Agenda and draft minutes

To agree the minutes of the previous meeting held on Tuesday 2^nd February.

The minutes of the Strategic Planning and Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting held on 02 February 2016 were confirmed by the members present and signed by the Chairman.

To receive any apologies for absence.

Apologies of absence were received from Councillor Bateman and Councillor Ransley.

Councillor Tindall substituted on behalf of Councillor Ransley.

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.

D Skinner introduced the report to the committee. He informed the committee about the £223,000 overspend which is consistent with previous quarters and was confident that the balance would be reduced by the end of the year.

In terms of Strategic Planning and Environment, there was an overspend in waste and planning services due to the timing of implementation of the anticipated waste collections and there was an increased pressure on employing agency staff. There is a corresponding surplus due to the income from planning charges.

Councillor C Wyatt-Lowe referred to line 162 and questioned the low uptake on home improvements and asked if it had been advertised appropriately. Councillor C Wyatt-Lowe said she would prefer this money to be spent on improving pockets of deprivation instead of it being removed from the capital programme.

C Troy said the scheme was not widely advertised but had been advertised nationally. There has been poor take up of the scheme across the country. It is important to note that they are not grants but loans so must be paid back.

Councillor C Wyatt-Lowe was concerned that it was not being advertised locally therefore not fulfilling the schemes full potential.

Councillor Tindall asked if private rented landlords were able to apply as they are often the buildings in the worst condition.

C Troy said the scheme was for homeowners. Private landlords have a legal responsibility to ensure properties are maintained. If they do not keep to these standards then enforcement action is taken.

Councillor Matthews noted that it was to be removed from the capital programme but questioned whether it should be abandon due to a low take up – would this benefit homeowners?

C Troy said the proposal had been discussed at length. The scheme has been in place for 18 months and similar schemes came before it. It has been advertised on the Council’s website.

Councillor Marshall confirmed that removing it from the budget for 2016/17 was before the committee in February and approved at Full Council.

Councillor Tindall asked if this was a government requirement, so if someone comes forward for a loan, if there is no money in the budget what position is the Council in?

C Troy confirmed that it was discretionary.

Councillor Hicks asked the percentage of take up of this scheme.

C Troy said they had one application for £8,000 but this has not been processed yet.

Outcome

The Strategic Planning and Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee noted the report.

C Thorpe introduced the report. He stated that the quality of waste collected continues to be excellent at 98% and Dacorum is producing the best waste of out of 29 disposal authorities. The new waste collection calendars have gone out and have included the green bin collection which has gone down well with residents.

Social media has been used well and more time has been spent on daily updates to encourage recycling. In October, there were 40 posts advertising food waste disposal and in December, social media was used to promote Christmas collections with the bank holidays.

After Christmas, the department held its 20^th annual Christmas tree recycling event and processed 3,300 trees to shred into chippings and 11 tonnes went to composting. The department has also been working closely with Network Rail to cut down trees which have been turned into seating for play areas across the borough.

C Thorpe said that sickness has been decreasing month on month. There have been some retirements and resignations from those staff that have been on long term sick leave. Six return to works were completed late and the rest were completed within 2.5 days of the staff member returning.

Comingled waste collected has decreased slightly but food waste has increased. Obviously due to the suspension of green bin collections, the amount of green waste collected has decreased.

Councillor Ashbourn questioned the high sickness level for just three members of staff in the vehicle repairs department.

C Thorpe said that unfortunately the youngest member of the crew was involved in a car accident and has not yet returned to work.

Councillor Matthews referred to the fluctuations in the figures for food waste collection. He asked if this could be a seasonal issue or are residents getting better at recycling.

C Thorpe said they have experienced two dips in food waste collection. In June, the caddy liners ran out so it was considered this was a reason for the dip. However, now plastic carrier bags can be used in the food waste caddy. Last month, ‘No Food Waste’ labels were placed on all black bins to encourage residents to place their food in their green caddy. The week after, the crews collected 56 tonnes more food waste.

