Archived decisions

AT A MEETING of the ENVIRONMENT POLICY REVIEW COMMITTEE held on 3 March 2004 at The Castle, Winchester.

PRESENT:

Councillors: P.R.C. Hutcheson (Chairman); K. House; R.J. Kimber; T.G. Knight; P. Luffman; R.H. Price; M.J. Roberts; Sir James J. Scott; J.D. Shaw and J.K. West

Also in attendance: Councillors K.B. Estlin and J.K. Glen (part of meeting)

Members of the Committee attended an exhibition on Sustainability between 9.30 and 10.30am. Officers from the Environment Department were available to discuss the various displays and answer questions.

The Chairman opened the meeting by welcoming Councillor Lee Dunsdon to his first meeting of the Committee, having recently been elected as the Member for Fawley.

204. DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST


    Members were mindful that, where they believed they had a personal or personal prejudicial interest in any matter to be considered at the meeting, they should normally at the time of the debate declare their interest, and having regard to the circumstances described in paragraphs 9, 10, 11 and 12 of the County Council's Code of Conduct, consider whether to leave the meeting whilst the matter was discussed.

205. MINUTES

The Minutes of the meeting held on 21 January 2004 (Item 2 in the Minute Book) were confirmed by the Committee and signed by the Chairman.

    Arising thereon:-

    Minute 195(i): in response to enquiries in respect of a memorial service for Martin Robertson, it was confirmed that the wishes of the family were being respected. The Committee would be kept informed as appropriate.


    Minute 198    : in response to a request from Councillor Roberts for an update on the Draft Hampshire Community Strategy, it was confirmed that the Committee's views had been submitted to the Corporate Centre. All the consultation responses received had been considered and at a recent meeting of the Hampshire Strategic Partnership, it had been agreed that further work was required. Confirmation of when the revised document would be available to Members would be sought.

    Minute 199: in response to a request from Councillor Roberts, the Executive Member for Environment confirmed that the Revenue Budget, having been approved by the County Council on 25 February, would be dealt with by the Corporate Centre.

206. CHAIRMAN'S COMMUNICATIONS

    (i) The Chairman extended the Committee's thanks to the Environment Department for an excellent exhibition on Sustainability.

    (ii) The Chairman announced the appointment of Mr Stuart Jarvis as Deputy Director of Environment with effect from 10 May 2004.

    (iii) The Chairman confirmed that the Highways Authority had accepted the Committee's invitation to attend their meeting on 30 June 2004 to discuss M3 traffic noise and other matters involving the motorway and trunk road network on Hampshire's environment.

    (iv) The Chairman confirmed that the County Council, at its meeting on 25 February 2004, had referred the matter of Tetra communication masts to the Environment Policy Review Committee for scrutiny. It was agreed that a working party comprising Councillors: Davidovitz, House, Kimber, Luffman and Sir James Scott be convened to undertake a scoping exercise and report back to the Committee. The possibility of extending the Committee's next meeting on 5 May to conduct the scrutiny session was discussed but this would be dependent on the outcome of the working party's deliberations.

    (v) The Chairman reported that Item 8 on the agenda was deferred.

207. MEMBERS' QUESTIONS


    No questions had been submitted to the Executive Member for Environment or the Executive Member for Spatial Strategy.

208. DEPUTATIONS

    No requests to make a deputation had been received.

209. REVIEW OF THE EFFECTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON THE COUNTY COUNCIL'S COASTAL INTERESTS

    Councillor Price declared a personal interest in respect of land at Wicor, Fareham and took no part in the vote on the report's recommendation.

    The Committee considered a report of the Director of Environment, Director of Property, Business and Regulatory Services and the Director of Recreation and Heritage (Item 6 in the Minute Book) detailing the outcome of the first round of consultations on the review of the effects of climate change on the County Council's coastal interests. The Director of Environment amplified areas of the report, with officers from the Property Business and Regulatory Service and the Recreation and Heritage department providing an update on the latest position of various County Council coastal holdings and the impact on these assets in respect of recreational use. Particular attention was drawn to section 5 of the report and it was noted that in relation to paragraph 5.6, an initial officer briefing would be held during early April to discuss Lepe Country Park.

    During the course of the ensuing discussion, the following Member observations were noted:-

    (i) the importance of ensuring that Parish Councils were involved in future consultations;

    (ii) the need to keep members of the public well informed of the coastal defence issues the County Council were facing in respect of landholdings, highways and rights of way;

    (iii) the importance of local Members helping to keep members of the public informed; and

    (iv) the importance of a pragmatic response being adopted to deal with the areas affected where there is a high level of community use.

    RESOLVED:

    That the Executive Member for Policy and Resources be advised to support the courses of action outlined in Section 5 of the report to assist the County Council in balancing the need to maintain services and facilities with the need to fulfil its obligations under the Habitats Regulations.

210. PROJECT INTEGRA ANNUAL BUSINESS PLAN 2004/05

    Councillor Knight declared a personal interest as a deputy Project Integra Board member.

    The Committee considered a report of the Director of Environment (Item 7 in the Minute Book) summarising the draft 2004/05 Project Integra (PI) Annual Business Plan (ABP) and made observations on how the ABP might be improved. It was noted that the ABP would be submitted to the Executive Member for Environment for decision on 9 March 2004.

