Agenda and minutes

To agree the minutes of the previous meeting.

Present:                                                                             

Officers:

Councillor J Banks              Portfolio Holder -  Community & Regulatory Services

The minutes of the last meeting were agreed.

To receive any apologies for absence.

There were no apologies for absence.

To receive any declarations of interest.

There were no declarations of interest.

There was no public participation.

None.

The Chairman advised that he would be start discussions at Item 7, to allow the officers attending only for the Performance Reports to leave the meeting after their items as Item 6 is likely to be lengthy.  The minutes have been presented in numerical order.

JDoe introduced Alex Robinson, Strategic Planning Manager and Olivia Halper, Urban Design Officer who will be taking Members through the report in detail.

JDoe introduced the covering report as an important piece of work commissioned between DBC and St Albans with some input from Hertfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership.  There will be some major sites coming forward for development through the emerging Local Plan.  JDoe stressed that all that is being considered this evening is the draft of the consultation is for Dacorum only, St Albans will be following their own consultation in line with their own procedures.  Any views of the committee will be reported to Cabinet.  

Officers are looking to publish draft plan by November of this year, dialogue with potential developers of those sites has started on a without prejudice basis on how to bring those developments forward.  This document will set out how we expect developers to design those sites so that the expectations of the Council are clear.

JDoe welcomed any feedback/questions, which can also be submitted by email after the meeting . Such post meeting feedback will be incorporated in what is fed back to Cabinet.

Alex Robinson displayed the presentation ‘The Dacorum Strategic Design Guide’ on screen and guided Members through the document and presentation.

Cllr Silwal commented that the report refers to work being carried out in 2020 and asked; will you be able to do that work while this pandemic is ongoing?  ARobinson responded that a lot of work can be carried out remotely from home so work can continue.  The only area that may be impacted will be public consultation and that will be programmed in to fit around current constraints of COVID-19 pandemic.

Cllr Birnie referred to smaller developments . As he understands it. this document refers mainly to larger developments and the developer has to comply with how an application should be developed. But there is nothing relating to individual or smaller developments. He asked whether they come under the Design Guide.  ARobinson confirmed that the Design Guide will be applicable to all developments, regardless of size.

Cllr Beauchamp said that he considers this to be an excellent document.  He requested that when it is issued in a final form, Members should receive a hard copy, as it is very difficult to read these long documents on a laptop.

Cllr Timmis referred to documents being replaced and asked, how are they going to be changed (referring specifically to conservation areas and listed buildings).  ARobinson confirmed that allocation of conservation areas and listed buildings will not be changed. 

Cllr Timmis asked about conversion of agricultural buildings.  ARobinson confirmed this will be picked up within the style guide. 

ARobinson added that the intention is to bring the guidance up to date, streamline and consolidate it, as at the moment there are various relevant documents spread across different areas.  We are not anticipating any big changes.

Cllr Birnie addressed JDoe and asked; do we make considerable money from pre-app consultation and will  ...  view the full minutes text for item 87.

CThorpe referred to the Performance Report Q3, which covers Aug to Dec 2019.

He highlighted a couple of key projects that have run on into Qtr 4.

Food recycling roll out to flats; now completed.

At Christmas the service trialled not delivering physical calendars on wheeled bins; this  went very well with a very good response and it was only necessary to send out 100 hard copy calendars to people who were not able to access calendars online.

Building works completed; a  temporary structure at depot has been removed in favour of a roofed structure to keep the co-mingling dry.

Upgrade to welfare facilities for female staff and showers for male staff; completed.

Update in fleet workshop completed, which enables us to complete various works to vehicles that had to previously be outsourced.

Cllr Silwal asked; with regard communal bin areas, is there any plan to disinfect?  Also is there enough PPE for Clean Safe & Green staff?

CThorpe responded that there are no plans in place to disinfect bins areas but if we need to there are the facilities available to do so.  He confirmed there is plenty of PPE. Everyone is issued with gloves and sanitiser every morning.  Vehicles are sanitised before they go out each day.

Cllr Timmis congratulated and thanked Craig on the speed of collection of fly tipping.

Cllr Birnie asked if there was any reason for the increase in food waste in Qtr 3.  CThorpe advised there was a rise in food waste disposal following panic buying due to the lockdown.

Cllr Birnie referred to assisted bin collection performance still being red and asked, is there a solution?  CThorpe responded that the system that was previously used in the vehicles was out of date. New kit is now installed in all vehicles so that should improve.  CThorpe commented that there is also a high number of agency staff at this time who do not have the assisted collection knowledge that established staff would have.  This is a result of staff self-isolating due to COVID-19 symptoms or those self-isolating due to being in the vulnerable category.

Cllr Beauchamp asked when the fencing around the trenches in Gadebridge Park would be removed.  CThorpe advised he does not have that information but would speak to the relevant department and come back with a response.

Cllr Birnie asked if there is a problem in Kylna Court with bins being near air intakes, commenting that he has received some complaints about smell from bins.  CThorpe responded that he has not been made aware of any complaint and advised he would take the matter up with Cllr Birnie outside of the meeting.

Cllr Woolner commented that she has been very impressed and had lots of feedback that everyone is very pleased and grateful for all the work that is being done to keep up essential services by Environmental Services.

Report noted.

The Chair referred to the report which all Members confirmed they had read.  The Chair invited questions to Emma Walker.

Cllr Birne referred to 635 fly tips in Qtr 3 and asked if that is an improvement on Qtr 2.  EWalker confirmed she would have to look into that and come back with a response.

Cllr Beauchamp referred to fly tipping in the Town Centre and asked where that was?  EWalker responded it was to the rear of the Old Market Square.

Cllr Birnie congratulated the food team for their sterling work. 

Cllr Birnie referred to the accident that had to be reported and queried what the nature of the accident was.  EWalker responded that it was a slip/fall accident resulting in broken bones and advised that in an accident at work there are always lessons to learnt but there has been no contact from HSE on this matter.

Report noted.

JDoe introduced the report and referred to the dip in performance in getting planning applications validated, advising that this was impacted by the delivery of new software in Development Management which required a holding over of people being able to make comments and register them on planning applications.  There were staff dedicated to that project which did deplete the workforce at the same time that we experienced a peak in applications.  That trend will likely continue into Qtr 4 but we should see an improvement in Qtr 1 2020/21.

Cllr Timmis referred to Item 20 on recruitment & retention and asked; why is it this cannot be addressed?  It seems to be an ongoing problem?  What can be done to attract high quality planning officers?  JDoe responded there is an overall issue in this area of the professional market.  As there is an ebb and flow in the quantity of applications coming, Dacorum does make use of agency staff as required.  The good news is that vacant posts are being filled and DBC turnover is lower than other Councils in the South-East. 

Cllr Timmis acknowledged that there are a lot of red targets, but added her comment that Planning Enforcement has been excellent, in her experience.

Cllr Birnie referred to para.13 of the report and asked; is it too early for a report on HBC?   JDoe responded that it would be appropriate to discuss when this could come back to OSC when we have some more meaningful data to consider.

Cllr Birnie asked; why is the indicator relating to appeals dismissed still at red?  JDoe responded that he is working through this in some detail with Cllr Sutton and will come back on the matter.

Report noted. 

Meeting ended at 20:27