Agenda, decisions and minutes

To receive any Declarations and advise Members accordingly.

None were received.

None were received.

To confirm as a correct record the minutes of the meeting held on 13 December 2022.

That the minutes be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

The minutes of the meetings held on 13 December 2022 were submitted.

Matters arising

Councillor Mike Peers referred to paragraph 37 on page 4 of the minutes where the Facilitator gave an update on progress for the joint meeting with the Education Youth & Culture O&S Committee.  He said it did not state the purpose which was to address vehicle parking outside schools. 

Councillor Peers then referred to page 5 the MTFS and Budget Setting 2023/23 which was in Part 2 and asked Members would have sight of the questions prior to it being discussed at Full Council.  

In response the Overview & Scrutiny Facilitator confirmed that the Finance Officers took notes of the questions raised at the meetings which had been  collated.   As these were in Part 2 and could not be published within the minutes, she agreed to speak to the relevant Officers to enquire if a copy could be made available to him.

The minutes were approved as moved and seconded by Councillor Dan Rose and Councillor Mike Allport.

          RESOLVED:

That the minutes be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

(a)     That the Forward Work Programme be approved;

(b)     That the Facilitator, in consultation with the Chair of the Committee, be authorised to vary the Forward Work Programme between meetings, as the need arises; and

(c)     That the Committee notes the progress made in completing the outstanding actions.

The Overview & Scrutiny Facilitator presented the Forward Work Programme and Action Tracking report.  She drew attention to the items included for the February meeting which were the Woodlands Strategy, Climate Change update, Welsh Water Draft Water Resources Management Plan 2024 (Public Consultation), and Wepre Park Management Plan.  She then referred to the Communities for Work item which had been withdrawn and she invited the Chief Officer to provide information on this.

            The Chief Officer (Planning Environment & Economy) said this item had been included in the Forward Work Programme because of concerns around Welsh Government (WG) funding.  He was pleased to announce that funding was secured for next year which was why it was being removed.  He said that a report would be provided within the next year outlining the work undertaken by Communities for Work employability programme.

            The Overview & Scrutiny Facilitator confirmed that the Education Youth & Culture O&S Committee had a meeting arranged for the 2 February which would include a joint item on Parking Outside School and Enforcement. Members of this committee would be invited to that meeting for the item.   She then explained that Bereavement in the Countryside Policy was now scheduled for the February meeting. 

            The Overview & Scrutiny Facilitator then referred to a  workshop being held on the 24 January on “Open Space Management, Grass Cutting and Nature”.  There was also the Exceptions Criteria for 20 mph implementation in February and the Progress on the implementation of the conversation of the FCC Fleet to electric and alternative fuels in October.

The Facilitator then referred to the Action Tracking report and invited the Chief Officer (Streetscene) to provide an update on the network review by Transport for Wales.  The Chief Officer (Streetscene) explained that Welsh Government (WG) were reviewing bus legislation in Wales which had been presented to committee and said the network review was part of this.  It was still unclear when this would be implemented and that this would stay on the Action Tracking until the review took place.  It was suggested to remove this for now until more information was available and this was agreed by committee.

The Facilitator then referred to Town Centre Markets and reported that Niall Waller would be sending a briefing paper to committee members later that day.  Referring to Litter from food outlets the Chief Officer (Streetscene) clarified that this was a WG directive and suggested that a letter be sent from this committee highlighting the issues being experienced.   The Chair and committee members agreed for the Chief Officer to write to WG for an update.

The Facilitator then referred to the workshop on the 20mph implementation would now take place in March.

RESOLVED:

(a)     That the Forward Work Programme be approved;

(b)     That the Facilitator, in consultation with the Chair of the Committee, be authorised to vary the Forward Work Programme between meetings, as the need arises; and

(c)     That the Committee notes the progress made in completing the outstanding actions.

(a)          That the Committee noted the Council’s current recycling performance against statutory targets.

(b)          That the Committee noted the options for alternative waste collection delivery models and recommended to cabinet that a pilot scheme be undertaken to inform decision making in order to achieve the statutory recycling targets set by Welsh Government.

