Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Councillor Martin and Councillor Forbes attended as substitute. Apologies were also received from John Harrison, Executive Director, Strategic Resources.

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.

Agenda item – 6  Environment Capital Overview

Councillor Sandford declared an interest in that he was a member of the Board at Peterborough Environment City Trust.

22 March 2012 – Minutes of  Environment Capital Scrutiny Committee

6 March 2012 – Minutes of Sustainable Growth Scrutiny Committee

The minutes of the Sustainable Growth Scrutiny Committee meeting held on 22 March were noted and accepted as there were no members of this committee in attendance at that meeting.

The minutes of the Environment Capital Scrutiny Committee meeting held on 6 March were approved as an accurate record.

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.

At this point the Chair announced that the Committee had agreed to change the order of the agenda and that item number 5 would be presented after item 9 on the agenda to allow more time for discussion.

The Sustainable Environment Manager introduced the report.   The report provided the Committee with an overview of the Environment Capital Project providing background information on the council’s commitment to become the UK’s Environment Capital and progress that had been made across the four key objectives, as set out in the Sustainable Community Strategy:

• Making Peterborough cleaner and greener
• Conserving natural resources
• Increasing the use of sustainable transport
• Increasing the environmental business sector

Members were advised that work had also progressed on the following key documents which would be presented to the Committee at future meetings.

• Environment Capital Delivery Framework
• Environment Capital headline targets
• Environment Capital timeline
• A bespoke Environment Capital Enewsletter
• Action plan for  the current year
• Live Health Live Green Supplementary Planning document

Questions and observations were made around the following areas:

·         A member of the Committee had attended a presentation on the Incredible Edibles Project and wanted to know if Peterborough was going to be part of the project.  Members were informed that Peterborough had already started work on the project and this was being led by the Neighbourhoods team.

·         Members requested further clarification of the Environment Capital priority ‘Making Peterborough cleaner and greener” and wanted to know how this would be achieved.  Members were informed that this priority was around projects relating to green spaces, wildlife, waste and recycling, bat projects, bird box projects,  an owl project and educating people to recycle more and sending less waste to landfill. It was also around environmental enforcement and regulating against fly tipping.

·         How are PCC working with Enterprisewith regard to the cleaner greener priority?  Members were informed that there was a community engagement plan which covered education in recycling and fly tipping in communities and in schools.

·         The report mentioned one success as being the winner of the ‘Most Improved Bus Services’ category at the national Transport Awards.  Members wanted to know if this included all transport across Peterborough.  The Officer did not have all the details but believed it was awarded because of the relationship the council had with Stagecoach  and in particular for the new bus service between the city centre and  the hospital.

·         Members noted from the report that Cranfield University and PCC had formed a partnership to develop education and research in renewable energy and bio-fuels to support future economic growth in the city.  Would Cranfield be going into Secondary schools to talk about this to encourage young people to take this up as a career option?  Members were informed that the project involved a wide number of partnerships which included the Peterborough Regional College, UK Centre for Economic & Environmental Development (UK CEED) and Opportunity Peterborough.

The Chair thanked the Sustainable Environment Manager for an informative report.

ACTION AGREED

That the Committee note the contents of the report and that the key documents as listed in the report are presented to the Committee for comment and recommendations at a future meeting when ready.  Those documents being:

• Environment Capital Delivery  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

The report was jointly introduced bythe Head of Planning, Transport and Engineering Services, the Head of Growth and Regeneration and the Director of Economic Development.  The report provided the Committee with an overview of the issues, opportunities, priorities and challenges in connection with the sustainable growth theme.  Members were informed that there were three main teams tasked with the delivery of Growth within the city and they were:

·         Growth and Regeneration:  this area was tasked with the physical delivery on site. The overarching role of this team was to bring together potential partners from both the public and private sectors and get them working together to deliver growth.  The Head of Growth and Regeneration gave a presentation which highlighted the following:

o        The role of the team and its core functions

o        Current projects being worked on which were Carbon Challenge, Community Stadium, Public realm: Bridge Street, South Bank and the Station Quarter

·         Opportunity Peterborough:  this area was tasked with delivering economic development services to the business community.  This broadly focused on the following key elements:

o        Ensuring that Peterborough was visible to investors

o        Supporting local business ambitions

o        Creating conditions to increase skills level across the communities

o        Increasing knowledge of the local economy and utilising intelligence effectively

o        Ensuring that Peterborough gets maximum value from the Greater Cambridge  Greater Peterborough Local Enterprise Partnership

The Director of Economic Development gave a presentation which highlighted the following:

o        What Opportunity Peterborough was and its role

o        Information regarding Peterborough’s economy

o        Achievements during 2011/2012 and the focus for 2012/13

o        Looking ahead and what advantages Peterborough had compared to some other cities advising Members that Peterborough was one of the fastest growing inner cities and had been in the top ten growth cities over the last five years.

