Agenda and minutes

To note that at its meeting on 26 February 2019, Council removed Cllr Matthew Dean from membership of the Environment Select Committee and added Cllr John Smale to its membership.

The Committee were informed that, at its meeting on 26 February 2019, Council removed Cllr Matthew Dean from the membership of this Committee and added Cllr John Smale to its membership.

Resolved: To note the membership change.

To elect a Chairman for the remainder of the current municipal year.

Nominations were sought for the position of Chairman for the municipal year 2018/19. Cllr Derek Brown OBE, seconded by Cllr Peter Evans, moved that Cllr John Smale be elected as Chairman.

The Committee paid tribute to Cllr Matthew Dean, former Chairman of the Committee and thanked him for the contributions made during his time as a member of the Committee.

On there being no other nominations, it was

Resolved:

To elect Cllr John Smale as chairman of the Environment Select Committee for the municipal year 2018/19.

To receive any apologies or substitutions for the meeting.

Apologies for absence were received from Cllr Bob Jones MBE, Vice-Chairman and Cllr Tom Rounds.

In addition, Cllr Richard Gamble, Portfolio Holder for Heritage, Arts and Tourism asked for his apologies to be recorded.

Cllr Bob Jones MBE was substituted by Cllr Brian Mathew.

To approve and sign the minutes of the Environment  Select Committee meeting held on 8^th January 2019.

The minutes of the meeting held on 8 January 2019 were approved as an accurate record.

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

There were no declarations of interest.

To receive any announcements through the Chair.

The Chairman referred to a request at the previous meeting from Cllr Lay to discuss with Cllr Wayman, Cabinet Member for Highways, Transport and Waste, and Cllr Sturgis, Cabinet Member for Spatial Planning, Development Management and Property about the landscaping of trees on new estates.  

In the absence of the former Chairman, the Vice-Chairman cancelled the 4 March 2019 briefing meeting and asked for the Briefing Note to be circulated as all agreed that no further Scrutiny action was necessary. 

Cllr Lay, in responding to the Briefing Note, asked that the trees sourced for new estates should be from British grown stock, and not imported from outside the UK, which could potentially increase the risk of disease spreading to other indigenous trees. It was noted that the trees procured for the recent tree planting ceremonies by Area Boards to commemorate WWI, were from the Woodland Trust, who provided British grown trees. 

The Chairman thanked the Committee for their comments and asked for Members to raise the matter further if anything substantial emerged at a later date.

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 5^th March 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 7^th March 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 resolved by the Environment Select Committee at its meeting held on 13 March 2018, following the consideration of a report on 'Streetworks and Utilities Management', the Chairman to raise with the Committee from March 2019 whether they would wish to review how HIAMS has impacted on streetworks and, if so, information on such an item to be brought to Committee.

At the Environment Select Committee on 8^th January 2019, the Committee agreed to receive a written brief on this item.

The Committee considered the report of the Director of Highways and Transport which reviewed how the new Highways Infrastructure Asset Management System (HIAMS) had impacted Wiltshire Council’s Street Works Service.

Cllr Bridget Wayman, Cabinet member for Highways, Transport and Waste introduced the report and explained that the vision behind HIAMS is to bring all asset information onto one digital platform and utilise highly visual and mobile, map based tools to better manage and co-ordinate operational and strategic activities across the service. It also provided a full complement of asset analysis tools to enable the Authority to improve its understanding of the condition of its highways and associated assets and make better investment decisions.

The Cabinet Member for Highways, Transport and Waste, the Director for Highways and Transport and the Highways Asset Manager responded to a number of issues and comments from the Committee. In particular, the following issues and comments were raised:

·       The reasons for Wiltshire Council entering a full tender procedure to procure a modern Highway Infrastructure Asset Management System with Oxfordshire County Council.

·       Ensuring that traffic disruption from road works is kept to a minimum. A definition of minimum and what this looks like on Wiltshire roads.

·       Support provided for use of mobile devices operating HIAMS by Council staff, in the event of technical problems with software.

·       Notification of closed roads and works being undertaken by utility companies to the blue light services and Councillors.

·       Monitoring improvements to operational and strategic activities across the service.

·       The impact of HIAMS in the transfer of assets to town and parish councils.

·       Potential initiatives for the use of common trunking for all utilities using the road network.

·       Repairs to the highways and monitoring by HIAMS.

The Chairman thanked the Cabinet Member for Highways, Transport and Waste and officers for attending the meeting and providing responses to the issues raised.

Resolved: That the Committee

1.    Recognises the progress made by the highways service to modernise and improve the digital tools and processes in use through the rollout of HIAMS, and the associated improvement in the efficiency and management of Wiltshire’s roads and highway assets.

2.    Supports the use of mobile technology to improve operational efficiency, workload management and reduced environmental impact.

3.    Requests a report on the next stage of the HIAMS implementation with regard to highways inspections and the benefits of the HIAMS mobile working capability later this year.

4.    To return to the Committee at the end of 2019, with a demonstration of how the highway inspection mechanism of HIAMS will operate.