Councillor Marshall also pointed out that the quarter included Christmas so more food waste would be expected.

Councillor Tindall questioned the different quarters being used. He stated that it seemed the calendar year was being used instead of the financial year.

D Austin said that he would check if this was an error but stated that the financial year should be used.

Councillor C Wyatt-Lowe said although she was pleased to see more food waste being collected, there should be a campaign to prevent such a high wastage of food. Councillor C Wyatt-Lowe asked if this was earning any money.

C Thorpe said there was a difference in the cost of disposal. It costs £94 a tonne to send to landfill and just £30 a  ...  view the full minutes text for item 76.

J Doe introduced the report and said that quarter 3 was strong for performance. He said the workload was still high but marginally down on the previous quarter. There are a lot of applications coming in and this is reflected in the increase in fee revenue.

There is a slight error on paragraph 5, it should be 60% not 80% turnaround of major applications.

There is an ongoing concern with regard to appeals performance; it is a little higher than the national average.

There has been an improvement in land charges; the average turnaround has decreased from 13 days to 6.5 days.

J Doe drew members’ attention to paragraph 12 and said that this was very important for the Council to demonstrate an ongoing supply of housing land and so far 300 houses have been built and the annual target is 430.

Councillor Matthews referred to page 11 and asked if there was any indications on the effect of turnaround now that officers have been delegated the power to take enforcement action.

J Doe said he felt it was probably too early to tell but would certainly keep an eye on it.

Councillor Ashbourn said he hoped that appeals awarded against the Council would not result in the process being any less robust. He hoped that the team took the time to analyse why the appeals were awarded against and to learn from them.

J Doe said there is a review process in place in order for the team to learn from the decision. Sometimes the appeals are awarded against the Council due to the quality of the policies in place. Due to the recent high staff turnover, all reports are checked by senior officers.

Councillor C Wyatt-Lowe mentioned the review of the new Local Plan and asked if members would have any input on developing the new plan.

J Doe said a task and finish group would be set up and this has worked well in shaping policy in the past. However, it is a long process formulating a new Local Plan.

Councillor Hicks said that Tring Town clerk had contacted the planning department for clarification on some plans but had not received a response. He asked if J Doe could give an average time scale for a response.

J Doe asked Councillor Hicks to forward him the correspondence and he will look into it.

Councillor Anderson said that this is a common complaint about case officers not responding to queries. He said that case officers are extremely busy and would not get any work done if they responded to every query. Councillor Anderson encouraged the other members to advise constituents that the officers do read queries and take them into account when producing reports.

J Doe said officers make the effort to respond but performance figures are key. New government measures mean that if a local authority dips below a certain level, the Secretary of State can intervene and refer applications straight to the planning inspector and although  ...  view the full minutes text for item 77.

C Troy introduced the report and ran through the key performance areas. The highlights of the quarter included enforcement with regards to food establishments. The department has issued three hygiene improvement notices. C Troy highlighted that the issues were to do with the establishment’s management systems, not necessarily their hygiene practices. If they do not have the correct documentation then they cannot prove they are implementing the correct management processes.

C Troy advised members that there was an ongoing situation with Bovingdon airfield in relation to motor vehicles. So far they have received over 200 noise complaints. This has been ongoing for 18 months and the department are working closely with planning.

With regards to air quality, he said that that there is a County Wide strategy and the key aim is to get all the Local Authority’s working together towards common objectives to improve air quality. A key piece of work will be to ensure that there is better links with planning departments across the County to ensure improvements in air quality. The Council’s own air quality action plan was agreed last year but district councils generally have difficulty achieving improvements as transport improvements are down to regional planning policy.

Regulatory Services have also been responsible for Corporate Health and Safety since 2014.

In Private Sector Housing, the department have been able to take over and manage properties with multiple occupancy where tenant’s safety were being put at risk. There is currently a government consultation to extend HMO (house in multiple occupation) licensing to cover more premises and this will require extra resources if it goes ahead. The consultation has finished but there has been no update from the government.

