Agenda and draft minutes

Venue: The Council Chamber, Guildhall, Northampton

Contact: Tracy Tiff, Democratic Services 

Items
No. Item

39.

Declarations of Interest

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.

Minutes:

Councillor Haque declared a personal interest on Item 5 the Northampton Town Plan, as a Northampton Town Councillor.

40.

Minutes

Minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 26 January 2022 to follow.

Minutes:

The Chair deferred the approval of the minutes and declared the minutes from both meetings in January would be considered for approval by the Place and Overview Scrutiny Committee at the next meeting on 29 March 2022.

41.

Chairman's Announcements

To receive communications from the Chairman.

Minutes:

There were none.

42.

Northampton Town Plan (planning and growth including other main town progress and review

The Committee to receive a presentation and to review the regeneration of the town centre, including culture, together with reviewing  the Northampton Town Plan and how this fits with the Northampton Highways Strategy.

 

6:05pm to 6:45pm

 

Minutes:

The Chair introduced the Northampton Town Plan agenda item and invited Marie Dickie to address the Place Overview and Scrutiny Committee. Marie thanked the Chair and the Committee and said she welcomed the development of the area. She explained that the Friends of Northampton Castle had worked hard to promote a heritage hub for Northampton and urged the Place Overview and Scrutiny Committee to investigate the conservation area and help to develop a space that would celebrate Northampton heritage.

 

At the Chair’s invitation, Councillor Stone addressed the committee and expressed her concern regarding the criminal activity that took place in central Northampton and the increasing poverty of areas surrounding the town centre. She explained she was thrilled that investment was taking place and was pleased that the Marefair site was being invested in but felt that the Council needed to address anti-social behaviour issues as part of the regeneration projects taking place and prioritise the safety of residents.

 

Members asked Councillor Stone to share her opinion and explain what she felt the Council could do to listen to residents and what the community needed in terms of development. Councillor Stone explained that the Council needed to work closely with the police to ensure community safety and for there to be more visibility on the streets of Northampton. She explained that Castle house was a working-class area with a diverse population, and social housing and supported living developments were needed to benefit the community.

 

The next speaker Councillor Alwahabi addressed the Place Overview and Scrutiny Committee and stated that he welcomed the regeneration led by West Northamptonshire Council, but felt the Council needed to take more steps to ensure the town centre was a clean, green, and safe place to attract visitors. He continued that St Giles had some fantastic architecture and had won awards for investment, and at present there were 8 empty units. He urged the Council to develop the town with integrity and emphasised that social value should be at the heart of planning consideration, and planning should think carefully before disposing of town centre assets.

 

Councillor Birch thanked the Chair and introduced herself as the Chair of Northampton Town Council and a former councillor of the Northampton Borough Council and explained she had been involved with the town plan from the beginning. She praised the extensive plan which incorporated 10 different project areas. Councillor Birch expressed concern about how cohesion would be achieved through the developments fitting together, and how the Council would manage the construction side of the projects with contractors building in the town centre. She also expressed concern regarding the empty units in the town centre being changed into residential units and alluded to the former Marks and Spencers and Debenhams department stores. She expressed concern that the size of the individual rooms in the flats were far too small and had no outside space for residents. She felt it was the responsibility of the University of Northampton to ensure student accommodation was available  ...  view the full minutes text for item 42.

43.

Flood Risk Management

The Committee to receive a presentation and to review the Flood Risk Management for West Northants Council.

 

6:45pm to 7:10pm

Minutes:

The Cabinet Member for Environment, Transport, Highways and Waste introduced Councillor Chauhan as Assistant Cabinet Member and commended her work with the team on Flood Risk Management. The Chair then invited the Assistant Director Assets and Environment Senior Flood and Water Officer to deliver their presentation on Flood Risk Management.

 

The Assistant Director Assets and Environment delivered the presentation on Flood Risk Management and highlighted the salient points:

 

·         There was a series of ongoing future projects and capital works to improve flood resilience in West Northamptonshire communities.

