Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Councillor Allen and Councillor Maqbool.  Councillor Serluca was in attendance as substitute for Councillor Allen.

There were no declarations of interest or whipping declarations.

• 18 March, 2013
• 20 March, 2013

The minutes of the meetings held on 18 March and 20 March were approved as an accurate record. 

There were no requests for call-in to consider.

The Chair asked the Committee to discuss whether to exclude the press and public from the meeting when the exempt appendices were to be discussed at item 7 Energy Performance Contract (EnPC) or whether the public interest in disclosing this information outweighed the public interest in maintaining the exemption.

After a short discussion the Committee voted unanimously in favour of going into exempt session to consider the exempt papers.

At this point the Chair announced that the Committee had  received a request to change the order of the agenda and that item number 7 Energy Performance Contract (EnPC) would be presented first followed by item number 6 on the agenda, Enterprise Peterborough Partnership Performance Progress Report.  After a short discussion the Committee unanimously agreed to change the order of the agenda.

The Cabinet Member for Culture, Recreation and Waste Management introduced the report which provided the Committee with an update on the performance of the Enterprise Peterborough Partnership since it last reported to the Committee on 18 March 2013.  Members were informed that the partnership had entered into the third year of a twenty three year relationship with the council.   The report covered the following areas:

• Update on the roll out of the Street Care Service
• Progress on Recycling and Food Waste
• Green Open Space Implementation Plan
• Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) / Customer Satisfaction

Members were informed that the food waste collection service had achieved target and saved the Council money by reducing landfill costs.  Enterprise had been put forward as finalists in the National Recycling Awards and had been approached by a number of other councils who wanted to replicate the service. Over the past two years Enterprise had made some major changes and investments and it was now time to refine the services provided.

The Enterprise Partnership Director presented the Committee with a progress update on the street care model.   A series of maps were shown to Members which identified detailed GIS data for the city, relating to the streets that were cleaned and the grass that was cut.  Members were informed that detailed service delivery plans were now in place using this data along with the service standards set by the council.  The city had been split into three operating areas with work gangs that operated in each of the three areas.  Additional supervisors had been put in place who conducted five quality checks each day to ensure the work had been completed to the required standard. An EPA grading system which was a visual standards model was now being used to grade the street cleansing. 

Questions and observations were made around the following areas:

·         Members commented that they had requested at the previous meeting in March a list of  new revised Key Performance Indicators  and Service Level Agreements (SLA’s) that Enterprise were working to.  The Strategic Partnerships Manager informed Members that the Client Team were responsible for producing the KPI’s.  There were currently 106 KPI’s in place and these were currently being rationalised and there was still more work to be done before these could be finalised and presented to the Committee.

·         Members commented that fly tipping at Norward Lane and in Gunthorpe Road was still a serious issue and wanted to know how this was being dealt with under the street cleansing model.  Members were informed that Norwood Lane had not been included in the street cleansing model and was being treated as an exceptional area.  This area was cleaned by agreement with the council which was originally four times a year but had been cleaned more frequently recently.  Security and monitoring had been put in place but as soon as this stopped more fly tipping occurred.

·         Members commented that waste bins were not being emptied regularly and were often seen overflowing and some areas of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

The report presented by the Executive Director of Operations provided the Committee with an update on energy efficiency (EnPC) on council owned buildings.  The report also sought views from the Committee on the draft CMDN which related to the contract award.  Members were reminded of the Council’s objective to be the Environment Capital of the UK.  Most of the work completed so far had been around renewable energy generation but the report was about energy efficiency and the efficiency of the council’s portfolio including schools otherwise known as Energy Performance Contracts. These types of contact were well established in America and Europe but not so much in the Public Sector.  Members were informed that the council had entered into a strategic partnership with British Gas which was focused around getting energy efficiency into people’s homes. 

Energy efficiency played a vital part in the nation’s energy strategy. The government and Europe would be legislating to increase responsibilities in this area. In 2015 there would be a requirement to conduct energy efficiency audits. The contract award placed Peterborough at the forefront of leading change in advance of the national agenda.  The advantage of the contract would be that it would look across the whole of the council’s portfolio.  Currently the Council was marginally above the rate for being excluded from carbon taxes in the UK it would only need a series of interventions to take the council out of that carbon tax liability in the future.  The contract had also been advertised to be open to any local authority in England.  The council would get an access fee for other authorities participating.  The contract was about improving energy efficiency across the council buildings and the assets within it and providing something that can be used across the whole of England and make the council money.

Questions and observations were made around the following areas:

·         Members were concerned that the assessment of buildings may turn out to provide a reason to dispose of some of the council buildings.  Members were advised that there was no reason why the council would seek to dispose of its assets solely because it could not make it more energy efficient.  The contract would contribute to helping to keep the buildings going and provide a reason to invest to get the buildings more energy efficient.

·         Members sought clarification on the meaning of ‘call-off contracts’.  Members were informed that the purpose of the CMDN was to award the top level contract to Honeywell for a period of eight years.  The contract had a nil value unless any individual contracts were called-off within it.  The Council would for example look at the contracts that Honeywell had already started and look at the outline business case.  Honeywell would be requested to complete a detailed audit and to present a financial proposal.  The financial proposal would state the cost of intervention.  They would have to provide a private sector funded solution.  Once the business case and financial proposal was agreed  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

The report informed the Committee that at the Council meeting held on 17 April 2013 there had been a request for this Committee to set up a Task and Finish Group to investigate the benefits of extending 20mph speed limits across residential areas of Peterborough.  The purpose of the report was for the Committee to consider and agree the Terms of Reference and Membership of the Task and Finish Group which had been formed

Questions and observations were made around the following areas:

·         Members wanted to ensure that the Police were involved in discussions with the Task and Finish Group to ensure that enforcement was taken into consideration.

ACTIONS AGREED

The Committee approved the Terms of Reference and Membership of the Task and Finish Group.

The Senior Governance Officer introduced the report which provided the Committee with:

·         a review of work undertaken during 2012/13 and recommendations made

·         the terms of reference for the Committee and

·         a draft work programme for 2013/2014 for consideration

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

Members requested the following item be added to the work programme:

• Energy from Waste progress report

            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 month.  Members were invited to comment 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.