Agenda, decisions and minutes

Councillor V. Gay declared an interest in bus transport – minute item 5.

To confirm as a correct record the minutes of the last meeting held on the 9 January, 2013.

The minutes of the meeting held on 9 January 2013 had been circulated with the agenda.

Accuracy

            Councillor D. I. Mackie had emailed two amendments to the minutes. On page 3, he had asked the Director to convey to the North East Wales Area Based Transport Study team the importance of strengthening connections to the Flintshire Bridge from the north of the county and the west of North Wales to ensure the advantages of the Deeside Enterprise Zone were experienced by people in those areas.  On page 5, Councillor Mackie had asked that in view of the proximity of a national boundary to the proposed site had sufficient early consultations been conducted with our neighbours to comply with international treaty requirements.

            Councillor P. J. Curtis had emailed an amendment to his comments on Civil Parking Enforcement. He wanted to add to his comments on Civil Parking Enforcement as follows: Councillor Curtis said that Holywell town had suffered with car parking charges for the last 20 years and that Holywell Town Council had never been in favour of car parking charges.

            Councillor M.Peers asked that on page 10, paragraph 3, that the following be change be implemented:

            Councillor M.J. Peers explained that the decision had been called in due to concerns about the inconsistency of car parking charges “under consideration for implementation at this stage “rather than car parking charges to be implemented”.

            Councillor P. Shotton said that the comments attributed to him on page 13, paragraph 8 were incorrect and referred to Veronica Gay.

            Councillor C. A. Thomas suggested that the minutes of the Environment Overview & Scrutiny Committee held on the 9th of January be put forward as a good practice example of Overview & Scrutiny minutes for the review of minute taking that was being undertaken by the Head of Legal and Democratic Services.  The Chair & Members of the Committee agreed that they were an excellent example and concurred with the suggestion made by Councillor Thomas.

The Chair proposed that the Recycling Income item be considered after the Review of Public Conveniences item in order that the Streetscene Manager could present two consecutive reports.

The Chair welcomed members of the Wales Audit Office (WAO) and the Peer Learning Exchange Team from Wrexham Borough Council to the meeting who attended as part of the WAO Scrutiny Improvement Study.

That Scrutiny note the future delivery option for each of the Public Convenience Facilities shown in Appendix 1 and that the following comments be recorded:

• That the possible impacts on tourism be taken into account, particularly in Caerwys and Cilcain.
• The need for clear signage.
• That facilities maintained by the Council are DDA compliant and have baby change facilities.
• That local members had not been consulted in the way that they would have liked during the course of this review and that proper consultation be undertaken in the future.
• That the Committee be informed of discussions between the Council and the local Members for Cilcain and Caerwys, including the Town & Community Councils.

The Head of Streetscene introduced the report on the revised delivery arrangements for the Council’s Public Conveniences.  He explained that it was not a statutory requirement for the council to provide public conveniences and that some stand alone facilities were no longer fit for purpose. The Council wished to look at a model based on the revision of existing council facilities and the use of private facilities.  Morrisons Supermarkets in Saltney received £500 per year from the Welsh Government to allow the public to use their toilets.  This development had enabled the Council to close the stand alone Council owned facility in the town that was no longer fit for purpose.

            The Head of Streetscene said that the council would speak to Town and Community Councils to see if they would be prepared to take over the management of public conveniences. He added that a new signage scheme for public conveniences would be implemented so that the public would be aware of any new arrangements.  Details of the revised provision were outlined in Appendix 1 to the report. 

            Councillor P. Shotton thanked the Head of Streetscene for a clear report.  He asked about the numbers of local businesses that had already come forward regarding the £500 grant.  The Head of Streetscene said that there had been a number of enquires from businesses, although no grants had been allocated as yet.

            Councillor N.M. Matthews said that she had visited all of the Council owned/subsidised facilities over the previous summer and found all but two to be in good order.  She voiced concerns about the proposed closure of facilities at Cilcain and Caerwys and the effect on tourism and asked what alternatives would be put in place in those areas.  The Head of Streetscene said that the Council would approach the Community Councils in those areas to offer support and to see if there were any private businesses willing to participate in the grant scheme.

            Councillor D. Evans asked if income from car parking could be used to provide new public conveniences.  The Cabinet Member for Environment said that the report had already been to Cabinet and that it was not the Council’s intention to look at building new toilets.  In the case of Shotton, Wetherspoons could offer its facilities to the public.  Councillor Evans asked how visitors to the area would be made aware of facilities on the main coast road.  The Cabinet Member for Environment said that new signage would be implemented.

            Councillor C. A. Thomas asked if all the reviewed facilities had been checked for disabled access and baby change facilities and if local members had been consulted.  The Cilcain Community Council had received a letter from the Council concerning the management of the public convenience but the figures quoted in the letter differed to those in the report.  She voiced her concern at the potential loss of a facility at Cilcain which was a tourist hub in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.  The Head of Streetscene in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 61.

            That the Committee notes the level of income generated from sales of the material recycled by Flintshire residents and the positive progress made to date.

The Head of Streetscene introduced the report to update members of the Committee on the volumes of material collected and the level of income received from the sale of recyclates collected by the Council.   He explained that the cost of collecting recycled material was higher than the value of income gained from the process and that values of recyclates were subject to market forces, so much so that 3 monthly contracts were put in place to ensure the best prices possible were secured for Flintshire. The shortfall in the cost of delivering the recycling service was recovered by a grant from the Welsh Government.

