Agenda and minutes

To receive apologies for absence.

The Chair, Councillor Turner, welcomed Councillor Hoskin to her first Environment Committee.

Apologies were received from Councillors Evans and Smith.

To receive declarations of interest.

There were none.

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 30 March 2023.

RESOLVED That the Minutes of the meeting held on 30 March 2023 were approved as a correct record.

The Chair of the Committee will answer questions from members of the public submitted in accordance with the Council’s procedures.

Public questions were submitted. They were answered by the Chair, Councillor Turner. (Refer to the recording of the meeting).

See Agenda Item 4 for deadlines for submission.

Member questions were submitted, The Chair, Councillor Turner, read the question on behalf of Councillor Evans who was not in attendance at the meeting. Refer to the Council’s recording and Agenda Item 5).

To present the 2023/24 forecast outturn position against the revenue budgets and Capital Programme that the Committee is responsible for, in order to give an expectation of possible variances against budget.

The Accountant introduced the report and brought Members attention to Table 1. The accountant identified the key variances which included a projected underspend for the Canal due to timing and the waste and recycling multi service contract was forecasting unachieved income due to the volatile recyclate values.

Councillor Jones asked whether the reserve transfers meant that the council was taking money from the reserves. The Accountant advised that because it was reserved transfers, the money was already allocated at the end of the last financial year and being brought forward. Councillor Jones continued and clarified whether the £233k for Economic Development was made up of the forecast outturn, minus the revised budget and two outturn variants. The Accountant advised that without the reserve transfer against that budget, it would show as a bigger variance and list an underspend which wasn’t correct and instead was being made up of existing allocated reserves and not extra money being allocated.

Councillor Kay asked if the Gloucestershire Country Council (GCC) and Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) contributions would both be kept within budget on the Walking and Cycling Project. The Accountant advised she would follow the question up with Officers and provide a response outside of Committee.

Councillor Brown entered the Chamber at 19:18.

Councillor Jones asked if the budget for Planning Strategy had accommodated additional costs associated with the ongoing Local Plan. The Accountant advised the report was written prior to the inspectors comments and would be updated in Q2.

Proposed by Councillor Hynd, seconded by Councillor Kay.

Councillor Kay summed up advising of the confidence he had with our Finance Team. Councillor Hynd as proposer echoed these comments.

On being put to the vote, the Motion was carried unanimously.

To present the progress made against the Council Plan 2021-2026 to date, and to approve the refreshed Council Plan.

The Chair, Councillor Turner, introduced the report advising that the Council Plan was approved in October 2021 and that it was good practice to review the plan periodically. A review had been undertaken throughout the summer. Section 2.4 of the report outlined some of the key achievements that related to the Committee. The revised Council Plan had been reviewed and refined, which included it’s actions and performance indictors to ensure performance management was more effective. She advised of the key changes within the plan which included completed actions, extended deadlines, a ‘newly developed action’ category and additional milestones and performance indictors added. Finally, she thanked the Committee for the progress that had been made on the plan and hoped that Members could see that the revised Council Plan would allow for more accurate reporting.

In response to Members questions, the Chair, Councillor Turner, provided the following answers:

·   She agreed with the suggestion from Councillor Kay for the Equality, Diversity,Inclusion and Equity (EDIE) working group to feed into the action plan at their future meetings.

·   In response to a question from Councillor Jones regarding the revised Local Plan’s end date of December 2024, she advised that she agreed with the approach that had been taken as SDC were still under the examination process until a response from the inspectors had been received. She continued and advised that the revised Council Plan was proceeding through each Committee and Council and could be updated if information was received prior to these committees.

·   In response to Councillor Watson’s question, she advised there were contingency plans within Planning Strategy if the pause was not granted, however she was hopeful this would not be the case.

·   She asked the Director of Place to review the Statement of Community Involvement that Councillor Jones advised was out of date on the website.

Proposed by Councillor Layfield, seconded by Councillor Watson.

Councillors Watson, Kay, Hynd and Layfield commented on the hard work carried out by Officers and Councillors, the ambitions and aspirations of the plan, the improved detail within the performance monitoring system Ideagen and the importance of needing performance monitors for the Committee which were currently lacking.

