Agenda and draft minutes

The Chair to welcome the Committee to its inaugural meeting of the new Overview and Scrutiny structure.

The Chair welcomed the Committee to the inaugural meeting under the new Overview and Scrutiny structure.

Members are asked to declare any interest and the nature of that interest which they may have in any of the items under consideration at this meeting.

Councillor Terry Gilford advised that he had recently been appointed to the Liaison Board of Daventry Norse.

To confirm the Minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 18^th April 2023.

RESOLVED:

That the Minutes of the meeting of the Place Overview & Scrutiny Committee held on 18^th April 2023 be approved and signed as a correct record.

It was proposed and seconded that Councillor Alison Eastwood be appointed Vice-Chair of the Place Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

The Chair thanked Councillor Bambridge for his work on the Committee during the last two years.

RESOLVED:

That Councillor Alison Eastwood be appointed as Vice-Chair of the Place Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

To receive communications from the Chairman.

None advised.

a)    The Chair of the Waste and Resources Strategy Members Working Group to provide a progress report to the Committee

b)    The Committee to provide Scrutiny input into the draft Waste Strategy.

6.05pm to 6.40pm

The Chair welcomed Councillor Jo Gilford to the meeting as Chair of the Waste and Resources Strategy Members Working Group. An executive summary of the presentation had been circulated with the agenda papers.

The Committee received a presentation from the Assistant Director for Waste and Councillor Jo Gilford, and the following points were raised:

•          Four members workshops had been held, each focussing on a different theme

•          Officer workshops had also been held, using expertise from independent consultants Wardell Armstrong

•          The draft vision would be an interactive document in order to actively encourage residents to respond to the consultation and take an interest in the developing strategy.

•          The aim was to deliver a harmonised waste service, tailored as appropriate to take into account differences such as housing type and bin storage capacity

•          The strategy had received a name change to become the ‘resources and waste’ strategy in order to help focus on waste prevention and reduction activity.

•          There were currently three different methods of waste collection service delivery across the former council – joint venture, in house and contract. The service delivery method would be harmonised once all contracts had expired

•          Value for Money was a key issue highlighted by the member working group.

•          A consultation exercise would be carried out with the public and other stakeholders from the end of June until the end of August

•          Two key contracts were ending in March 2025 – household waste recycling centres and residual waste treatment. EPB (Executive Programme Board) had agreed that the working group should continue in order to help shape the two contracts

Comments made by Scrutiny members included:

•            It was considered that awareness of the rural/urban split across the area was of the utmost importance and thought must be given to the most appropriate service for the location.

•          The visits carried out to other council’s services had been very useful.

•          Residents interacted with the waste service on a weekly basis so it was important to get it right.

•          There needed to be a visible difference and an increase in standards with regards to street cleansing

•          It was important to find ways to communicate with residents who had no internet access – there would be roadshows across the summer and articles included in the residents magazine that would be delivered to every household

•          Clearing litter and debris from trunk roads was challenging and required a road closure order. Such roads were managed by National Highways and it was difficult to coordinate work with them

•          Raising an income from the services would be through commercial waste, not residential

•          It was noted that legacy landfill sites produced 20% of the council’s emissions. The sites had been closed for over 100 years. The Council did not currently own any active landfill sites and so was not responsible for emissions in this respect

•          There was a concern that moving to a less frequent collection service could  ...  view the full minutes text for item 118.

The Committee to consider and provide scrutiny input into the Local Plan for West Northamptonshire at various stages

6.40pm to 7.10pm

The Committee received a presentation from Richard Wood, Head of Planning Policy (Interim) on the West Northamptonshire Local Plan

• Work was on going to produce a single Local Plan to run until 2041
•  The Spatial vision covered economic, societal and environmental matters
• Sixteen objectives had been identified that linked to the Council’s Corporate Plan
• A member workshop had been held in May
• The Planning Advisory Service (PAS) had been contacted to offer advice
• Two further workshops would be arranged covering ‘Housing & economic needs assessments’ and ‘Sustainability appraisal of broad spatial options’
• The housing and economic needs assessment involved assessing what additional land might be needed for the logistics industry. Consultants were looking into the matter and how it could affect the West Northants area
• Should more logistics/distribution businesses be set up in area it was a important that consideration was given to the capacity of the road network to deal with increased levels of traffic
• The documents would benefit from the use of plainer language
• It would be useful if briefing notes were circulated in advance of the workshops in order to allow members time to consider the information
• The current approach of producing three housing land supply figures would remain until the Plan was adopted

The Chair thanked Richard Wood for the presentation and members for their contributions.

RESOLVED:

That:

i)                the Committee notes the draft vision and objectives

ii)              the Committee notes the process for the preparation of the draft plan for public consultation

The Committee to approve its Annual Report 2022/23

7.10pm to 7.20pm

Consideration was given to the Annual report of the Place Overview and Scrutiny Committee for 2022/23. Councillor Dermot Bambridge would present the report to Council.

RESOLVED:

That the Annual report of the Place Overview and Scrutiny Committee for 2022/23 be agreed

The Chairs of the Task and Finish and Oversight Groups to provide progress reports to the Committee

i)               Active Travel Oversight Group - Cllr Bagot-Webb (7.20pm to 7.25pm)

ii)              Highways Oversight Group – Cllr Bagot-Webb (7.25pm to 7.30pm)

The Chairs of the Task and Finish and Oversight Groups to provide an update to the Committee

i)               Active Travel Oversight Group

Councillor Bagot-Webb advised that the Local transport Plan (LTP) needed to be in place so that active travel could be moved forward. An interim plan had been drafted. A meeting of the group would be reconvened to discuss actions that could be delivered quickly, in order that the public can see changes are being made

ii) Highways Contract Strategic Oversight Group

Councillor Bagot-Webb advised that the group had received a detailed briefing on the Keir contract at the last meeting. The budget for the highways service approximately £9.3m million (including £6.5m original budget, £1m increase from cabinet and £1.8m from Government funding). However there was still a shortfall of funding, with £11m required to ‘standstill’ i.e. maintain the roads in their current condition.

Councillor Larratt advised that new equipment had been purchased which should improve efficiency and should be operational by August. The roads had been impacted by a difficult winter resulting in damage to surfaces. There was a need for better quality work to fill any potholes so that the repair lasted longer.

Councillor Larratt undertook to provide information regarding the cost of the new machinery with regards to the overall budget.

Stephanie Gilbrat, Assistant Director Planning advised that work was currently taking place with Finance in order to calculate how much recompense was owed due to the construction of HS2 to compensate for damage to the road network.

The intention was for the contract with Keir to be ‘common sense’ and to fill all potholes in an area, not just some of them. The issue had been raised at a recent meeting with Keir.

RESOLVED:

That the Place Overview and Scrutiny Committee notes the updates from the Chairs of the Task and Finish and Oversight Group

To review and note the Committee Work Programme.

7.30pm to 7.40pm

The Chair introduced the work programme and advised that items on sports and leisure had been added to the programme following the Triangulation meeting.

The Local Plan would return to the September meeting following its consultation.

RESOLVED:

That the work programme be noted

The Chairman to advise whether they have agreed to any items of urgent business being admitted to the agenda.

There were no items of urgent business.