·         Planning, Transport and Engineering: This department fulfilled the statutory roles of the Council as local planning authority and local highway authority. The functions of the team were as follows:

o        Development Management

o        Building Control

o        Planning Policy

o        Housing Strategy

o        Highway Management and Maintenance

o        Transport and Infrastructure Planning and Delivery

o        Climate Change

o        Emergency Planning, Resilience and Business Continuity

o        Natural and Built Heritage

o        Biodiversity

o        Passenger Transport

o        Drainage and Flood Risk Management

The Head of Planning, Transport and Engineering Services informed Members that the Planning, Transport and Engineering teams now worked together in one place to help drive forward the growth of the city.  All major planning policies had already been through the Sustainable Growth Scrutiny Committee with the exception of the City Centre Plan which was due to come to Committee this year.  Members were given background information on what  services each area provided and were invited to visit the department to meet officers from each service area and gain a greater awareness of the services that were provided.

Questions and observations were made around the following areas:

·         Members wanted to know what the timescale was for completion of the carbon challenge  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

The report provided the Committee with:

·         a review of work undertaken during 2011/12 and recommendations made

·         the terms of reference for the Committee and

·         a draft work programme for 2012/2013 for consideration

The Committee considered the report and decided that there were no recommendations from last year that required further monitoring.

The Senior Governance Officer brought to the Committees attention an action from the Sustainable Growth Scrutiny Committee meeting held on 6 March 2012 which had been from agenda item 7 - Complaints Monitoring Report.

• The Committee recommends that the Head of Customer Services pilot over a period of time with members of the Committee if the complaints they receive have already been logged with the Central Complaints Department.

The Head of Customer Services had asked the Senior Governance Officer to raise this at the meeting and request that a volunteer from the Committee work with the Head of Customer Services to undertake the pilot.  Councillor Maqbool volunteered and the Committee agreed to her nomination.

ACTION AGREED

The Committee agreed that the Senior Governance Officer work with the Chair and Group Representatives to manage the work programme of the Committee and programme in requested items as highlighted at the meeting.

The  Committee received the latest version of the Council’s Forward Plan, 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

To note the latest version of the Forward Plan.

At this point the meeting was adjourned for ten minutes.

In accordance with Standing Orders, Members are asked to determine whether the update report to be tabled at the meeting relating to agenda item 5. Waste 2020 Programme – Energy From Waste Facility which contains exempt appendices containing information relating to the financial or business affairs of a particular person (including the authority holding that information), as defined by Paragraph 3 of Schedule 12A of Part 1 of the Local Government Act 1972, should be exempt and the press and public excluded from the meeting when these appendices are discussed or whether the public interest in disclosing this information outweighs the public interest in maintaining the exemption.

The Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Culture, Recreation and Strategic Commissioning introduced the report and informed the Committee that the Energy from Waste Facility  would be one of the biggest decisions that the council had taken.  It had been a long process which had started before 2007.  A rigorous and detailed process had been applied which had taken into account environmental, financial and technical aspects to delivering a solution to the city’s waste issues.  A competitive dialogue procurement process had been used which meant that private companies had been used to provide expertise to advise on the best solution for the council.  There was a huge cost to dealing with waste and the council had sought a technological solution to dealing with it that would cost less over the long term rather than continuing to send it to landfill.

The Chair advised the Committee that the Waste Facility had already received planning permission and that the report was about the procurement process.

The Chair then advised that there was an update report to be tabled at the meeting which included exempt papers which had not yet been presented to the Committee and in accordance with Standing Orders, Members were asked to determine whether the update report which was to be tabled relating to agenda item 5. Waste 2020 Programme – Energy From Waste Facility which contained the exempt appendices containing information relating to the financial or business affairs of a particular person (including the authority holding that information), as defined by Paragraph 3 of Schedule 12A of Part 1 of the Local Government Act 1972, should be exempt and the press and public excluded from the meeting when these appendices were to be discussed or whether the public interest in disclosing this information outweighed the public interest in maintaining the exemption.

Councillor Sandford wished to record that during his time at the Council he had not attended a meeting where the Committee had been requested to decide on whether exempt papers should be exempt from the press and public without seeing them first.

The Head of Legal Services informed the Committee that whilst it was unusual to ask the Committee to make a decision on the exempt papers without seeing them first it was a correct procedure and in order for the Committee to do so.  The process was permitted by law and the advice of the Head of Legal Services was that the Committee should move into Exempt Session whilst considering the exempt papers.

The Chair continued the meeting at this point in public session to allow members of the audience to speak and some discussion from the Committee before going into exempt session.

Questions and observations were made around the following areas of the Public Report:

·           Councillor Sandford noted that the Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Culture, Recreation and Strategic Commissioning had stated that the council was agnostic about the technology to be used but a paper that had been recently circulated to councillors had stated  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.

Thursday 12 July 2012