On being put to the vote, the Motion was carried unanimously.

To seek the Committee’s approval to commence public consultation on Randwick’s draft Conservation Area Statement (CAS).

The Senior Planning Strategy Officer outlined the purpose of the report which was to seek approval to take the Randwick Conservation Area Statement (CAS) out for public consultation. She advised that following the consultation, they would consider the final version of the CAS at a future Environment Committee meeting if approved for consultation that evening.

The following responses were provided to Members questions from the Senior Planning Strategy Officer and Interim Planning Strategy Manager:

·   The Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) Board had not been presented with the draft as the Parish Council produced it, however they would be approached as part of the consultation.

·   Randwick Parish Council took a proactive approach and produced the CAS and presented it to SDC. SDC had not produced a CAS since 2008 due to resource and did not envisage a surge of CAS’ from Parishes.

·   6 weeks would be an appropriate consultation period and considered good practice for supplementary planning documents (SPD). The consultation could start at the end of September 2023.

·   Paper copies of the consultation documents would be provided at SDC and SDC would consult with Randwick Parish on where additional copies in the Parish could be displayed.

·   All costs to date had been funded by the Parish. SDC would incur a small cost for the printing of the documents for consultation.

·   CAS were required to go through Committee to be granted status from SDC as SPD to be used for future planning decisions.

·   The CAS provided an easier supplement to planning advice when implementing existing policies.

Proposed by Councillor Tipper, seconded by Councillor Brown.

Councillor Brown and Tipper summed up advising the value and importance to the community and there were good reasons to support the CAS.

On being put to the vote, the Motion was carried unanimously.

The Chair, Councillor Turner, advised a report would be brought back to Committee in February 2024 following the consultation.

Seek approval to adopt the Gloucestershire Interim Resources and Waste Strategy.

The Community Services Manager introduced the report and advised that the Interim Strategy had been formulated by the Gloucestershire Resources Waste Partnership and the previous Strategy concluded in 2022. He outlined the five key themes within the Strategy and advised that it was an Interim Strategy until 2026 whilst statutory guidance was pending on waste collections, the deposit returns scheme and extended producer responsibility.

The following responses were provided to Member questions by the Community Services Manager:

·   Site tours of Gossington depot were offered to Environment Committee Members who had the opportunity to look at the processes to be able to reassure the public of concerns and site tours would be offered again.

·   There had been a channel shift from paper based to in-cab digital recording of missed collections and the ‘waste wizard’ tool remained popular with the public.

·   Reviews of suppliers for receptacles were undertaken regularly. The quality of the wheelie bins had improved however there had been a supply issue over the summer for the recycling boxes meaning SDC had to source elsewhere from other suppliers.

·   He was not aware of the industry resolving issues relating to black plastic for horticultural containers. The Chair, Councillor Turner, added that certain garden centres offered recycling options for these containers.

·   The Interim Strategy made a firm commitment to reduce bin size however not to reduce the number of collections.

Proposed by Councillor Watson, seconded by Councillor Layfield.

Councillor Layfield commended Ubico staff at Pyke Quarry for their proactive approach.

Councillor Watson commented that compost bags were a valuable recycling material, she was impressed at the Gossington site and the Interim Strategy allowed the rest of the Country to improve themselves to the standard of Stroud.

On being put to the vote, the Motion was carried unanimously.

To seek approval for the associated capital funding required.

The Community Services Manager introduced the report and advised that following the March 2023 Committee he was tasked with investigating the Capital commitment relating to the electric vehicle charging points within the district and the suitability of potential sites for both 22-kilowatt fast charging and 7-kilowatt charging.

Proposed by Councillor James, seconded by Councillor Brown.

Councillor Brown advised that he was pleased to see progress being made toward electric vehicle charging points across the district.

The Community Services Manager in response to Councillor Layfield advised GCC were working in conjunction with SDC and Parish and Town Councils to try and identify on street charging locations as part of their phase one roll out.

The Community Services Manager in response to Councillor Sutton advised that a reasonable charging rate would be identified, similar to the rate for home charging.

