Archived decisions

AT A MEETING of the ENVIRONMENT POLICY REVIEW COMMITTEE held on Wednesday 16 October 2002 at The Castle, Winchester.

PRESENT:

Councillors: J.K. Glen (Chairman); Mrs P.G. Banks; Mrs E.S.M. Barron; F.J. Bright; Mrs E.M. Byrom; J.E. Coles; C.R.H. Davidovitz; Mrs P.M. Devereux; Mrs P. Dickens; W.J. Filer; K. House; R.J. Kimber; T.G. Knight; P. Luffman; R.C. McIntosh; R.H. Price JP; M.J. Roberts; Sir James Scott; J.K. West; Miss J.D. Wride.

Also in attendance: Councillor M.J. Woodhall.

Prior to commencement of the formal business of the day, the Committee observed a Minute's Silence as a mark of respect for the victims of the recent Bali tragedy.

92. DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

To assist Members, the Chairman reminded the Committee of the County Council's Code of Conduct in respect of paragraphs 9, 10, 11 and 12. No declarations of interest were made.

In respect of the issues that arose at the last meeting for Members who are on both this Committee and Regulatory Committee, the Monitoring Officer would be submitting a report to the Standards Committee on 22 October 2002. At the request of Members, a copy of the report would be forwarded to them and they would be informed of the recommendations of the Standards Committee as soon as possible.

93. CONFIRMATION OF MINUTES

The Minutes of the meeting held on 4 September 2002 (Item 2 in the Minute Book) were confirmed by the Committee as a correct record and signed by the Chairman subject to the following amendment:-

In respect of Minute 76, Councillor Sir James Scott declared an interest and left the meeting during the consideration of Items 9 and 14 on the agenda. In addition, it was recorded that Councillor House did not declare an interest for Items 9 and 14 and therefore remained for the discussion that took place.

Arising thereon:-

In respect of Minute 84 (Household Waste Recycling Centre Service, Winchester) it was noted that despite immediate despatch of the report to Councillor Mrs Peskett as requested, it would appear that a postal delay had occurred as the report took several days to reach its destination.

94. CHAIRMAN'S COMMUNICATIONS

The Chairman reported that the County Surveyor, Mr J.D.K. Ekins, would be retiring at the end of the year. During his remaining time with the County Council Mr Ekins would be concentrating his expertise on the South Hampshire Rapid Transit project.

95. MEMBERS' QUESTIONS

No questions had been received.

96. DEPUTATIONS

No requests to make a deputation had been received.

97. REVIEW OF LOCAL BUS SERVICES FUNDING

The Committee considered the report of the County Surveyor (Item 6 in the Minute Book) which contained information designed to assist the Committee in its consideration of the County Council's approach to the funding of local bus services. Additionally, a number of documents had been sent to Members prior to the meeting to aid discussions.

A detailed programme for this item had been produced and distributed with the agenda papers. Martin Robertson, Head of Passenger Transport in the County Surveyor's Department commenced the proceedings by giving a presentation which outlined the Plan for the day, detailed the background to the report and answered Members' questions. A copy of the presentation slides are appended to the Minutes for information and in particular, attention was drawn to the final slide and the key questions as detailed in paragraph 10 of the report.

The Chairman introduced Matthew Callow, Commercial Director for Stagecoach. Mr Callow gave an interesting talk on the services currently provided by Stagecoach, the problems encountered in providing these services and their future aspirations such as moving towards the provision of a `day ticket' in most urban areas.

Mr Callow answered Members' detailed questions and remained at the meeting in order to participate in the debate due to take place later in the proceedings.

The Chairman introduced Stuart Linn, Group Managing Director of Southern Vectis plc who gave a stimulating presentation on the services offered by Solent Blue Line. Mr Linn also highlighted to Members the problems encountered in the provision of their services and offered some comparisons between bus services in the UK and France.

Mr Linn answered Members' detailed questions and amplified certain areas of his presentation. Mr. Linn remained at the meeting in order to participate in the debate due to take place later in the proceedings.

The Chairman introduced Dr. Caroline Cahm, Chairperson for the National Federation of Bus Users. In her talk Dr. Cahm highlighted the difficulties being experienced by bus operators in trying to meet the demands of bus users, namely the provision of reliable, convenient and timely bus services. Other difficulties highlighted were:-

      (i) rising costs for bus operators due to, for example, congestion

    (ii) shortage of bus drivers

    (iii) revenue budget problems

    (iv) need for buses to be given priority over other road users

    Dr. Cahm concluded her talk by emphasising strongly the importance of joint working and then answered Members' detailed questions. A pamphlet, "New Deal for Bus Users" published by the NFBU was distributed to Members and officers for information. Dr Cahm remained at the meeting in order to participate in the debate due to take place later in the proceedings.

