Agenda and draft minutes

To agree the minutes of the previous meeting on Tuesday 8^th December.

The minutes of the Strategic Planning and Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting held on 08 December 2015 were confirmed by the members present and signed by the Chairman. 

To receive any apologies for absence.

Apologies were received from Councillor Hicks and Councillor Matthews.

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.

Report to Follow

Officers will provide a presentation on the subject at the meeting.

C Taylor gave a presentation to the Committee regarding the improvement works throughout Hemel Hempstead.

• The Masterplan sets the context of all the work within Hemel Town Centre area and the document sets out the aims of the improvement works and identifies suitable uses within the Town Centre.
• There are seven zones in the Masterplan starting from the Plough roundabout to the Old Town.

Projects completed

• The physical works in the Old Town are now complete but this is not the end of the regeneration. The team are working with retailers to develop an Old Town Partnership.
• There is a new entertainment area and space for markets. The Sunday Market is weekly and currently working with the market provider to hopefully put on a Saturday morning food market in the spring. All these plans are hoping to increase footfall.
• Retailers have expressed an interest in having an ATM installed in the High Street which is being explored by officers.
• There have been four new shops opened in the Old Town. There is a new tea shop which has 5-6 members of staff and are currently looking to take on more. There is a new barber shop with a downstairs gaming room for waiting customers. Also, there is a new coffee shop called “Elbows Off The Table” and the Acorn well-being Centre has relocated into the Old Town after previously moving out of the Old Town.
• There is a draft Old Town Strategy and the economic regeneration of the Old Town will continue into the future.
• The Plough roundabout has got new lighting and improved planting and new street furniture in Heath Park and is seemingly quite well used by the public.

Nearing Completion

• The Town Centre now has play areas, stage and a fountain.
• The Christmas event in the town significantly increased the footfall and produced positive feedback.
• One issue is the provision of electricity as there was a problem with a substation. This should be solved by the end of April and then the new footfall counters and the fountain can be switched on. The providers of the fountain warned that if it was used with the current electricity supply, the warranty would be void.
• The planters that have been installed in Bank Court are moveable so can be moved for events. Also, it was important to have the sightline through to the centre of the town so when the Water Gardens are complete, it will be a lovely avenue into the centre with the fountain.
• The new Bus Interchange opened on 21^st December. There are now bus stops into and around Bridge Street and the Marlowes. New shelters have been installed with real time information on bus times. Arriva have a new kiosk for tickets and toilets have been installed. There are plans to turn the old bus station in Market Square to a leisure scheme which will increase the evening footfall.
• The new Bus Interchange has also finished under budget by quite a substantial amount.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

J Doe introduced the report to the Committee to give a summary of the Local Planning Framework and what has been achieved and what is still to come.

• Section 1 of the report is a reminder of what makes up the Local Planning Framework and it comprises a portfolio of documents. The Core Strategy was adopted at Full Council in 2013 setting the strategic context of development in the whole of Dacorum. The next major piece of work referred to in the report is Site Allocations which goes to public examination in the spring.
• Paragraph 1.7 refers to the progress on development. 411 units have been completed during the business year. J Doe drew the Committee’s attention to the 2-3 year delivery figure which is it lower than the target figure of 430 dwellings per annum. This will vary over the lifetime of the plan and it is forecast that the delivery rate will rise but this is a figure that needs to be kept an eye on. Most of the delivery is done through the private sector although the Council house building programme will contribute to this level. 
• The supply of land for housing is good at a 5.9 year supply. The government requires a five year supply and if a local authority dips below this figure, developers seeking permission may have a case for approval due to an inadequate supply of land.
• 72% of dwellings were completed on previously developed land, otherwise known as brownfield sites which is better than previous years. The level is not as high in the 1990’s and 2000’s where we were hitting over 90% - the Kodak tower was redeveloped as well as the Apsley Mills project which contributed to this high figure.
• There is a healthy supply of affordable homes coming through the system.
• The site allocations development plan document which sets out the detailed requirements that the Council puts on developers to deliver out the sites it has identified for building on. It refers to the six allocated sites – LA1 through to LA6 but it also refers to a number of locations within the urban envelope than aren’t in the Green Belt. There have been changes in government policy which has meant some changes were needed so this has pushed the project back a little. A report went to Cabinet on 15^th December and going to Council with a recommendation to approve on 20^th January and the examination by the planning inspector is expected to take place in May.
• This is backed up by a series of masterplans have been pushed on the six allocated sites. The Council has worked with the land owners and developers to set further detail. The Planning Advisory Service has latched on to Dacorum for good practice and features as good practice in a national case study.
• A new Local Plan for Dacorum is currently in progress and this will develop throughout this year. It is likely as part of this work there  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

J Doe gave a presentation to the Committee to brief members of work on the Two Waters Regeneration framework.