Councillor Jones advised that in his role as District Councillor he was contacted by GCC to advise that two charging points were going in at Oldminster Road, Sharpness and advised he was not convinced electric was sustainable and possible progression to hydrogen would be better.

Councillor James gave his thanks for the report and Wotton-under-Edge were pleased to get a charging point in their car park.

On being put to the vote, the Motion was carried unanimously.

The purpose of this report is to raise awareness of the Council’s membership of UK100, and to seek the Committee’s support for this to be re-affirmed.

The Strategic Director of Place introduced the report advising UK100 were a cross party organisation who support councils to develop and encourage net zero ambitions and this report was seeking to re-affirm the membership. The Council is required to sign up to the UK100 pledge which the Leader of SDC has been asked to sign. 

Proposed by Councillor Layfield, seconded by Councillor Watson.

Councillor Watson explained she was impressed with the training provided by UK100 which Councillor Hynd echoed these comments and advised it was a valuable membership.

Councillor Layfield advised it was a no brainer and have previously been nominated for awards by them too for our contributions.

On being put to the vote, the Motion was carried unanimously.

A nomination was received from Councillor Evans. The second role would remain vacant and the Chair, Councillor Turner, in the interim would provide support.

The following appointment were agreed:

The Chair, Councillor Turner advised the Board discussed the Local Plan, Randwick CAS and had an opportunity to comment on the Governments consultation on plan making.

Councillor Layfield provided a verbal update on the Chambers report on new visitor information posters had been installed in Brunel Car Park, an update on the Wallbridge Cycle Track, Stroud Neighbourhood Development Plan, biodiversity in the town centre, parking, and success on diversion activity on youth graffiti. 

A report had been circulated prior to the meeting. There were no questions.

The Chair, Councillor Turner, advised that the Group discussed the final draft vision statement, an update on the statement of intent for transport decarbonisation and a presentation from GFirst LEP on their economy theme.

A report had been circulated prior to the meeting. There were no questions.

A report had been circulated prior to the meeting. There were no questions.

Councillor Kay thanked Councillor Brown for his report. 

A report had been circulated prior to the meeting.

Councillor Layfield advised £312k had been allocated to strategic and local projects, a significant amount of partnership working was being undertaken including with GCC and the CIL funding, development of a Stroud trial app and September was ‘Cycle September’.

Councillor Kay advised he had been trying to contact the Senior Neighbourhood Planning Officer regarding a decision on the Horsley Action Groups application they submitted for funding. Councillor Layfield advised the Walking and Cycling group had met and reviewed the application and were negotiating with GCC on their contribution as public rights of way came under their remit. The Chair, Councillor Turner, also commented that a new protocol had been developed with applications that also related to GCC and she would chase the Senior Neighbourhood Planning Officer for Councillor Kay. 

Councillor Kay queried when the recommendations from CIL would be available. The Chair, Councillor Turner, advised that a Member briefing was being held in October and recommendations from Officers would be brought to Environment Committee in December. 

A report had been circulated prior to the meeting.

The Chair, Councillor Turner, advised Committee that the Community Engagement Board were meeting with Air Quality Officers on the 27 September from SDC over the coming weeks and had asked for the invitation of the meeting to be extended to all Environment Committee members regarding the changes to expectations on Local Authorities for air quality monitoring.

Councillor Jones commented that nearly all Nitrogen Dioxide monitors were on the A419 or North of the district and that the South of the district needed monitoring equipment. He also commented that SDC do not have any particulate monitors for monitoring either.

A report had been circulated prior to the meeting. There were no questions.

To consider the work programme.

No items were added to the work programme.

Councillor Kay questioned the regularity of air quality reports. The Chair, Councillor Turner encouraged Members to attend the Community Engagement Board air quality session and if Members were still not satisfied, she would work with Officers to set up additional sessions.

Councillor Hynd asked for an update on the audit of single use plastics and action plan. The Strategic Director of Place advised he would take the action away and respond to Councillor Hynd outside of Committee.

Councillor Sutton asked if pressure could be put on Severn Trent regarding storage of reservoir water. The Chair, Councillor Turner, advised that the water boards were scrutinising the issue.