    A wide-ranging debate following facilitated by all guest speakers and officers and covered such areas as:-

      (i) traffic congestion

      (ii) bus subsidy

      (iii) bus priority schemes

      (iv) journey times and traffic calming

      (v) interchange services including `real-time' information

      (vi) vehicle features such as low floor buses, quality of bus shelters, safety and

      other comfort facilities

      (vii) marketing of bus services

      (viii) partnership working/strong leadership

      (ix) what other Local Authorities are doing

      (x) integrated spending on bus services

      (xi) school transport - staggering start and finish times for schools

      (xii) social inclusion

      The Chairman introduced Peter Huntley, Managing Director of the Transport Advisory Service (TAS). Mr Huntley gave an interesting presentation on the role of TAS and the criteria for bus service support. At the request of Members, a copy of Mr Huntley's presentation slides would be made available in due course.

      Mr Huntley answered Members' detailed questions and amplified certain areas of his presentation.

      The Chairman thanked all the guest speakers for taking the time to attend the meeting and giving their input to the debate on what was a very important area of policy development for the County Council.

      Martin Robertson detailed the way ahead, as stated in paragraph 11 of the report and answered Members' final questions.

      RESOLVED:

      (i) that a draft Bus Strategy for Hampshire be produced for the next meeting of the Committee on 4 December 2002 for further debate prior to being submitted to the Executive Member for Environment for his consideration.

      (ii) That following consideration by the Executive Member for Environment, the Strategy be the subject of consultation with interested parties prior to confirmation by March 2003.

97. SOUTH EAST ENGLAND REGIONAL TRANSPORT STUDY - REGIONAL PORTS STUDY

The Committee considered the report of the County Planning Officer (Item 7 in the Minute Book). Subsequent to the publication of a draft Regional Transport Strategy (RTS) by the South East England Regional Assembly (SEERA), a Regional Ports Study had been produced. The County Planning Officer's report examines the key issues in the Regional Ports Study and provides comments to SEERA on the Study and the preparation of policies for the RTS.

The County Planning Officer detailed the background to the report and highlighted the importance of recommendation 1(iii) detailed on page 9 of the report. The Committee discussed the report's recommendations fully and several enhancements were agreed.

RESOLVED:

That the Executive Member for Environment be advised that

      (1) The South East England Regional Assembly be:

        (i) informed that the County Council considers that the Regional Ports Study is a useful contribution to the preparation of port policies;

        (ii) informed that the County Council considers that any future ports strategy should have an aim to include an appropriate examination of alternatives including the impact of developments at European ports;

        (iii) informed that the County Council considers that a suitable approach to the formulation of port policies for deep sea container facilities should be based on a sequential approach which involves:

          (a) making maximum use of existing utilised port land;

          (b) for new expansion sites, taking a wide consideration of alternatives, utilises the core strategy of Regional Planning Guidance Note 9 to determine priorities, and takes into account current development plans;

          (c) utilises brownfield sites in preference to greenfield sites if this would result in less environmental damage;

          (d) ensures that all new development is sustainable with any fundamental environmental effects having a suitable, achievable mitigation package;

          (e) ensuring that any new expansion site can be integrated and accommodated with the road and rail network and provide a sustainable port travel plan which caters for all forms of transport;

        (iv) informed of the detailed comments in section 6 of this report on the regional ports study and the preparation of ports policies for the Regional Transport Strategy.

      (2) The County Council would welcome further dialogue with the South East England Regional Assembly as port policies emerge for the Regional Transport Strategy.

      (3) Officers, in consultation with the Executive Member for Environment as necessary, be authorised to make further representations to the South East England Regional Assembly on the regional ports study and port policies, as required.

98. DRAFT HAMPSHIRE WATER STRATEGY

The Committee considered the report of the County Planning Officer (Item 8 in the Minute Book) detailing the background to the publication in July of the draft version of the Hampshire Water Strategy which had been distributed to Members prior to the meeting. Particular attention was drawn to Actions 1-9 contained in the Strategy.

It was noted that Members welcomed the work that had been done and the

    co-operation of all the organisations involved in the partnership which led to the publication of the Strategy. Members raised a number of detailed points which were noted by officers and were particularly keen that the issue of pollution should be addressed.



    RESOLVED:

    That the County Planning Officer, using his delegated powers, be advised of the Committee's views for his response to the Hampshire Water Strategy Steering Group.

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