As resolved at the Environment Select Committee held on 6^th November 2018, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) being developed for the proposed streetscene contract would to be considered by the Committee, once they have been developed fully.

A copy of the KPI report is attached.

The Committee considered the report of the of the Director of Highways and Transport which provided the draft Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for inclusion in the proposed extension of the Amenity and Streetscene contract from June 2020 to November 2022.

Cllr Bridget Wayman, Cabinet member for Highways, Transport and Waste introduced the report and explained that the current Streetscene Service is undertaken by Idverde whose contract expires in June 2020. An extension to the contract is currently under consideration to December 2022, which would allow for new KPIs to be introduced.  It was acknowledged that KPIs are an excellent way to measure delivery of a service and focus improvements in desired outcomes, although they can also distort the services delivered by focusing on KPI figures at the expense of other activities. The report indicated that a suite of KPIs are proposed to capture measurable outcomes of the contractor’s performance and the perceived service levels from the local community.

The Cabinet Member for Highways, Transport and Waste, Director for Highways and Transport and the Head of Local Highways, Streetscene and Parking Services responded to a number of issues and comments from the Committee. In particular, the following issues and comments were raised:

·       Savings achieved by the Service Delegation Programme and how Lottery Funding could help with the continuation of services transferred.

·       Exploration of satisfaction surveys being conducted on the new Dynamics system (replacing MyWiltshire).

·       The frequency of litter picking on main roads and the move to a reactive service.

·       Variations across the county in the collection of litter from main roads.

·       The standardisation of colour coding for the reporting of performance measures.

·       Markets under the control of the Council.

·       Support for the public scoring of contract performance and monitoring between town and parish councils.

·       The boundaries in towns centres for road and pavement sweeping and the impact of parking regulations where double yellow lines are no longer visible due to detritus.

·       The responsibility for maintaining football and cricket pitches.

The Chairman thanked the Cabinet Member for Highways, Transport and Waste and officers for attending the meeting and providing responses to the issues raised.

Resolved:

1.    The Environment Select Committee notes the proposed KPIs detailed at Appendix B of the report.

2.    That the KPI colour scheme be amended from red, green and gold to the standard Council KPI colour indicators and that they are listed in numerical form.

To receive a formal response from the Cabinet Member for Highways, Transport and Waste to the recommendations put forward by the Waste Contracts Task Group.

The Committee considered the report of the Cabinet Member for Highways, Transport and Waste which provided a response to the final report of the Waste Contracts Task Group.

Cllr Bridget Wayman, Cabinet member for Highways, Transport and Waste introduced the report and responded to each of the Task Group’s five recommendations in turn.

The Cabinet Member for Highways, Transport and Waste and the Director for Waste and Environment responded to a number of issues and comments from the Committee. In particular, the following issues and comments were raised:

·       The lack of key performance indicators for the collection of fly tipping evidence.

·       Installing CCTV at known fly tipping areas.

·       Possibility of integrating Dynamics with HIAMS for the reporting of fly tipping

·       The number of fly tipping prosecutions.

The Committee then heard from Cllr Sven Hocking, Chairman of the Waste Contracts Task Group, who generally welcomed the comments from the Cabinet member, although he indicated that the Task Group recommended the use of fixed penalty notices in the place of warning letters.  Cllr Hocking also referred to an example of fly tipping in Salisbury and asked if the matter could be investigated further, as well as a date to be provided to the Committee for when the proposed Waste Contracts Task Group could be reconvened.

The Chairman thanked the Cabinet Member for Highways, Transport and Waste, Cllr Hocking and officers for attending the meeting and providing responses to the issues raised.

Resolved:

      1.         The Environment Select Committee to reconvene a Waste Contracts Task Group to consider ‘The implementation and performance of the council’s waste contracts for collecting and managing waste and recyclables’ when Lots 1, 3, 4 and 5 become fully operational

      2.         The Environment Select Committee to note the update provided by the Cabinet Member for Highways, Transport and Waste in the ‘Executive Response’.

      3.         A response to be provided at 23 April meeting on Cllr Hocking’s fly-tipping example from Salisbury and the volume of fly-tipping prosecutions in the past year

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 an update from Cllr Graham Wright on recent activity of the Homelessness Strategy Task Group, in particular the meetings held on 15^th January 2019 and 19 February 2019. In addition, the Committee were asked to endorse a change to the membership of the Task Group.

Resolved: To note the update.

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 Senior Scrutiny Officer introduced the Committee’s Forward Work Programme, asked for confirmation about how to progress a number of items and provided updates on the Committee’s work scheduled for the forthcoming April 2019 meeting.

As the Executive Director for Growth, Investment and Place, Alistair Cunningham, updated the Committee that the ECO Board had been disbanded, it was proposed that the ECO Board item for April instead include information on work that had been undertaken in the past year.

Resolved:

1.    To note the Forward Work Programme.

2.    To agree that the ECO Board item for 23 April 2019 include information on work that had been undertaken by the Board in the past year.

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 23^rd April 2019.

The date of the next meeting was confirmed as 23^rd April 2019.