Agenda item

Cllr Birnie said that the report was fairly comprehensive and asked if anyone had any additions or corrections to that programme. He added that he had heard from one of the Liberal Democrat councillors about plastics, but this item was already included in the work programme.

Cllr Silwal advised that this was Cllr Hobson

Cllr Hobson complained that she had raised this several times. She had originally raised it in response to residents writing to her about their concerns over where their plastic goes. At the time when they received training for their role as committee members, one of the sessions included the right that they have to hold an enquiry to which they can invite people. They cannot compel attendance like a select committee of central government, but they can invite people in and quiz them about where the plastic goes on behalf of residents. She had written to the Chairman and to Member Support and had brought this up on 2 or 3 occasions. But this was dismissed at the last committee saying it was already on the agenda, whereas the only thing that is on the work programme is an update from the officer who is in charge of plastics. So just because she was frankly fed up with asking for this, could they get the committee to agree that they do not believe that they should be using their powers to hold an inquiry into where plastic goes in the next couple of years? So, in the lifetime of this council, this committee does not want to pursue on behalf of their residents a proper inquiry into where their plastic goes. She felt it would be a missed opportunity. She thought it would show that this committee had teeth. They had asked a lot of questions, they had played some great games this evening as they often did but, as she said, she felt this was a missed opportunity to show what political scrutiny can do for the residents. So her request to the Chairman was to ask the committee just to confirm that they have no interest in pursuing this in the next couple of years, then she could draw a line under it and stop asking.

Cllr Anderson said that this report had already been written and he felt that people were getting steamed up over something that was already in progress. He explained that the first annual report on waste analysis had stated where waste went, in particular what was sent overseas and this report went to the Herts Waste Panel earlier this year. Had there been any environment item on the agenda tonight it would have been presented. He thought that they have all been grouped together for a further meeting and had the agenda not been full it would have been dealt with tonight, so he did not think there was any need for people to get worked up about it.

Cllr Hobson objected that a report from the Officer on what is happening was not the same as an inquiry. She was very frustrated about being patronised by remarks about getting worked up and all the other stuff so, she asked, “could it be agreed that this committee does not want to exercise its powers?”

Cllr Birnie said she was getting this the wrong way round and she could not ask the committee to agree that. If what she was suggesting was a viable proposition then he would certainly stand behind it. What he was about to suggest was that she could perhaps write to him or they could sit down and discuss it.

Cllr Hobson said she had written to him twice already

Cllr Birnie said that she had written to him complaining that he had not done anything on the matter. But what was not clear to him was how they would conduct this investigation and what they would hope to achieve from it. If she could give him some more details then he would certainly take it up with the portfolio holder and probably in any event schedule it on a future occasion.

Cllr Hobson agreed that she would resend her first email and her second email, which may have come across as complaining, as the first email was not answered. The training that they had right at the beginning when they were new councillors was a waste of time and councillor Anderson right at the beginning in an early meeting did say that one of the roles of the committee was that they could hold inquiries and that appeared to be news to the Chairman. She concluded that she had become very frustrated and disenfranchised with her role as a councillor and did not feel she was being heard in this committee at all.

Cllr Birnie responded by suggesting that they pursue this outside of the committee

JDoe updated the committee with a reminder from MGaynor that there would be a further report on the climate emergency in the summer so they would need to see where that can be programmed. He noted that the July 7^th meeting was looking very busy and suggested that the relevant officers could liaise with Layla and the Chairman about where it could be slotted in. He also noted that Members had requested a report on infrastructure planning for water supply and sewerage provision and that report would come forward at the next meeting, where they had been able to secure a speaker from Affinity Water who will cover water supply. Unfortunately Thames Water who would deal with sewerage and sewerage disposal are not available on that date.

Cllr Birnie presumed that if they needed to they could approach Thames Water for another date that they would find acceptable. He said that it was the sort of thing that may not necessarily need to come to this committee, but it might be the sort of thing that interests other Councillors so could be open to a bigger forum if SPAE cannot accommodate it in its work programme.

Cllr Stevens referred back to the waste and plastic, thanking the Chairman for scheduling in this conversation and the presentation from Duncan Jones from Herts Waste, as he is the county’s guru on waste and for East Anglia as well. He suspected that he would be able to give some information on what happens to their plastic.

Cllr Stevens asked JDoe if he were able to tell them how many responses they have received on the Local Plan

JDoe said he would be hesitant to offer a figure at this stage as Officers are still logging responses on the system. There was an online facility but inevitably a lot of people did write in or email and so on, with the result that Officers were still uploading responses and his department would get a final figure to the committee as soon as possible.

Cllr Birnie asked if there was even a rough indication

JDoe said it was in the region of 3000 certainly and may well be above that

Cllr Ransley said that she had residents who said that they could not find their comments. This could be as they are still being logged in, but could she ask that a notice was placed on the website to advise that this is the case so the residents know what is going on.

JDoe accepted the suggestion and advised that he would take it back to the team.

Cllr England stated that if Cllr Hobson still wanted to propose what she proposed a few minutes ago then he would be willing to second that and they could put it to bed.

Cllr Birnie said that he was not aware that Cllr Hobson was making any proposal but he would certainly like to find out exactly what it was that she wanted the committee to do and he intended to pursue that with her. He certainly would not let it die the death.