    Whilst expanding on the report, the Director of Environment requested that the Committee consider two additional recommendations to highlight reservations that the ABP needs to contain more information on unit costs of collection and the disposal costs of municipal waste as well as addressing the impact of the Waste and Emissions Trading Act 2003.

    During the course of the ensuing discussion, Members emphasised the importance of members of the public having access to a Household Waste Recycling Centre (HWRC) without having to travel long distances. The Executive Member for Environment confirmed that the long-term aim is for everyone in Hampshire to have a HWRC within a five mile radius of where they live. The Executive Member highlighted the main obstacles in the provision of HWRC's as being funding, securing land and then obtaining planning permission for the facility to be built but confirmed that Project Integra was working hard to continue to reduce landfill and increase recycling.

    In consideration of the tables on page 7 of the report, it was noted that a possible explanation of why East Hampshire District Council and Eastleigh Borough Council were attaining high levels of recycling was that both authorities employed a system of alternate weekly collections for domestic and green waste. This system highlighted the need for people to be selective about

    which disposal bin the waste should be put into, thus it was suggested that other authorities should be encouraged to move to alternate weekly collections.

    RESOLVED:

    That the Executive Member for Environment be advised that the draft Project Integra Annual Business Plan for 2004/05 be approved with the reservations that it should:-

    (i) contain performance indicators relating to how 2005/06 Best Value Performance Indicators for recycling can be achieved, and suggest that this should form an action for completion by July 2004 as part of the Project Integra Best Value Review;

    (ii) set out the unit costs of collection for each Waste Collection Authority and for the disposal costs of municipal waste; and

    (iii) consider and address the impact of the Waste and Emissions Trading Act 2003.

211. MEASURING PERFORMANCE IN THE ENVIRONMENT DEPARTMENT: BENCHMARKING FOR BEST VALUE PERFORMANCE INDICATOR TARGETS 2002/03 - COMPARISONS WITH OTHER COUNTY COUNCILS

    This report was deferred to the next meeting of the Environment Policy Review Committee to be held on 5 May 2004.

212. ENVIRONMENT DEPARTMENT - BEST VALUE REVIEW PROGRESS

    The Committee considered the report of the Director of Environment (Item 9 in the Minute Book) outlining progress made during the last year on the Best Value Reviews and Best Value Improvement Plans associated with services in the Environment Department.

    During the course of the ensuing discussion, Members questions were answered.

    RESOLVED:

    (i) that the progress in implementing the Best Value Improvement Plans referred to in the report and summarised in the attached appendix be noted; and

    (ii) that the Environment Policy Review Committee recommends the Service and Delivery planning regime outlined in paragraph 3.1 as an effective and integrated way of reporting service improvements.

213. ENVIRONMENT POLICY REVIEW COMMITTEE - FORWARD

    PLAN

    The Committee considered the report of the Chief Executive and Director of Environment (Item 10 in the Minute Book) setting out issues which the Committee may wish to discuss at future meetings.


    During the ensuing discussion, the following points were noted:-

    Meeting on 5 May 2004:

    Due to the uncertainty of the publication date of the final report of the Barker Review on Housing Supply, it was noted that it might prove necessary to defer this item to the Committee's meeting on 30 June 2004. However, it was agreed that the item should be considered on 5 May if practicable in view of the link to the item on planning future housing provision in Hampshire also scheduled for the 5 May meeting.

    The progress report on waste and natural resources would be expanded to include green energy.

    A short discussion would be undertaken in relation to the attendance of the Highways Authority at the Committee's 30 June meeting.

    Dependant on the outcome of deliberations by the Tetra Communication Masts Working Party, the meeting might be extended to hold a scrutiny session. However, if the Working Party decided that this date would be too soon an update would be given to the Committee as to the way forward.

    The item detailed under Minute 211 would be added to the agenda for 5 May meeting.

    Items to be considered during 2004 - date to be confirmed

    It was noted that the item `Airport Capacity and the effect on Hampshire' had not yet been assigned a date for consideration by the Committee.

214. BLACKWATER VALLEY BUS SERVICE 1 PRIORITY ROUTE - PHASE 1, A325 FARNBOROUGH ROAD, FARNBOROUGH

    The Committee considered a report of the Director of Environment (Item 11 in the Minute Book) following a request from the Executive Member for Environment that the Committee scrutinise the detailed decisions made in respect of additional costs expected to be incurred with the completion of Phase 1 of the Blackwater Valley Bus Service 1 Priority Route.

    The Director of Environment emphasised that the additional costs had not yet been incurred and were the estimated outturn costs. During the course of amplifying areas of the report, she confirmed the necessity of having a robust estimating process and adequate control procedures in place whilst retaining flexibility to respond to unforeseen changes and to legitimate public concerns, and to ensure that funding was spent within the deadline set to avoid having to hand it back.

    During the course of the ensuing discussion, Members questions were answered and the County Treasurer reassured Members that reporting requirements had been complied with in this particular case. A review of the current estimating and control process within the Environment Department was already underway and in future there will be routine reporting to the Committee and the Executive Member for Environment of the latest predicted costs of all schemes in the Capital Programme rather than just the reporting of schemes that had exceeded the tolerance level.

    RESOLVED:

    Having been reassured that reporting requirements were complied with in respect of this scheme and that an internal review of the project estimating and cost control process was underway, it was agreed that a report on how the new process would work would be submitted to a future meeting of the Committee, including proposed improvements.


ENVPRC3.3.04/DV