Councillor C Wyatt-Lowe questioned why the Council was subsidising private sector housing.

C Troy said there would be a charge for licensing and there is currently a debate in government about charging for inspections for other aspects of Environmental Health work i.e Food Safety/H&S, at the moment this is not allowed. It is well known that there is a lack of resources in local authorities.

Councillor C Wyatt-Lowe hoped that the Council were fully engaged in the consultation process.

C Troy confirmed they were. He recently attended a national managers meeting at the Chartered Institute to discuss these issues.

Councillor Ashbourn referred to item 5 about air quality and he hoped that the local Action Plan aligned with the Local Plan in order to inform each other.

C Troy said at the moment they are not used in this way. The air quality priorities are isolated and are not fully embedded in Local Plans. There is currently a lack of will from the government to tackle air quality.

J. Doe said that Air Quality issues will feature in the site selection process for the new Dacorum local plan, and the planning department will continue to with Environmental Health to help deliver the Air Quality priorities in the identified AQMAs.

Councillor Matthews said he was aware that Northchurch was  ...  view the full minutes text for item 78.

S Coultas gave a presentation to the committee to update them on the work of the Clean, Safe and Green team.

At the end of February, the CSG team conducted the annual A41 litter pick. The cost of the traffic management was £750 per day per side of the A41. Alongside this cost, there are staff, transport and material costs and the litter pick requires 8 members of staff per side. This year, the team collected 10 tonnes of rubbish which was an improvement on last year’s 9 tonnes.

The challenges of this pick is booking the A41 in advance with Hertfordshire County Council, if there are roadworks or lighting that needs replacing then obviously the litter pick cannot happen and is considered low priority. Also, staff availability can be an issue. Only fully trained, experienced and permanent staff can do the litter pick due to the dangerous nature of the job so therefore agency staff are required to back fill the other jobs. Finally, a traffic survey must be conducted every morning and work can only begin once the volume of traffic is below a certain level. If the weather is poor, the traffic management is still conducted and paid for even if crews are not picking that day.

The Green Lane/Phoenix roundabout is to be enhanced in order to create a visual impact as this is a gateway into Hemel Hempstead. The planting will be orange and yellow to reflect the flames of Buncefield. Work has already started on the site, the crew have been spraying herbicide on the ground. However, they have found some cables for lighting underneath and so they must wait for the power supply to be isolated before the surface is dug up for planting. It is hoped the roundabout will be finished by June.

Dacorum now has four Green Flags for its parks. The three existing sites retained their flags. Tring Memorial was subject to a ‘mystery shop’ where inspectors turned up unannounced and the park received 75% and Chipperfield Park was also subject to an announced visit and received 74%. Berkhamsted Canal Fields was judged knowingly and received 69%. These are all very good scores. The fourth Green Flag was awarded to Bunkers Park and also received 69%. The judges declared it “a hidden gem and full of character”.

The team have planted 600sqm of wild flowers in Heath Park and completed a new path layout. Clean, Safe and Green have been working closely with the Regeneration team to create this new space.

The new Town Centre team are working well; there are three members of staff plus a supervisor and team leader. They work staggered shifts to ensure the Town Centre is covered all day. They have a new electric vehicle for collecting bin rubbish which reduces noise and pollution.

The Clean, Safe and Green team are also working closely with the Regeneration team to complete the Water Gardens.

The bench replacement scheme has had £20,000 funding approved which means there  ...  view the full minutes text for item 79.

K Mogan to organise a meeting to determine to work programme for 2016/17.

Councillor Anderson asked for any suggestions from members.

Councillor Tindall suggested the implications of the Housing and Planning Bill that is currently in the House of Lords.

J Doe said this will go on the items to add as it is not yet law and will need a lot of preparation time.

The members agreed the work programme for 2015/16.