Agenda and minutes

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting.

The Chair drew attention to the emergency evacuation procedure.

Councillor Gerry Curran had sent his apologies to the Panel.

The Cabinet Member for Homes & Planning, Councillor Tim Ball and the Cabinet Member for Sustainable Development, Councillor Ben Stevens had also sent their apologies to the Panel.

At this point in the meeting declarations of interest are received from Members in any of the agenda items under consideration at the meeting. Members are asked to indicate:

(a) The agenda item number in which they have an interest to declare.

(b) The nature of their interest.

(c) Whether their interest is a disclosable pecuniary interest or an other interest,  (as defined in Part 2, A and B of the Code of Conduct and Rules for Registration of Interests)

Any Member who needs to clarify any matters relating to the declaration of interests is recommended to seek advice from the Council’s Monitoring Officer or a member of his staff before the meeting to expedite dealing with the item during the meeting.

Councillor Steve Hedges declared an other interest to the Panel as his son works for Curo.

Mr David Redgewell, South West Transport Network addressed the Panel. He said that the fleet of First vehicles needed to be upgraded to have comfortable leather seats and wi-fi available so that they would become more attractive to use. He added that he was pleased to say that the toilets within the bus station had been restored, but that it was a real shame that the café was now absent, so the toilets were still closed.

He referred to the bus gate trial on Dorchester Street as a debacle and said that further consultation would be required if it were to be reintroduced.

He stated that he believed that any new public transport routes associated with Bath Western Riverside should form part of the Bath Transport Strategy. He added that there currently were some bus stops in the area but hardly any buses used them.

Councillor June Player commented that she was aware that some wheelchair users who live in Bath Western Riverside are affected by being unable to access services because of pavement height.

The Chair suggested that this be reported to the Equalities team within the Council.

The Panel confirmed the minutes of the previous meeting as a true record and they were duly signed by the Chair.

The Cabinet Member(s) will update the Panel on any relevant issues. Panel members may ask questions.

The Head of Housing introduced this item in the absence of Councillor Tim Ball.

He said that in response to a query raised by the Chair that he had the following information regarding boat dwellers. The Council has approved the establishment of the Council Strategic River Group. This is a multi-partnership group which includes representatives of the Environment Agency, the Canals & Rivers Trust & Wessex Water and is chaired by Councillor Ben Stevens. He added that at the meeting on the 2nd May it was agreed that this group would progress the wider issues resulting from the task & finish group on boat dwellings, which would include utilising the £40k of funding agreed by Council.

The Chair asked if an officer would be available to work directly with the group.

The Head of Housing replied that an officer would be allocated to the group and that he believed the job description was in development.

The Chair commented that she would like to receive an update on the work of the group in due course.

The Head of Housing explained that the Housing Options & Homelessness Team has recently received a number of positive assessments as a result of benchmarking initiatives and peer review activities.  These were:

·  Peer review by 2 local authorities using the Government’s rigorous Homelessness Gold Standard framework.  The feedback was very positive.  We scored 73% the 2^nd highest score of the 8 authorities who have so far gone through this voluntarily process.  They were particularly positive about our partnership working.

·  Mystery shopping provided by Shelter, the national homelessness charity, has been very positive.  In particular they commented that telephone calls were promptly answered and that staff were friendly and helpful.  The website was graded as excellent.  There was however some concerns expressed about an email that was not responded to.  This will be investigated.

·  Independent benchmarking, facilitated by the Housing Quality Network Ltd using 2013/14 data shows that of 12 national peers:

·  B&NES operate with 0.49 FTE staff per 10,000 households (less than half the mean peer group);

·  B&NES staff make more statutory decisions per FTE than the average of the peer group;

·  B&NES homelessness prevention rate per FTE is the highest in the peer group;

·  At the time of writing there were 10 households in temporary accommodation, a record low for the Council.  This is despite a national increase in homelessness.  If the national rate of households in temporary accommodation was applied to this Council we would have in excess of 170 households in temporary accommodation.

Councillor Brian Simmons commented that he was aware of two rough sleepers in Keynsham and that they were not able to travel to Bath to access facilities.