                        The Cabinet Member for Waste, Public Protection and Recycling said that it had not yet been confirmed by the Welsh Government the levels of Sustainable Waste Management Grant (SWMG) for 2013/14.

                        Councillor J Johnson asked why the council were not already recycling textiles.  The Head of Streetscene said that it was only recently that textiles had seen an increase in value.

                        Councillor G.H. Bateman asked if the contracts were fixed price contracts.  He asked what would happen if all of the companies that purchased Flintshire recyclates decided that they did not want to purchase a certain commodity.  Councillor Bateman asked how aluminium cans were separated from tin and asked if the Committee could view the recycling operations.  The Head of Streetscene said that if contracts were long term they would offer better value, but it was difficult to secure longer term contracts at good rates.  There was a pool of contractors who were engaged in an ongoing formal tendering process to bid for Flintshire recylcates.  There was one long term contract in place which involved a paper recycling operation.   The Head of Streetscene said that it was unlikely, at any given time, that all of the potential purchasers would refuse to purchase a certain commodity.  Should this occur, the Council would have to pay to have the items removed.  The selling on of recyclates was always cheaper than paying for it to go to landfill.  Aluminium cans were separated by a magnet and baled separately. 

                        The Chair agreed that it would be useful to visit the recycling facilities and asked the Overview and Scrutiny Facilitator to arrange this.

                        Councillor M. J. Peers said that it was good to see a £120,000 saving in land fill costs thanks to the success of the recycling operation.  He said that he would have liked to have seen information around costs, so that he could compare costs since the launch.

                        The Chair said that good progress had been made with the recycling service and that scrutiny now needed to focus on costings.

                        Councillor D. Butler asked if the 1469 tonnes of recycled material referred to in paragraph 3.04 was an annual figure or a figure that represented the number of recylates since the introduction of the programme.  The Head of Streetscene said that this information would be provided in subsequent quarterly reports.

            RESOLVED:

            That the Committee notes the level of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 62.

            (a)       That members note the changes to bus funding anticipated from 1 April     2013.

            (b)       That members note the content of this report, subject to the above   comments outlined in the preceding paragraph.

The Head of Assets and Transportation introduced the report to advise members of how bus services were currently organised within Flintshire and to outline proposals for a review of the County’s subsidised bus services and related services.

                        He explained that buses were provided by the private sector.  The Council had no mandatory obligation to fund any public transport services, however it did have powers under the Transport Acts 1985, 2000 and the Local Transport Act 2008 to enter into agreements with public transport operators to provide subsidies for services that were not available commercially.  Appendix 1 outlined the current provision in Flintshire of bus services.

                        The Head of Assets and Transportation outlined the challenges for the coming year:

• From 1 April 2013 the Welsh Government would make changes to the funding for bus services and community transport in Wales

• Across Wales there would be a reduction in grant from £33m to £25m for the next financial year.

• A new scheme called Regional Transport Services Grant (RTSG) would be in place from 1 April 2013.

• The Regional Transport Consortia would be responsible for the new grant in North Wales, this would be in the form of TAITH.

Work is currently being undertaken to understand how much of the £25m funding will be allocated to TAITH for 2013-14.             

As a result of anticipated reduction in budgets of around £223,505, Flintshire County Council will be undertaking a review of its services during 2013/14 with completion scheduled in summer of 2013. The Council were now looking at criteria to build into a Policy to determine which services it should support.

            Funding from Cadwyn Clwyd would secure a Rural Transport officer on a 12 month fixed term basis to understand the needs of the rural communities.

                        The Head of Assets and Transportation asked the Committee to look at the draft Policy in Appendix 2 and said that the review would come back to Scrutiny once Cabinet had approved the Policy and costings for routes and subsequent bandings had been determined.

                        The Chair said that member input into the proposed criteria and Policy in Appendix 2 was key.

                        Councillor P. Shotton asked if concessionary travel would be affected by the changes and asked for the widest possible public consultation on the matter.  He also asked if commercial routes would be reviewed after the review of subsidised routes.  The Director of Environment in response said that Concessionary Travel did not feature in the scope of the review and would not be affected by the changes.  A potential reduction in commercial services would be taken into account in the review.

                        Councillor C.A. Thomas asked which agency would hold the funding for Concessionary Travel from 1 April 2013.  The Transportation Manager said that currently Flintshire administered the scheme, but as of 1 April 2013, the funding would go through TAITH, and there were no indications that the current modifying factor of 0.70, which was applied to each company’s representative concessionary fare, would change from this date.  Councillor Thomas said  ...  view the full minutes text for item 63.

That the Committee considers the draft Forward Work Programme and approves the amendments listed above.

The Lifelong Learning and Health and Social Care Overview and Scrutiny Facilitator introduced a report to enable the Committee to consider the Forward Work Programme.

                        It was proposed that at the 23 July 2013 meeting there would be an update on the North Wales Residual Waste Treatment Project, an update on the Deeside Enterprise Zone and an update on Recycling.

RESOLVED:

That the Committee considers the draft Forward Work Programme and approves the amendments listed above.

The meeting began at 10.00 am and ended at 11.55 am.

There were two members of the press present.