Agenda and minutes

To receive any apologies or substitutions for the meeting.

Apologies for absence were received from Cllr Steve Oldrieve.

Cllr Oldrieve was substituted by Cllr Ross Henning.

To approve and sign the minutes of the Environment Select Committee meeting held on 3 September 2019.

Resolved:

The minutes of the previous meeting held on 3 September 2019 were approved.

To receive any declarations of disclosable interests or dispensations granted by the Standards Committee.

There were no declarations of interest.

To receive the following announcement through the Chair:

·         Salisbury Recovery

The Chairman provided an update on the South Wiltshire Recovery Programme.

The Council welcomes contributions from members of the public.

Statements

If you would like to make a statement at this meeting on any item on this agenda, please register to do so at least 10 minutes prior to the meeting. Up to 3 speakers are permitted to speak for up to 3 minutes each on any agenda item. Please contact the officer named on the front of the agenda for any further clarification.

Questions

To receive any questions from members of the public or members of the Council received in accordance with the constitution.

Those wishing to ask questions are required to give notice of any such questions in writing to the officer named on the front of this agenda no later than 5pm on Tuesday 29 October 2019 in order to be guaranteed of a written response. In order to receive a verbal response questions must be submitted no later than 5pm on Thursday 31 October 2019. Please contact the officer named on the front of this agenda for further advice. Questions may be asked without notice if the Chairman decides that the matter is urgent.

Details of any questions received will be circulated to Committee members prior to the meeting and made available at the meeting and on the Council’s website.

There was no public participation.

As part of the Committee’s ongoing scrutiny engagement with the highways and transport portfolio, the Committee has historically been receiving an annual review of service report for highways. The previous report was received on 6 November 2018, and the Committee will now consider the service report for 2018/19.

The Committee considered the report of the Director Highways and Waste, which provided a review of the performance of the highways service and an

update on performance of the contractors and suppliers involved in delivering

the service.

The Head of Highways Assets Management and Commissioning explained that the local highway network is vital for businesses and communities, and effective maintenance to ensure its availability is essential to the economic development of the county. Wiltshire Council recognised the importance of maintaining and managing its highway network effectively and is assisted in this task by a number of specialist contractors and suppliers. He referred to the summary of highways performance detailed in Appendix 5 and in particular those areas that were assessed as being below target.  These included Killed or Seriously Injured (KSI) incidences and reducing the number of potholes.  

Cllr Bridget Wayman, Cabinet Member for Highways, Transport and Waste and the Head of Highways Assets Management and Commissioning responded to a number of issues and comments from the Committee. In particular, the following issues and comments were raised:

·         The possibility of increasing CATG budgets

·         KSI data confined to those highways in Wiltshire

·         Monitoring of highway resilience and improvements to highway drainage systems

·         The work being undertaken to repair damage to verges on B and C roads and the potential need to use kerbing to limit future damage

·         Limiting the use of HGV’s using B and C roads

·         The impact of reducing budgets on the repair and renewal of pavements, particularly in towns

·         The LED Lighting Programme and potential use of existing columns for the installation of community wifi and electric charging points

·         Future consideration of dualing rural pavements for cyclists and pedestrians

·         Populating road side verges with wild flowers

·         The impact of gravel driveways on adjacent pavements

·         The usability of the My Wiltshire App

·         Continual maintenance of highway signage

The Chairman thanked the Cabinet Member and officers for attending the meeting and responding to comments and issues raised.

Resolved:

1.    To endorse the Highways Annual Review of Service and confirm that the performance of the Council’s highways contractors has been good during 2018/19.

2.    To welcome the results summarised in the Highways Performance Management Framework but note the concern about the increase in those killed and seriously injured on the county’s roads in 2018.

3.    To confirm that the performance of Ringway Infrastructure Services during the third year of its contract continued to be good and a further extension of six months should be awarded in accordance with the conditions of contract.

4.    To welcome the start of the Council’s LED street lighting project which will reduce energy costs and significantly reduce the Council’s carbon footprint.

5.    To request a report on the highways service and the Performance Management Framework in a year’s time.

The Homelessness Strategy Task Group began its work in December 2018, following a request from the Cabinet Member for Corporate Services, Heritage, Arts, Tourism, Housing and MCI, Cllr Richard Clewer, for scrutiny to be involved in helping the Council to develop a homelessness strategy. The strategy has been considered by Cabinet and will now be received by Full Council.

The Committee considered the Task Group’s final report at their previous meeting on 3 September 2019 and will now receive the ‘Executive Response’ to the Task Group’s recommendations.

The Committee considered the report of Cllr Richard Clewer, Cabinet Member for Corporate Services, Heritage, Arts, Tourism, Housing and MCI which provided a response to the final report of the Homelessness Strategy Task group.

Cllr Clewer introduced the report and responded to each of the Task Group’s recommendations detailed in the report. He confirmed that all issues raised, and recommendations made by the Task Group would be included in the Strategy for implementation. 

Resolved:

To note the executive response to the Final Report – Homelessness Strategy Task Group, as detailed in the report.

To receive any updates on recent activity for active task groups and from members of the Environment Select Committee who have been appointed as overview and scrutiny representatives on programme boards.

The Committee received updates from (i) Cllr Wright, Chairman of the Homelessness Strategy Task Group and the Global Warming and Climate Emergency Task Group, and (ii) Cllr Bob Jones, member of the Housing Aids and Adaptations Task Group, on recent activity for the Task Groups.

Resolved:    

1.    To endorse Cllr Tony Jackson replacing Cllr Allison Bucknell and becoming a member of the Global Warming and Climate Emergency Task Group

2.    To endorse the following membership of the Housing Aids and Adaptations Task Group:

·         Cllr Trevor Carbin

·         Cllr Bob Jones

·         Cllr Carole King

·         Cllr Gordon King

·         Cllr Pip Ridout

3.    To endorse the Housing Aids and Adaptations Task Group Terms of Reference (as detailed in supplement one).

To note and receive updates on the progress of items on the forward work programme.

Under the revised Overview and Scrutiny (OS) arrangements there is now a single OS work programme controlled by the OS Management Committee, linked to priorities in the Business Plan.

Therefore it should be noted that, whilst any matters added by Members are welcome, they will be referred to the OS Management Committee for approval before formal inclusion in the work programme for the Environment Select Committee.

A copy of the Overview and Scrutiny Forward Work Programme for the Environment Select Committee is attached for reference.

The Chairman drew the Committee’s attention to the Forward Work Programme and asked for confirmation about how to progress a number of items detailed below:

·         Environment Bill

·         CATG’s: 10 Years on

·         Rail Strategy

Resolved:

1.    That the ‘Environment Bill’ report be deferred until the Committee’s meeting on 3 March 2020.

2.    That the ‘CATGs: 10 Year On’ include the results of a survey, to be circulated to all members, asking for their feedback on CATGs for their community area (members could also share this survey with their Parish Councils for comment)

3.    To note that the Rail Strategy would be considered by the Committee at it’s meeting on 3 March 2020.

Any other items of business which the Chairman agrees to consider as a matter of urgency.

There were no urgent items.

To confirm the date of the next scheduled meeting as 14 January, 2020.

The Chairman reported that the next meeting, scheduled for 14 January 2020 was likely to be cancelled due to lack of business.  However, this would be subject to items appearing on the Cabinet Forward Plan that would be of interest to the Committee and if it was felt that there were no items, then the next meeting would be held on 3 March 2020, starting at 2.00pm.