The Head of Housing replied that it was only feasible to have one centre and added that outreach workers do visit people across the Council.

Councillor Steve Hedges asked how many of the 513 new affordable homes were truly ‘affordable’.

The Head of Housing replied that the majority of them had been  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

The Head of Housing will give the Panel a verbal update on this matter.

The Head of Housing introduced this item to the Panel. He explained that the Council has made available capital funding to support the delivery of affordable housing.  He added that the report due before Cabinet on June 11^th provided the indicative Affordable Housing programme for 2014-15 and the evolving pipeline programme for 2015-18. He said that it outlined the proposals for determining the affordable housing projects for funding and sought to agree an effective and robust delegated authority for funding approval decisions.

He said that a proposal was to be made to amend the decision making process to allow the Director of Place in association with the Cabinet Member Homes & Planning to allocate funding.

Councillor Steve Hedges commented that he saw no argument against this proposal.

The Chair commented that she felt it would be an effective way of working. She also asked if it would alleviate the problem of granted permissions not being built.

The Head of Housing replied that it would not. He added that it was about pursuing developments when approached by partners.

Councillor Brian Simmons asked if the Council would receive any funds back through Section 106 agreements.

The Head of Housing replied that it would not but that it would receive the New Homes Bonus if a development was successful.

The Regeneration Team Manager introduced this item to the Panel. He highlighted to the Panel some of the key points from the report.

Somerdale

The detailed part of the application is for 157 dwellings, change of use of Block A for up to 113 apartments.  It also covers highway works, social and sports pavilion (new Fry Club), new sports pitches, alterations to factory buildings B and C for employment use (B1) leisure (D2 uses) and retail (A3, A4 and A5 uses). 

The Section 106 agreement was signed on February 19^th 2014.

The employment space is being marketed.  A full page advert has been placed in Estates Gazette (w/c 12th May). Taylor Wimpey and their representatives are preparing a marketing strategy which is required by the S106 Agreement for the Council’s approval within six months of signing the agreement.  Regular meetings with the Council’s Economic Development Team and Invest in Bristol & Bath form part of the strategy, and these are already under way.

Bath Western Riverside

Phase 1 of Bath Riverside commenced on site in early 2011 and is currently delivering up to 813 residential units. The project is delivering affordable homes (101 to date with a further 55 under construction) early in the development. The project has established a good market for the product with strong sales.

Significant outputs have already been achieved;

•  300 homes constructed – 101 affordable 1, 2 and 3 bed flats and houses

•  Biomass Energy Centre completed and operational

•  £750k in S106 contribution to B&NES

•  £260k PA received in New Homes Bonus

•  Demonstrated Crest/B&NES/HCA and Curo have formed a good partnership

With the support of the Council to use LEP Revolving Infrastructure funding (RIF), Crest entered into an Agreement with Wales and West (WWU) under which the gas towers have been decommissioned and the demolition and remediation processes commenced. The first phase of decommissioning is complete and WWU has now surrendered the Hazardous Storage Licence. In parallel, Crest (and by contracting RIF, the Council) has been granted an option to acquire the Wales and West site which extends through to 2018 and which provides the necessary control from which to bring forward the remaining phases.

The Council is developing plans to relocate the waste transfer and recycling site with options to consolidate and improve the waste service activities. This may be achieved by relocation of the waste management operation to Pixash Lane, Keynsham and the Household Recycling Centre onto an alternative Bath site.

Councillor Steve Hedges asked if the gasometer was still there.

The Divisional Director for Project Management replied that the gasometer was still there, but it had been de-commissioned. He added that it will take two years to take it down.

The Chair asked if the Radstock Road recycling facility was due to close down.

The Regeneration Team Manager replied that he was not sure and would try to find out for her. Following the meeting the Democratic Services Officer was informed by the Regeneration Team  ...  view the full minutes text for item 10.

This report presents the latest workplan for the Panel.

The Chair introduced this item to the Panel. She said that she would like them to receive a report from the Council Strategic River Group as soon as possible. She added that the Medium Term Service & Resource Plan needed to be placed upon the workplan.

The Head of Housing commented that four registered providers had been invited to address the Panel on their plans for the future in July.

The Panel agreed with these proposals.