generated by the rides and the food stalls but this was nowhere near enough to cover the cost of the whole event.

Councillor Howard said that some residents have  ...  view the full minutes text for item 45.

The work program for 2015/16 was agreed.