Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Peach, Councillor Arculus and Councillor J A Fox.  Councillor Benton attended as substitute for Councillor Peach and Councillor Ash attended as substitute for Councillor Fox.

At this point Members must declare whether they have an interest, whether personal or prejudicial, in any of the items on the agenda. 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.

Councillor North advised the Chair that he was concerned that an important point had been missed from the minutes with regard to the Environment Capital Performance Update report and therefore could not approve the minutes. He had asked Councillor Dalton a question regarding when the Environment Capital status would be achieved and when it was achieved what it would look like.  There did not appear to be any mention of this in the minutes.

ACTION

Senior Governance Officer to check the notes taken at the meeting held on 8 September 2011 and respond to Councillor North’s query.

The decision notice for each decision will bear the date on which it is published and will specify that the decision may then be implemented on the expiry of 3 working days after the publication of the decision (not including the date of publication), unless a request for call-in of the decision is received from any two Members of a Scrutiny Committee or Scrutiny Commissions.  If a request for call-in of a decision is received, implementation of the decision remains suspended for consideration by the relevant Scrutiny Committee or Commission.

There were no requests for call-in to consider.

The report provided the Committee with an update on the Council’s procurements relating to Lot 1 (Energy from Waste Facility) and Lot 2 (Materials recycling Facility) and the Councils response to the Peterborough Friends of the Earth (PFoE) report.  The Committee were advised that procurements for Lot 1 and Lot 2 had progressed and were in the final rounds of dialogue with bidders.  Once the dialogue had closed the next stage for each procurement would be to call for final tenders.

The Waste Client Manager went through each of the assumptions made by the Peterborough Friends of the Earth and referred to the Council’s response to each such assumption as set out in Appendix 1 of the report submitted to this Committee.  Councillor Sandford commented that it had taken a long time to respond to the Friends of the Earth report and expressed the view that it was lacking in detail. 

Questions and observations were raised around the following areas:

·         The Waste Client Manger spoke about the debt repayment commencing in 2013 and advised that the procurements, the finances and other factors (such as landfill tax and allowances) were kept under review as regards the optimum time to build the facilities.  .

·         Why did the Council assume that residual waste was going to grow when the Council’s strategy was based on significant reductions in waste?  Were you therefore admitting that the strategy would not succeed?  Members were informed that the waste would grow as the city grew.  The strategy had a challenging target of changing people’s behaviour to make the waste per head of population stop growing.  The level of waste per head may stop growing but the population would increase.  The model had to reflect the aspiration for the city to grow and therefore the population would increase but there was still a commitment to stop the level of waste per person growing.

·         The report states that the Council has a target of recycling at 65% by 2020 and “reducing / no residual” waste growth.  The target had originally been 65% plus by 2020.  Many other authorities were already achieving that target.  Had the target changed?  Members were informed that 65% should have read ‘65% plus’ and that the target had not changed.  The aim was still to reach 65% plus and beyond.

·         What technology are you proposing to install for the energy from waste facility.  The Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Culture, Recreation and Strategic Commissioning advised Members that the Council was technology agnostic and it would be  through the procurement process and dialogue with the bidders that the bidders would put forward the technological solution  that would best suite Peterborough’s needs and requirements for an energy from waste facility and to generate heat and power. The Principal Lawyer (Special Projects/Waste 2020) also informed Members that the Council had gone to the market based on the Council’s 2007 decision which specified that the requirement was for an energy resource facility that would generate power and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

The latest version of the Forward Plan, showing details of the key decisions that the Leader of the Council believed the Cabinet or individual Cabinet Members would be making over the next four months, was received.

Energy Services Company – KEY/03JUL/11

·         Members were concerned that the recent government announcement that solar feed in tariffs would be reduced by half from 12 December 2011 would impact on the council’s projects.  The Executive Director of Operations advised Members that the Council had only just received the announcement regarding the tariff changes and the Executive Director for Strategic Resources was assessing the impact it would have on the Council’s projects.

ACTION AGREED

The Committee noted the Forward Plan.

Members considered the Committee’s Work Programme for 2010/11 and discussed possible items for inclusion.

Members were concerned that the Trees and Woodlands Strategy had been deferred from previous meetings and was not scheduled into the current work programme. The Executive Director of Operations informed Members that the Trees and Woodlands Strategy was currently being reviewed along with the contract for Enterprise.  The strategy was mostly written but some of the wording relating to Enterprise was still to be agreed.

ACTION AGREED

To confirm the work programme for 2010/11 and the Scrutiny Officer to include any additional items as requested during the meeting.

Thursday 5 January 2012

Joint Meeting of Scrutiny Committees and Commissions to scrutinise the Budget 2011/12 and Medium Financial Strategy to 2015/16

Thursday 19 January 2012

Environment Capital Scrutiny Committee

19 January 2012