Agenda and minutes

To receive any apologies for absence.

Apologies were noted from Councillor Simpson.

Councillor Forster was welcomed to his first meeting of the Select Committee as a new member.

All Members who believe they have a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest in any matter to be considered at the meeting must declare that interest and, having regard to the circumstances described in Part 3 Paragraph 1.5 of the County Council's Members' Code of Conduct, leave the meeting while the matter is discussed, save for exercising any right to speak in accordance with Paragraph 1.6 of the Code. Furthermore all Members with a Non-Pecuniary interest in a matter being considered at the meeting should consider whether such interest should be declared, and having regard to Part 5, Paragraph 2 of the Code, consider whether it is appropriate to leave the meeting while the matter is discussed, save for exercising any right to speak in accordance with the Code.

Members were mindful that where they believed they had a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest in any matter considered at the meeting they must declare that interest at the time of the relevant debate and, having regard to the circumstances described in Part 3, Paragraph 1.5 of the County Council's Members' Code of Conduct, leave the meeting while the matter was discussed, save for exercising any right to speak in accordance with Paragraph 1.6 of the Code. Furthermore Members were mindful that where they believed they had a Non-Pecuniary interest in a matter being considered at the meeting they considered whether such interest should be declared, and having regard to Part 5, Paragraph 2 of the Code, considered whether it was appropriate to leave the meeting whilst the matter was discussed, save for exercising any right to speak in accordance with the Code.

To confirm the minutes of the previous meeting

The minutes of the last meeting were reviewed and agreed.

To receive any deputations notified under Standing Order 12.

There were no deputations for the meeting, but it was noted that a written representation had been received by Members of the Committee regarding a walking route from Hook to Odiham. This was due to be scrutinised at an upcoming Children and Young People Select Committee and therefore didn’t need to be discussed at the Economy, Transport and Environment Select Committee meeting.

To receive any announcements the Chairman may wish to make.

There were no Chairman’s announcements.

For the Economy, Transport & Environment Select Committee to pre-scrutinise the proposals for the Transport and Environment (ETE) Capital programme for 2020/21, 2021/22 and 2022/23 (see report attached due to be considered at the decision day of the Executive Member for Economy, Transport and Environment at 2.00pm on 14 January 2020).

The Select Committee considered a report and presentation from Stuart Jarvis, Director of Economy, Transport and Environment and Sue Lapham, the departmental Finance Business Partner. The presentation covered both the proposed Capital Programme (item 6 in the minute book) and the 2020/21 Revenue Budget report (item 7 in the minute book) which were discussed simultaneously at the meeting.

The Finance Business Partner summarised the general budget overview for the County Council, highlighting the ten years of austerity and the increasing resources being allocated to social care. Despite the reductions there was still an £80million funding gap.

The Director of Economy, Transport and Environment confirmed that waste disposal and recycling continued to be a substantial expenditure following a decline in recycling rates. It remained unclear where national policy was going with regards to waste processing and therefore made it difficult to know where the County could best invest in infrastructure.

Other challenges highlighted for the department included the processing of mixed plastics, income generation, staff retention and relationship’s with District Councils.

There were concerns that losing Growth Fund investment could effect the capital programme, but the Transforming Cities fund anticipated in late 2020 would help support the integrated transport programme in walking and cycling, particularly around the Southampton and Portsmouth areas.

During questions of the officers, the following points were confirmed:

·         Savings proposals had been agreed by the County Council in November to meet the £80m savings target for 2021 (Transformation to 2021 or Tt2021)

·         The County Council was a technical consultee on planning applications and could not object in principle if the evidence to support an application was satisfactory. If there were any concerns regarding areas such as highways, then developers would be requested to submit revised proposals to address these;

·         Lots of areas and new ideas were being looked at with regards to commercialisation;

·         Walking and cycling investment going forward was £10million, as highlighted in paragraph 25 of the report; and

·         Whilst Hampshire still had more cars on the road than other counties, the number had declined and the size and weight of cars had more impact on the road infrastructure than the quantity.

