Archived decisions

p I.F.E. Beagley

p Carol Boulton

a A.S. Carew

p Anne Edwards

p Mrs K. Heron

p Keith House

p G.M. Hockley

p Sam Payne

p Mrs M.J. Tucker

a John K. West

Action

119 APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE

Apologies were received from Councillors Adam Carew, John K. West and M. J. Kendal, Executive Member for Environment.

120 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. The declaration to be made at the time of the relevant debate.

No such interests were declared on this occasion.

121 MINUTES

The Minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 20 January, 2009 were confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

122 CHAIRMAN'S COMMUNICATIONS

There were no communications from the Chairman. The Vice-Chairman (Councillor Mrs Wheale) asked the Committee to note that this would the last meeting at which Councillor Hutcheson would serve as Chairman (Councillor Hutcheson had decided not to stand for re-election in June). The Committee passed on its thanks and appreciation to the Chairman for his past service on the County Council, and particularly this Committee, and wished him well for the future.

123 STATE OF THE ENVIRONMENT IN HAMPSHIRE

The Committee received a presentation from Mr. Jim Barker, Planning and Communications Manager for the Environment Agency (re: item 5 in the Minute Book).

Mr. Barker summarised key issues from the Environment Agency's 2008 `State of the Environment (SoE)' report which was due for publication in the following week. The SoE report can be considered as a health check for the Environment to see which areas are healthy and doing well and which areas need further examination. The main points arising in Mr Barker's presentation were as follows:-

· There was compelling evidence that if people had access to green outdoor areas for relaxation or sporting facilities it was good for their quality of life.


· The Environment Agency was seeking to influence development and encourage planning authorities to adopt policies that stipulated the need for areas of green space to be incorporated into new development undertaken in the South East.


· Given the projected population growth (estimated to be almost 1 million in the next 13 years and an 18% population rise from 2006 to 2031), there would be increased pressure from housing plus all the infrastructure that went with it. Planning to provide sufficient access to recreational facilities to cope with the projected increase in population would become increasingly difficult.

Water


· Under the terms of `The Water Framework Directive' (WFD) each water body type is being assessed for quality, set an objective and reported onto Europe. The way that water quality is measured is changing; there is an increasing emphasis on the ecological aspect of the environmental quality in addition to underlying water chemistry and water resource indicators.


· The WFD is changing the way that the quality of water in the South East is reported. The WFD target was to achieve at least "good" status in every water body by 2015. It would, however, be extremely difficult to achieve that target and the Environment Agency believe a more realistic timetable is for a "good" status to be obtained is by 2027. Currently 12% of our rivers (by length) were classified as having a good status.


· In the South East, ground water provides 75% of drinking water, whereas in Hampshire 95% of drinking water comes from ground water. Ground water is under pressure from pollutants and current predictions indicate the majority of the region would be classified as having `poor' status ground water by 2015. Even if policies and measures were put in place now, Mr. Barker expected that the ground water quality in the South East would still struggle to meet the highest quality standards.


Mr. Barker believed that Hampshire County Council and other strategic planning authorities in the South East had a critical role to play in relation to protection of the environment, particularly through:


i. Strategic development planning ensuring that local development plans reflected the objectives of the River Basin Management Plan.


ii. Reducing the physical impact of urban development.


iii. Improving street and green space cleaning and management practice.


iv. Identifying pollution hotspots from highway run-off and preparing management plans to reduce the risk.


· In terms of the Environment Agency's criteria, most of Hampshire was considered to be in "serious" water stress. The per capita consumption of water in Hampshire was currently 162 litres per person per day compared to a national average of 156 litres and it was also on a rising trend. Given the proposed population and development projections, Mr. Barker explained that there was a need to get down to average per capita consumption of 105 litres of water per person per day to avoid chronic water stress.


· The Environment Agency was seeking compulsory water metering by 2015 to ensure that UK citizens began to appreciate the scarcity and value of water as a precious resource.

Air Quality


· A reduction in air pollution and improvements in air quality would lead to an increased life expectancy and afford greater ecological protection. In the South East there were few problems from industry as industry was well regulated. The main problem was pollution from traffic. One way that air pollution is managed by local authorities is to set up Air Quality Management areas (AQMA's). Currently there are AQMAs in the New Forest, Eastleigh, Fareham, Portsmouth, Southampton and Winchester.