• There is a growing need within the borough to accommodate development. Two thirds of borough is surrounded and constrained by Green Belt land so important to look elsewhere.
• In 2014, a planning application was submitted out of the blue for an extensive 16 storey development. It went to Development Control Committee in September 2014 and the outline application was granted.
• There is a contrast within Two Waters between intensively developed area and vast open space.
• Creating a sense of place involves: street and spaces, access and movement, form and detail and use and activities.
• The development corridor is the key area for future development especially on Two Waters Road with the car dealerships and B&Q.
• Hemel Station’s facilities are poor for a town of Hemel Hempstead’s size. London Midland have issues with tunnel capacity and if Crossrail extends through the borough, how will the area respond?
• Apsley station is smaller than Hemel Hempstead but there is potential for housing development.
• Apsley Marina has been a huge success and good example of developing previously commercial land. Potential to be a model for other sites.
• One issue that has been raised is the access to recreational land. The Moor has wide open spaces but the facilities to park are sparse. Therefore, people park on the road to run and this causes wider problems.
• The Canal is a key location for developers whose customers desire a waterside location.
• High density does not necessarily mean high rise, for example, the flats on London Road.
• The outline consent for the Symbio, zero carbon development has been granted and the full application is soon to be presented to the Development Control Committee.
• There needs to be commissioning work done on the access and movement throughout Apsley especially the A41 Junction which is often heavily congested.

Councillor Anderson spoke to members on the Development Control Committee and asked them to be careful expressing an opinion and leave it to other members as an applicant could challenge a decision if they feel a member has already prejudged.

Councillor G Adshead thanked J Doe for a good presentation and said he liked the look of the new contemporary buildings in this area. Have you any ideas on the timescales of Two Waters development?

J Doe said that the Two Waters area is different from the Town Centre. The Council has no land ownership in the area and therefore the Council is setting the context for the private sector. If the Symbio development is granted planning permission then they hope to start building as soon as possible. All planning permission has a five year lifespan before it is invalid.

Councillor G Adshead asked if there was anything the Council could do regarding the car wash/sales on the Plough Roundabout.

J Doe said the site had been acquired for development by the Council to build new social housing however, this  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

N Turvey presented to the committee on the Environmental Management System and the ISO14001:2004.

• Benefits of the ISO14001:2014 include: legal compliance, traceability and transparency, accountability and accessibility to records, uniformity in approach, collaboration between departments, continual improvement and internationally recognised standard.
• The Council has 13 sites covered by the ISO. These include: the civic centres, the cemeteries, adventure playgrounds and Cupid Green.
• There are seven volunteer internal auditors who look after two sites each. They audit these every six to nine months depending on the time they have as they are volunteers.
• Not every Council has an ISO so this is a great achievement.
• Data loggers have been purchased for the final seven sites which allows access to hourly/daily/weekly/monthly profile to identify abnormal flow or water leaks.
• N Turvey referred to the graphs in the presentation and said that Berkhamsted Civic Centre had a continual flow throughout January and February.
• Tring Cemetery is due to have a leak repaired in February and this should save 80% of the water already flowing.
• Hertfordshire University students came to the Civic Centre for two days and instructed a waste survey. They found that of the waste that goes to landfill, only 4% of this really needs to. Therefore it is important to push up the recycling rate from inside the Council. This can be done through education, behavioural change and more accessible facilities.
• The electricity use in adventure playgrounds is high because they only have two utilities provided to them – electricity and water. Therefore, the playgrounds are heated with electricity. Electricity costs 12p Kwh compared to gas at 2.5p Kwh.
• The gas use is high in the Civic Centre through the winter months. It is turned off in April and turned on again in September. Also, the water is heated by electricity at the Civic Centre.
• There are little controls in the Civic Centre for water mainly because there is no point investing when the building will be out of use next year.
• Adeyfield adventure playground had high water usage in March 2015 because there was a break in and an outside tap was damaged meaning water was flowing out.
• Chaulden adventure playground has an undetected leak which cannot be found.

Councillor G Adshead had asked why there was such a high electricity usage at the Civic Centre in October.

N Turvey replied that there was demolition works taking place on site and the tools on site were powered by the Civic Centre’s electricity.

Councillor S Hearn said that small savings in several locations culminates in big savings for the Council.

Councillor Anderson questioned the financial benchmark of the project.

N Turvey said the urinal control in 13 sites has made a saving of just under £2,000 per site.

Councillor Anderson said it would be useful to quantify all savings and then asked if the leak in Gadebridge Park was detected.

N Turvey said it was a urinal control failure in Centre in the Park.

Councillor Marshall thanked the Committee for  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.

Councillor S Hearn requested an item on the work programme to look at LA5 and traveller sites.

J Doe said this could be included on the March agenda.

Item 7 – Local Planning Framework Review

One aspect of the report was whether a Task and Finish Group should be set up to assist in the development of the new Single Local Plan for the Borough. At the meeting it was questioned whether it was appropriate for Members of the Committee who also have Membership of the Development Control Committee to be part of any such Task and Finish Group. As agreed at the meeting, I have consulted with Steve Baker, the Council’s Monitoring Officer, who has advised there should be no conflict of interests arising in the future between Members’ respective roles in Overview and Scrutiny and Development Control.

Following this, with the agreement of Cllr Anderson, Chair of the Strategic Planning and Environment Overview and Scrutiny, interest in sitting on a new Task and Finish Group from Committee Members is now invited. Membership is at the discretion of the Programming Panel which consists of the Political Group Leaders.  The Task and Finish Group shall consist of at least six Members and should be politically balanced.   The Programming Panel will consider expressions of interest and make its decision on composition as soon as possible.

If you wish to sit on the new Local Plan Task and Finish Group, please advise Katie Mogan in Member Support by 12 noon Monday 18^th January 2016.