RESOLVED:

The Select Committee supported the recommendation to the Executive Member for Economy, Transport and Environment that the proposed capital programmes for 2020/21, 2021/22 and 2022/23 totalling £161.930million, as set out in the report and its appendices, be put forward for approval to the Leader and Cabinet.

For the Select Committee to review proposals for the 2020/21 budget for the Economy, Transport and Environment Department in accordance with the Council’s Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) approved by the County Council in November 2019.

The Select Committee considered a report and presentation from Stuart Jarvis, Director of Economy, Transport and Environment and Sue Lapham, the departmental Finance Business Partner. The presentation covered both the proposed Capital Programme (item 6 in the minute book) and the 2020/21 Revenue Budget report (item 7 in the minute book) which were discussed simultaneously at the meeting and minuted under item 111.

RESOLVED:

The Select Committee considered the revenue budget proposals and supported the recommendations being proposed to the Executive Member for Economy, Transport and Environment.

To receive a presentation from James Potter, Assistant Director and Ben Slater, Regional Director (South) from Veolia regarding the recycling process.

Councillor Tod left the meeting

The Select Committee received a presentation from James Potter, Assistant Director (item 8 in the minute book) on recycled products.

Hampshire had two Materials Recovery Facilities (MRF’s) with a capacity of 150,000 tonnes per annum (tpa). The process at the facility was explained to the Committee with cardboard and glass ultimately being exported depending on the demand. A lot of mixed paper and cardboard currently went to India, with Veolia working on acquiring a licence to access more limited markets like China.

During the presentation and questions, Members learned the following:

·         At HWRC’s; 22 different grades of metal were processed, along with 7,000 tpa of cardboard and 14,000tpa of wood;

·         China now requested a <0.5% contamination rate in plastics, along with enforcing heavy restrictions on the moisture content of paper and cardboard;

·         It took 10 recycled plastic bottles to make a t-shirt;

·         Not all good plastic alternatives were positive or more environmentally friendly. Tetra packs are not easy to recycle and even some bio-plastics contained some contaminants;

·         The aim was to recycle 65% of waste by 2035;

·         There was a lot of discrepancy across the County with regards to what could be recycled as it varied across the Districts, but plastic bottles were definitely suitable for recycling and could be recycled everywhere.

·         80% of incidents of contamination with recycling was caused by the wrong plastics being included;

·         An important focus was reducing waste generally, as well as how best to recycle.

Members acknowledged that whilst communication was important in instructing the public on what could and couldn’t be recycled, it was more productive to wait until more of a steer had been given by central government on the direction of national policy.

It was agreed that a site visit to Alton MRF would be beneficial to Members, and this would be arranged for later in the year.

Members thanked the Assistant Director and his team for their work.

To receive an update from James Moore on Air Quality work, following discussion at the April 2019 Select Committee meeting.

The Select Committee received a presentation from James Moore, Principal Transport Planner (item 9 in the minute book), which updated Members on air quality management.

It was confirmed that the legal limits set were primarily down to Borough and District Councils, but there were still challenges faced by the County Council including a lack of funding from central government and the County being included too late as part of consultations, making it difficult to be proactive rather than reactive.

Following on from the previous update in April 2019, it was confirmed that Fareham and Rushmoor Borough Councils had fully delivered on all measures and the areas were now being monitored.

Only some areas nationally were permitted to introduce a charging zone to combat air quality issues and clean air infrastructure was a substantial investment. Climate change and air quality were different areas with different policies, and it was important to try and have a more joined-up approach to achieve the most effectiveness with what they set out to achieve.

Members thanked the officer for his work and update.

To consider the work programme of topics to be considered by the Select Committee in future.

The Select Committee considered the work programme for 2020-2021.

Councillor Simpson requested that an item be added that looked at policy regarding road safety and accident black spots for later in 2020 so the Committee could better understand how it was implemented.

RESOLVED:

The work programme was approved by Members of the Select Committee.