Climate Change


· Climate change was expected to have a significant impact on the South East Region and in general terms hotter, drier summers could be expected, along with warmer, wetter winters. Reduced summer rainfall and increased variability in weather could increase the frequency of drought and threaten the supply of water. Specifics habitats and landscapes would be affected by changes in temperature and rainfall, along with rising sea levels. Flood risk would increase because of rising sea levels threatening the coast and increased winter rainfall and summer flashfloods.


· There are currently more than 28,000 properties considered to be `at risk' of flooding in Hampshire, but of these properties only 25% will receive some form of warning. Across the South East 63% of properties were signed up to receive a flood warning from the Environment Agency but only 25% of the properties at risk of flooding in Hampshire had signed up for such a warning.

Ecological Footprint


· The `ecological footprint measure' was a way in which the amount of land required to provide all our resources needed for living could be quantified ,as well as allowing for the disposal of our waste products. It is measured in global hectares per capita. The GHPC per person measure in Hampshire was currently 6.31 greater than the UK average. Efforts to reduce our footprint would require significant improvements in terms of the built environment, particularly the housing stock, its energy efficiency and water efficiency rating, transport modifications (for example, to include low/zero carbon vehicles) and changes to energy supply (particularly an accelerated investment in renewable sources).

Waste


· Waste was a big contributor to our high ecological footprint. While more recycling was being achieved, including the reduction of the amount of waste going to landfill (between 2001 and 2008 total municipal waste going to landfill had reduced by 33%) the production of waste per person was also going up. In 2006, each household in Hampshire produced 275 kg of waste. In 2007, this had risen to 361 kg of waste per person.


The key messages of `reduce, reuse and recycle' will continue to be of critical importance.

Following Mr Barker's presentation, some Members indicated their concern at the absence of compulsion for water metering, as a way of protecting water supplies. Given the problems of pollution and water run-off, Members also queried whether the Environment Agency should be raising stronger objections to development plans which proposed building close to motorways.

Members thanked Mr. Barker for his informative, interesting and thought provoking presentation.

124 PROJECT INTEGRA ACTION PLAN

The Committee considered the report of the Director of Environment (Item 6 in the Minute Book) which was due for consideration by the Executive Member for Environment during the afternoon of 24 March 2009.

Stuart Reynolds from the Environment Department gave a brief summary of the main features of the report, indicating that a major focus of the Action Plan would be on `communication', along with' efficiency and effectiveness'. The key programme and the Action Plan for 2009/10 would be the review of collection and processing systems for recycling, as part of the development of the strategic outcome "Sustainable and Ethical Recycling" (paragraph 1.6 of the report).

The Select Committee expressed its concern at the Director of Environment's belief that insufficient resources from some of the partner authorities had been identified to support the delivery of the plan (paragraph 1.3). While noting this it was, however, also acknowledged that Hampshire County Council and its Project Integra partners could undertake successful local action but there was also a need for action to be taken nationally, including legislation.

Some Members of the Committee expressed reservation as to whether or not `fly tipping' was being reduced. Although noting that the issue of commercial waste management was outside of the remit of Project Integra, which dealt with domestic waste, the Committee also expressed concern re: the lack of facilities for dealing with commercial waste. The lack of incentives available to business to seek to minimise the production of commercial waste was also a source of regret..

The Select Committee confirmed it wished to see Hampshire County Council continuing to play an important leadership role in promoting the aims of Project Integra. The Select Committee also welcomed the opportunity of being able to comment on the report being considered by the Executive Member for Environment and acknowledged the importance of the work being carried out to seek improvements and efficiencies to waste management practices and facilities in Hampshire. Notwithstanding this, the Select Committee believed:

i. There should be a greater emphasis on waste minimisation throughout the 2009-14 Action Plan;


ii. That the importance of education must be recognised so that the message to reduce, reuse and recycle became `second nature';


iii. That its ability to fully scrutinise the Action Plan was hampered by the absence of any information regarding `Responsibility and Timescale' in Section 5 relating to key work streams.


The Committee asked that their observations be passed on to the Executive Member to consider.

Chief Executive (Democratic Services)

125 WINTER EMERGENCY

The Committee considered the briefing note from the Director of Environment (Item 7 in the Minute Book).

