Archived decisions

p I.F.E. Beagley

a A.S. Carew

p Anne Edwards

p Mrs K. Heron

a Keith House

a P.R.C. Hutcheson

p G.M. Hockley

p Sam Payne

p David Simpson

p Mrs M. Tucker

p John K. West

Action

41 APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE

Apologies for absence were submitted on behalf of the Chairman, Councillor Hutcheson, who had that morning been involved in a car accident; and on behalf of Councillors Carew and House.

42 DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

Members were mindful that, where they believed they had a personal or a personal prejudicial interest in any matter to be considered at the meeting, they should declare their personal 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 save for exercising any right to speak in accordance with paragraph 12 of the Code. No such interests were declared on this occasion.

43 MINUTES

The Minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 4 October 2007 were confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman. On Minute 46, Capital Programme, it was noted that Councillor Beagley still awaited the details requested and Helen Ackerman undertook to send them to him as soon as possible.

Dir. Env.

(Helen Ackerman)

to action

44 CHAIRMAN'S COMMUNICATIONS

The Chairman had nothing to report on this occasion.

45 REVENUE BUDGET 2008/09, 2009/10 AND 2010/11

The Committee considered the report of the County Treasurer and Director of Environment on the revenue budget (Item 5 in the Minute Book), and received a detailed presentation on salient financial issues. The main points raised by Members during discussion were:-

· The new regime to eliminate the deposit of trade waste at household waste recycling centres - would the introduction of new controls lead to additional unplanned expense from fly-tipping? The collection of fly-tipped waste falls to District Councils. The experience elsewhere has not shown the introduction of controls leads to it increasing. Much would depend on effective publicity and enforcement, together with clear information on what categories of waste could be disposed of at commercially-run sites.

· Concerns about staff vacancy levels, most of which arose from problems in recruitment and higher turnover: to avoid undue impact on service delivery it was sometimes necessary to use agency staff or make more use of term consultants.

· Concerns at the ongoing cost pressures on the public transport budget, notably the impact of re-tendering, Cango, community transport and services in rural areas - inflationary pressures on operators and reducing passenger numbers meant it was likely that the passenger transport budget would not be able to maintain all services currently subsidised, and effective deployment of resources to optimum benefit was therefore critical.

· Question about solar powered signs to reduce dependence on electricity for lighting - limited scope for its effective use as for most applications a reliable night-time source of power was required, so not an area where substantial cost savings could be achieved.

RESOLVED:

That the Executive Member for Environment be advised to approve the revenue budget proposals 2008/09, 2009/10 and 2010/11 (as set out in Item 5) for recommendation to the Leader and Cabinet.

46 REVISED CAPITAL PROGRAMME 2007/08

The Committee considered the report of the Director of Environment and County Treasurer (Item 6 in the Minute Book) on proposed changes to the current year's capital programme. They supported the proposals and had no comments for the Executive member to consider.

RESOLVED:

47 PROPOSED CAPITAL PROGRAMME 2008/09 TO 2010/11

The Committee considered the report of the Director of Environment and County Treasurer (Item 7 in the Minute Book) on the proposed forward capital programme. Members asked questions about:

· The methodology for assessing priorities for pedestrian crossings and noted that the budget for these would in future be amalgamated with minor schemes for local prioritisation.

· Reductions in the proposed budget for town centre access schemes where some Members felt it might be better to programme and complete a modest number of schemes rather than to raise expectations for schemes in all 20 areas where they could not be sustained financially.

· The need to find a way, if at all possible, of mitigating the financial impact of changes in Government supported borrowing on the Environment capital programme, with a view to maintaining in the programme significant schemes such as the South Winchester Park and Ride; in this connection Members supported the approach to Cabinet on possible additional unsupported borrowing.

RESOLVED:

That the Executive Member for Environment be advised to approve the following recommendations on the Capital Programme for submission to the Cabinet:

(i) That Cabinet be asked to consider whether additional unsupported borrowing beyond the Environment capital guideline should be undertaken in order to mitigate the impact on the integrated transport programme, up to a maximum of £14.015 million over the 2008/09 to 2010/11 period, in accordance with the Local Transport Plan settlement for those years.

(ii) That the non take-up of supported borrowing for structural highway maintenance from 2008/09 to 2009/10, due to a switch from Government grant to unsupported borrowing, be offset by utilising a combination of efficiencies arising from the new highways term maintenance contract, and a reduction of the locally resourced environmental improvements and waste recycling centres capital programmes, to support additional borrowing of £7.1m, under the prudential borrowing code, with annual financing costs of £0.71m, in order to maintain the level of spending on maintenance in real terms.

(iii) That the provisional capital programme for 2008/09 to 2010/11, as set out in the report, which assumes no increase in borrowing for integrated transport, be approved for submission to Cabinet.

48 LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND PUBLIC INVOLVEMENT IN HEALTH ACT 2007

The Committee considered the report of the Chief Executive (Item 8 in the Minute Book) describing the changes to overview and scrutiny envisaged by the Act. The Scrutiny Officer outlined the likely effects and explained that guidance was awaited and would be considered by the Policy and Resources Select Committee once it had been received.

RESOLVED:

That the changes contained in the Act affecting overview and scrutiny be noted.

Philippa Smart

49 SCRUTINY REVIEW UPDATE

The Scrutiny Officer reported as follows:

(i) Prioritisation of a by-pass for Lyndhurst

A meeting in public had been held, all evidence had been reviewed and a draft report had been compiled. That had been the subject of extensive consultations and the final version would be submitted to the March meeting of the Cabinet.

Chairman of review group to make the report available to the Committee in April

(ii) Transport in the Community

Because of the priority attached to the Lyndhurst study referred to above, assessment and review of the evidence emanating from this scrutiny study had been postponed until February. It was hoped that a report would be prepared in time for the April meeting of the Committee.

Chairman of review group to make the report available to the Committee in April

Philippa Smart

50 SCRUTINY WORK PROGRAMME

The Committee received the report of the Scrutiny Officer (Item 10 in the Minute Book) on their proposed future work programme. It was confirmed that the study on the state of Hampshire roads would proceed during the Spring and Summer of 2008. In the meantime, Members would be asked to let the Scrutiny Officer have ideas for suitable scrutiny topics in the coming year, for consideration by the Committee at their April meeting when they could set their priorities and programme.

RESOLVED:

That the key principles for seeking ideas for scrutiny topics for 2008/09 from internal and external sources be approved and the Scrutiny Officer be asked to invite topic ideas from County Council Members and Officers.

That Members advise the Scrutiny Officer of any topics for inclusion and consider these at their April meeting.

Philippa Smart