·         The current service delivery model relied on outsourcing to external providers and the Council would be bringing the resource in-house so to enable all contracted work to be delivered. This would increase efficiency by having a specialist team to understand West Northamptonshire specific flood issues.

·         Climate change was causing more pluvial flooding and the flood resilience project would look at prevention methods to reduce risk

·         The Council were looking to collaborate with the University of Northampton to work with students to complete work experience and gain knowledge in the area during a sandwich year in their degree

 

Members were pleased to hear that flood risk management was being improved and asked if more site visits could take place as there were often issues reported to members that were difficult to explain over the phone without someone coming to review the incident. Members also asked for better accessibility on the Council’s website reporting flooding issues and asked for details of a designated contact. The Assistant Cabinet Member responded that there had been a changeover of staff in the department at Ruth Burnham was the person to contact as the Senior Flood and Water Officer.

 

Members questioned if flood prevention was in relation to flooding by natural causes. The Assistant Director Assets and Flooding confirmed that the Council were concerned with preparing for natural floods and explained that flood plains were a natural part of how rivers behave, and part of the wider problems is that many houses have been built on a flood plain. The Assistant Cabinet Member for HR shared that there were Regional Planning Committee Flood Boards which had a primary function to look at locations that required additional funding and requested that any examples could be brought to the board to be considered for funding.

 

Members discussed problematic areas in West Northamptonshire for flooding and mentioned Brackley, St James, Silverstone, Tiffield and Towcester as key flood areas that would need investigating and prevention resources. The Senior Flood and Water Officer shared that the Innovative Flood Resilience Project was tasked with flood matters and improving community resilience considering that climate change meant that more places would be at risk of flooding in the future, and the Council needed to be prepared and have prevention measures in place. She explained that the board had been working with DEFRA and had acquired £6m in funding over the last year to ensure flood resilience for properties built on flood plains.

 

The Chair thanked officers for  ...  view the full minutes text for item 43.

44.

Review of Committee Work Plan 2021/2022 pdf icon PDF 393 KB

The Committee to review and note its work programme for 2021/2022.

 

7:10pm to 7:20pm

Minutes:

The Chair introduced the Committee Work Plan and explained that as the work plan would be updated to incorporate the Place Overview and Scrutiny Committee’s request to have an update Northampton town plan in 6 months’ time and an update on Flood Risk Management as agreed at the meeting and would remove St James’ Bus Lane from the Committee Work Plan.

 

Members suggested that the Committee Work Plan be formatted so that comments could be aligned next to each item and be reviewed regularly to document the committee’s progress. Members felt that a RAG rating could be applied to demonstrate any items which needed urgently addressing in red, as an example. Members also suggested the Committee Work Plan be formatted in chronological order with closed items at the bottom and ongoing issues at the top of the list, and requested that the work plan incorporate the Place Overview and Scrutiny Task and Finish groups

 

The Chair thanked members for their great ideas and asked the Deputy Democratic Services Manager to revise the Committee Work Plan and circulate to members for feedback and any further comments. The Chair then invited the Deputy Democratic Services Manager to discuss the annual report of the Place Overview and Scrutiny Committee. The Deputy Democratic Services Manager referred to the Committee Work Plan and asked if members were happy for the annual report to come to the next meeting or if they would prefer it be delayed until June 2022 as the Committee only started the work programme from June 2021. Members agreed that the annual report be produced in time for the meeting in June.

 

The Chair thanked members for attending the meeting and announced the next meeting of the Place Overview & Scrutiny Committee would take place on 22 February 2022 and the Committee and the topics for the meeting would be an introduction to Active Travel and fly tipping and closed the meeting.

 

RESOLVED:

 

1)    That the Deputy Democratic Services Manager revise the Place Overview and Scrutiny Work Plan to make agreed format changes and to add an update on the Northampton Town Plan for July 2022, an update on Flood Risk Management for January 2023 and to remove St James’ Bus Lane from the work plan.

45.

Urgent Business

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

Minutes:

There were no items of urgent business.