Agenda item

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

Councillor David Dixon, Cabinet Member for Neighbourhoods addressed the Panel.

Waste – He announced that there had been an increased uptake in the gull proof waste sacks in New King Street and that no enforcement action had yet been required. He added that some members of public in the street had set up a local waste management committee.

Trade Waste – He informed the Panel that the Council had secured a three year contract from March to collect trade waste.

Public Conveniences – Healthmatic commenced their contract with the Council in January and have said they will liaise with Ward Councillors that have public conveniences in their area. He added that they have offered to retain all of the automatic toilets that are currently in place.

Recycling – He said there had been a slight dip in recycling figures last year, but it looked like those were improving for this year. He added that recycling recovery rates were looking to be in excess of 70%.

Food Waste – He said that good progress had been made in this area with regard to flats and schools, but felt a general reminder of the service might be required at some point as participation wasn’t as high currently as it had been.

Council’s MOT Testing Facility – He wished to remind the Panel of this service that the Council now provides and the fact that they refer customers to garages approved by their ‘Buy with Confidence’ scheme. He added that it was hoping to be able to provide tests for Motorbikes from the end of March 2014.

Licensing – He welcomed the involvement of the Panel in the upcoming Statement of Principles (Licensing Policy).

Public Protection – He wished to make the Panel aware of the business support element of this work area in terms of food hygiene ratings.

Urban Gulls – In advance of the agenda item later in the meeting he said that he was pursuing Property Services to take up the offer of the egg replacement service.

Councillor Liz Richardson asked if it was true that the Council could no longer recycle leaves.

The Divisional Director for Environmental Services replied that leaves collected from the road could no longer be recycled and must be sent to landfill. He added that leaves collected from parks & green spaces however could still be recycled.

Councillor Lisa Brett asked if the Council still retained capacity to carry out enforcement work.

Councillor Dixon replied that licensing enforcement was funded and so would continue as normal and that street trading was incorporated within the team.

Councillor Lisa Brett asked how the Council compared in the national figures for recycling.

Councillor Dixon replied that he had not yet seen the figures for this year, but was aware that all authorities will have faced significant challenges in this area with regard to funding.

Councillor Geoff Ward wished to commend the work of the Council staff that keep the streets clean. He also asked how the budget cuts of previous years were impacting on the department.

Councillor Dixon replied that a great deal of the work within Public Protection was statutory services that could not be cut. He added that there was now a focus on education rather than enforcement.

The Divisional Director for Environmental Services added that a large amount of the cuts were delivered in a reduction of staff which has led to multi-agency teams being set up. He said that he would not want to have staffing reduced further.

Councillor Geoff Ward asked if the department were able to keep up with the frequency of inspecting with regard to food hygiene.

Councillor Dixon replied that they were.

Councillor Geoff Ward asked if the new contract for public conveniences would achieve better value for the Council.

Councillor Dixon replied that he felt that the Council’s relationship with the contractor was key and their ambition to seek innovative solutions to keeping sites open.

Councillor Geoff Ward asked if the number plate recognition system now used at Waste Management sites had affected the number of people using the sites.

Councillor Dixon replied that there had been a decrease in users of the sites and that this had been expected. He added that the advantage to this was that queuing times were therefore shorter.

Councillor Geoff Ward asked if an officer within the department had responsibility for monitoring buskers.

Councillor Dixon replied that an officer was working on this particular area and that it was work they were looking to explore.

Councillor Tim Ball, Cabinet Member for Homes & Planning addressed the Panel.

Gypsy & Traveller Sites – He informed them that two planning applications would soon be debated by the Development Control Committee on this matter. One site would be in Batheaston and the other would be in Twerton. He said that the Twerton site would have space for 13 / 14 pitches.

He added that a list of sites would still be held while the process remains on-going.

Core Strategy – He said that the Inspector had accepted the Council’s proposed housing figures of 13,000 and that around three weeks of hearings were now expected to take place from March 25^th 2014. He added that he was hopeful of the strategy being fully adopted later this year.

The Chair asked if he knew when the Gypsy & Traveller site allocation for the West of England would be announced.

Councillor Ball replied that he expected that to be announced in the Autumn.

Councillor Charles Gerrish asked if there were contingency plans for any displacement of people from the Twerton Gypsy & Traveller site.

Councillor Ball replied that only three families were on site currently and the plan was to develop the site with them in residence. He added that no site exists within the authority on which they could be placed while the development takes place.

The Chair thanked them both for their updates on behalf of the Panel.