Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Councillors Sanders and Lamb

At this point Members must declare whether they have a disclosable pecuniary interest, or other interest, in any of the items on the agenda, unless it is already entered in the register of members’ interests or is a “pending notification “ that has been disclosed to the Solicitor to the Council.

Members must also declare if they are subject to their party group whip in relation to any items under consideration.

There were no declarations of interest

The minutes of the Scrutiny Commission for Rural Communities meeting held on 14 January 2012 were approved as a true and accurate record.

            This report was presented to the Commission to inform them of the work being carried out by the Council within the area of water management and to assist with raising awareness of flood risk and water management issues within Peterborough.

The Commission was requested to note the report, endorse the services being provided and offer suggestions for inclusion in the work programme.

Members were also asked that following the meeting they utilise any future opportunities as Councillors to raise awareness of the need for residents and businesses to prepare for severe weather events (e.g. flood risk and drought).

The following comments, observations and questions were raised:

·         Members queried whether Peterborough City Council had the option to use resources from other authorities if necessary. The Flood and Water Management Officer informed Members that Peterborough worked closely with other authorities in Emergency Planning and with the Planning Development Management Team. The right approach would be to look at a catchment area as a whole to enable resources to be shared and authorities to learn from each other.

·         Members queried whether the issue with the water pumps in Thorney had been resolved. Members were informed that Anglian Water had resolved the problem by replacing the wastewater (foul) pumps. The company’s data also showed that the rain water was not entering into the foul system.

·         Members queried whether plans for new developments in Thorney were being reviewed in terms of whether the water systems could cope with the new builds. Members were advised that following detailed discussions Anglian Water had advised that they felt their water systems would be able to cope with the new development.

·         Members were concerned that the B1040 road was being closed due to flood warnings when the road did not appear to be flooded. Members were advised that Peterborough City Council closed the North Bank road. However the B1040 was the responsibility of Cambridgeshire County Council and it was understood that they were looking at ways of addressing issues. The Environment Agency had also been asked to reassess the timings of their flood warnings. However the roads would always need to be closed before water levels were due to rise for the safety of residents.

·         Members queried what the Council’s biggest concern would be if the weather continued to stay extreme. that the Flood and Water Management Officer advised members that  in her opinion it could be the element of new developments and the changes in drainage systems. The concern was not with work the Council carried out but whether the forthcoming Government regulations would lay an appropriate foundation to ensure the new system would run correctly.

·         Members queried whether the Council were the right point of contact if there was an issue with dykes or drains. Members were advised to contact the Council and even if it was not Council property they could find out who it belonged to. If, for example, there was an issue with a private land owner’s management of a watercourse and this posed  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

            This report was delivered along with a presentation at the request of the Commission who requested information on the following items:

• Any Developments with Call Connect
• A description of rural services as they stood
• Likely Problems and development

The report advised the Commission that there were no recent developments regarding Call Connect however as part of the bus service review options around expanding existing demand response (including all Call Connect) was being considered.

The Commission were advised that Members had received an invitation to contact a member of the transport team regarding any concerns they may have had regarding the reduction in subsidised passenger transport services as a result of budget changes adopted on 6 March 2013 at full Council.

Among the services subsidised were:

• Some of Stagecoach’s weekend and evening buses
• Local Link 401/401A, 404, 406, 407, 408, 410, and 411 Enterprise
• Local Link 413 Centrebus
• Community Link and Dial-a-Ride

Members were asked to consider the report, feedback any comments to officers and were also recommended to make an appointment with the team to discuss the item further.

The following comments, observations and questions were raised:

·         Members were concerned that the budget saving would not be achieved as it was not going to be looked in to for a further six months and £750,000 would already have been spent. The Transport and Infrastructure Planning Manager advised members that there was more money in the transport pot this year therefore that would allow the transport team six months to find £600,000 savings.

·         Members were concerned that elderly people and rural people would be impacted the most by these changes and queried whether the Equality Impact Assessment would reflect this. Members were informed that the Equality Impact Assessment would look at elderly people and people in rural areas.

·         Members queried what the budget was for the transportation service in 2013/14. Members were informed that for the whole year the budget was around 1.14 million pounds.

·         Members queried whether any other contracts other than those indicated in 4.1 of the report needed to be reviewed on 1 April. Members were informed that all of the Local Link contracts would be reviewed on 1 April 2013.

·         Members queried why Call Connect was not included in the review. Members were informed that the demand responsive services would be used where the timetabled bus services were extracted.

·         Members commented that all Equality Impact Assessments should have been carried out before the decisions to cut services were made as once the budget had been halved there was no opportunity to retract. Members were advised that Equality Impact Assessments were taken on Local Link in the first stage because the contract expired on 31 March 2013 therefore that service needed to be assessed quicker to enable a procurement exercise to take place however Equality Impact Assessments would also be undertaken on voluntary Partnership and Luxicab.

·         Members queried whether the reason the Council found themselves in the situation of having to make these cuts was because Enterprise  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

The Committee received the latest version of the Council’s Notice of Intention to Take Key Decisions, containing key decisions that the Leader of the Council anticipated the Cabinet or individual Cabinet Members would make during the course of the following four months.  Members were invited to comment on the Plan and, where appropriate, identify any relevant areas for inclusion in the Committee’s work programme.

ACTION AGREED

The Committee noted the latest version of the Council’s Notice of Intention to take key Decisions.