Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors North and Rush and Councillor Goodwin was in attendance as substitute. 

An apology for absence was also received from Councillor S Dalton, Cabinet Member for Environment Capital.

The following declarations of interest were made:

Item 6 – Tree and Woodland Strategy

Councillor Sandford declared a personal interest as he was employed by the Woodland Trust.

Item 7 – Play Facilities, Playing Fields and Open Spaces

Councillor Fox declared a personal interest as she was a member of the Friends of Cuckoo Hollow.

The minutes of the meeting held on 9 September 2010 were approved as a correct record.

There were no requests for call-in to consider.

The Committee considered the responses made by the Executive to recommendations made in relation to:

·         Norwood Lane and Paston Travellers Site

·         Biodiversity Strategy

·         Launch of Home of Environment Capital

ACTION AGREED

To note the responses to the recommendations made.

The report introduced an updated Tree and Woodland Strategy which would provide direction for the care of Peterborough’s trees and woodlands.  It updated the 1998 Strategy and included changes that had taken place over the last twelve years, including the influence of the Biodiversity Strategy.

The draft Strategy included a number of key issues including a proposal to move away from response based reactive works to a programme of inspections which would be followed by tree works based upon those findings.  A right tree in the right place framework was being developed which included options to eventually reduce overcrowding within residential areas. This would be followed by a programme of replacing existing, inappropriate space demanding trees with smaller alternatives.

Councillor Sam Dalton, Cabinet Member for Environment Capital, requested that a statement be read out on her behalf in support of the Strategy.

Observations and questions were raised around the following areas:

• A working group had been established in 2005/06 to revise the Strategy and a draft had been developed however the report made no mention of this group or its work.  The Strategy had been modified to bring it up to date and was based on the original Strategy.  Since 2005/06 the responsibility for this work had transferred to a different department and unfortunately information had disappeared during the transfer so City Services had to start from scratch as supporting documents had gone missing.  Reference to the working group could be included in the report when it went up to Cabinet.
• Why had it taken so long to update the Strategy?  The Tree Team had other priorities including a massive backlog of work.  There had also been a need to ensure that the Strategy tied in with a number of other strategies.
• Did officers expect the Strategy to deliver an increase in the number of trees as some members believed that there would be a continual reduction in numbers?  Officers would be looking to consolidate and nurture what the city already had.  There was a new push for a Forest for Peterborough led by PECT and we would be concentrating on areas rather than the numbers of trees.  It was quality against quantity.
• Subtle changes had been made to the document compared to the work in 2005/06 which fundamentally changed the thrust of the document.
• The Strategy did not mention expansion of woodland.  It also did not mention low carbon transition plans, woodland creation or Professor Reid’s report on flooding.
• Some members strongly believed that Peterborough had wonderful trees along with a good team looking after them.
• The original Strategy said that street trees would only be removed if there were sound arboricultural reasons to do so but this draft now said that they would be removed if there were arboricultural and social reasons.  There were issues with street trees which left the Council vulnerable to claims for compensation.  We were trying to move forward but there was only a finite budget available.
• Councillor Arculus advised that he had  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

The report provided an update on the play area improvement programme and playing field provision with the Council’s green open spaces.

In 2003 Peterborough was found to have an oversupply of play facilities in comparison with other similar authorities however only 5% of the play facilities met National Playing Fields Association (NPFA) minimum standards.  As a result of this Members agreed that the Council would consolidate its play area provision to create high quality neighbourhood facilities which provided safe but stimulating play opportunities for children.

The play area improvement programme was identified as a corporate priority and funding for these schemes was provided through a number of sources, including Section 106 developer contributions, Big Lottery Fund, the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) Playbuilder initiative and the Council’s capital resources.  Since 2007 the play area improvement programme had delivered 57 new and refurbished play areas.

In June 2010 funding for the DCSF Playbuilder programme was withdrawn by the coalition government whilst they carried out a review of the various grants that had been made and in October 2010 confirmation was received that two-thirds of the withdrawn Playbuilder funding would be re-allocated.  Peterborough would receive £274,043.75 for this financial year but no further funding would be awarded and the programme would end in March 2011.  However, this allocation would enable a further four play improvement projects to be developed and completed.

A comprehensive audit of the Council’s green space play assets had been undertaken and the data was currently being analysed.  This would provide new and up-to-date information about the condition of the play areas and would help to update the Play Strategy.  The audit would also enable improved processes for managing and maintaining play areas which fell within the Authority’s responsibility.

In 2006 an open space report was prepared, however much of the data contained within the report had now become out of date as the city and surrounding areas had grown.  These were important issues which would be addressed by working with Planning to ensure that well designed, welcoming, safe and useable open space was delivered as an essential component of new developments.  In recent years work had taken place to ensure that developer obligations concerning the design and creation of public open space to support new developments met the Council’s requirements.  The Recreation Team provided guidance to Planning officers and developers to ensure that open space facilities were developed which fulfilled the Council’s planning policies and developers obligations.  Officers had also recently advised Planning about the open space element of their new S106 policy document. 

The Open Space report also provided data on allotment provision and need.  Since the report was delivered the profile of allotments and community food growing had been raised. The Council currently had 1,800 plots along with a short waiting list.  Allotment provision was currently being reviewed along with opportunities for informal allotment sites and community food growing initiatives.  A complete review of the allotment letting and management process was underway and scheduled  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

The report provided an update on the charged bulky waste collection service and the effects it had had on the service to the public, the service budget and on the general environment.

The Council had withdrawn its free bulky waste collection service following a decision taken by Members in February 2010, and a new chargeable service had been introduced on 1 April 2010.   The new scheme allowed residents to have an unlimited amount of items collected for a one off price of £23.50. 

The numbers of requested bulky collections had fallen sharply since the introduction of the new chargeable service, as shown in the tables below:

Due to the substantial fall in collections, City Services had been able to redeploy an HGV driver back to the main fleet, and now used a 7.5 tonne vehicle to carry out the service, with some of the white goods requests being picked up by the WEEE facility collection vehicle.

The income for the period 1 April to end of September 2010 from bulky collections was £31,834.

One significant benefit of introducing a charging regime for bulky collections was that prior to charges being levied a significant proportion of waste was not presented for collection.  Across a year 23% of requests for bulky collections resulted in wasted journeys and the Council wasted time, money and fuel on those non-collections but the numbers had now fallen to 6% and in total this was 50 non-collections as opposed to 881 in the same four month period for the previous year.

The tonnages of bulky items going to landfill had also decreased substantially, both due to the obvious decrease in collections as well as the new system whereby the collections made were automatically sorted for recycling and reuse rather than going straight to the landfill site. 

Contrary to popular belief there had not been a simultaneous increase in fly tipping tonnages collected in the Authority.  Over the first six months there had been an increase of 87 reported incidents of fly-tipping.  However, many of those reports were of individual items such as bags and the total number of incidents that had to be investigated, i.e. significant fly-tips, was down to 591 compared with 626 in 2009/10.  This was borne out by the reduction in weight of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

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.

ACTION AGREED

To note the latest version of the Forward Plan.

We considered the Work Programme for 2010/11.

It was agreed to add the following items to the programme:

• Tree and Woodland Strategy (January 2011)
• Review of the Bus Service Review (January 2011)

ACTION AGREED

To confirm the work programme for 2010/11.

Thursday 20 January 2011 at 7pm

Thursday 20 January 2011 at 7pm.