The Committee noted the priority and timing of road treatment arrangements for frost, ice and snow in the context of what had been the worst winter weather in nearly 20 years. While the County Council's supplies of salt had proven to be sufficient, supplies had come under great stress. Stocks of salt had been reduced significantly by the time that the weather had improved.

The Committee noted that winter maintenance was undertaken by the Term Highways Contractor, Amey, and that planning was made on the basis of "average" conditions each year. The Director of Environment planned a `wash up' session to any review lessons that had been learned in relation to coping with extreme winter weather and one issue that would be examined was the provision of salt bins and the adequacy of their replenishment. Notwithstanding this and without wishing to prejudge the outcome of any review exercise, the efforts that had been undertaken to keep Hampshire's roads clear this winter appeared to have mostly gone well. The Committee indicated that they would wish to be notified of the outcome of the review when it is completed

The Select Committee noted the observations from the Director of Environment and placed on records their thanks and congratulations to the many members of staff whose efforts had ensured Hampshire's roads had functioned adequately at an extremely testing time.

Director of Environment

Director of Environment

126 SCRUTINY REVIEWS

(a) Lyndhurst By-Pass

The Committee considered the briefing note from the Director of Environment (Item 8(a) in the Minute Book) and the updates in respect of the Select Committee's January 2008 recommendations.

The Select Committee noted that the Council had continued to work actively on transport issues affecting Lyndhurst and had made progress on a number of fronts. Given the passage of time since the Executive had considered the report (March 2008) and satisfactory reporting of recommendation outcomes to the Committee, it was agreed that the Lyndhurst By-Pass Review should now be removed from the Select Committee's Work Programme.


(b) The State of Hampshire Roads

The Committee considered the briefing note in respect of the review recommendations.

The Select Committee noted the arrangements that were currently in place to work in cooperation with utility companies and the efforts undertaken to seek to minimise highway disruption when essential utility repairs were being undertaken. It was noted that the County Council had power to prosecute if a statutory undertaker failed to adequately reinstate the highway if poor performance was carried out following an intervention.

Stuart Reynolds, Assistant Director', advised that if his team were informed of a particular problem re: poor surface reinstatement it would be investigated. Given the potential strain on resources it was unlikely, however, that every work activity undertaken or every comment received in relation to the work undertaken by contractors on Hampshire's roads could be reviewed. Work was, however, ongoing with the County Council's Contact Centre to improve coordination and feedback so that any incidents reported that related to quality of road surface could be given a unique reference and followed up if required.

Scrutiny Officer to update the Work Programme

Director of Environment

(c) Road Infrastructure and Housing Growth

The Select Committee received an update on current progress with the Road Infrastructure and Housing Growth Scrutiny review (Item 8 (c) in the Minute Book) and verbal information about the full day evidence session held on Wednesday, 4 March which had gone well. This review continues to investigate the needs, development costs, phasing and procurement of road infrastructure that will be needed to support housing growth up to 2026. An informal evidence review meeting was due to take place later in the afternoon and a draft report was expected to be available by the July meeting of the Committee (Summer 2009).

Scrutiny Officer)

127 SCRUTINY ANNUAL REPORT

The Select Committee received the extract from the annual report (Item 9 in the Minute Book).

128 FORWARD LOOKING WORK PROGRAMME 2009/10

The Committee considered the report (Item 10 in the Minute Book).

In respect of `flooding risk management' the Select Committee felt that a separate half day investigation might be more productive and as such requested that consideration of this item be deferred from the July 2009 meeting and that the feasibility of a separate session on this topic be explored for later in the year.

Given the expected deferral of the item on `flooding risk management' the committee requested that scrutiny of `the width of Hampshire's rural roads' (part of the `state of Hampshire Roads' review ) be included on the July 2009 meeting agenda.

In respect of `street lighting', the Select Committee were advised that Cabinet had received a report in November 2008 and that the procurement process was continuing in accordance with the process described in July 2008. The Select Committee asked that the work programme be amended for this topic, and for it to be reviewed in October 2009 if the PFI contract, expected to be signed in the Summer 2009, had been finalised.

The Committee received and noted the updated work programme.

Scrutiny Officer

Scrutiny Officer)

Scrutiny Officer