That the Committee considered the proposal for increasing the garden waste subscription fee to recover increasing operational costs

The Chief Officer (Streetscene) presented the report and thanked the officers for the significant amount of work they had undertaken.   Three reviews of the Waste Strategy had taken place within the last 5 years with the current fourth review focusing on the Council’s drop in performance levels and achieving those targets to avoid financial penalties.   Welsh Government (WG) set the statutory targets for local authorities and the Council followed  the blueprint with one of the targets being 64% for this year and 70% by 2024/25.  The aim was to send 70% of all the waste generated to reuse recycle or compost with the remaining residual waste 30% sent to an energy from waste plant. 

            The Chief Officer (Streetscene) provided information on the performance levels over the last few years, the impacts following the pandemic and the options available to meet the statutory targets.  She then referred members to specific sections of the report and outlined the legislative background and targets set by WG and performance levels achieved by the Council.  Information on the infraction fines was given, which were highlighted as a significant risk to the Authority.  In 2021-2022 the recycling target has been missed by 3,314 tonnes, which could equate to a potential infraction fine of £662,888 if WG choose to levy a financial penalty. 

            An overview of the meeting held last year with the Minister was provided by the Chief Officer (Streetscene) which followed a drop in performance the previous year in 2020-2021 of just 17 tonnes and the Chief Officer (Streetscene) indicated that it was likely they would be summoned again this year to explain why the authority had missed its targets in 2021-2022.   This was a significant risk to the service as there was no budget to cover that level of fine and it could impact on how services would be delivered in the future.  She then referred members to page 19 which included a forecast on performance for this year , which showed that if the authority continued at this level of performance, it would equate to 63.17%, falling short of the target by 622 tonnes with a potential infraction fine in excess of £124,000.  An overview of the tonnages achieved over the summer and winter was provided which was not recovering with residual waste increasing.  Recycling rates had increased, but so had residual waste, which did not help with achieving targets.  Information on the Sustainable Waste Management Grant was provided by the Chief Officer (Streetscene), who advised that WG were considering whether to potentially bring this into a circular economy grant which would present additional financial risks for the Authority.  Members were referred to the table on tonnage rates on page 20 and Appendix 2 which included the slides from the Member workshops and a comparison of Flintshire’s performance against other authorities with those local authorities at the top and achieving the targets limiting the amount of black sack waste households could dispose of.   In Flintshire households were provided with a 180-litre bin allowing  ...  view the full minutes text for item 44.

That the Committee considered and noted the Quarter 2 Performance.

The Chief Officer (Planning Environment and Economy) presented the mid-year performance report from the Economic Ambition Board and he reminded members of the introductory session held in early autumn last year.   The Economic Ambition Board had £240m worth of capital (£120m from Welsh Government (WG) and £120m from UK Government) to spend across five programmes, which were Digital, Low Carbon Energy, Land and Property,  Agri- Food and Tourism and High Value Manufacturing. The five programmes were rated as amber in terms of progress and he provided detailed information on the Bodelwyddan project which had been withdrawn with £10m going back into the Ambition Board funds.   He provided an update on the Road Review, which was now awaited in 2023, the Western Gateway and the Warren Hall development.  He hoped the Programme Officer for Land and Property would be able to attend the March meeting and bring the other Programme Officers to future meetings.

            In response to questions from Councillor Mike Peers the Chief Officer (Planning Environment & Economy) firstly referred to the private sector investment question and confirmed that this was constantly being reviewed and had been flagged as an Amber risk.  The Programme Office accepted that more engagement with the private sector was required.

            In response to the question on whether any of the projects were at risk, he said the answer was no, but that this was also being kept under review.

            Referring to the Roads Review question in relation to the Warren Hall site the Chief Officer (Planning Environment & Economy) did not understand why an internal road  on a Welsh Government site had been included in the scope of the Roads Review.

            Moving to the 440 jobs point, he was confident that the Warren Hall site  could deliver these jobs, especially with the release of the land for housing.

            Finally referring to the high-end manufacturing point the Chief Officer (Planning Environment & Economy) outlined how the optical technology was identified together with the green technologies and described what technologies were also being promoted.

            Councillor Dave Healey said what the six Councils had achieved working together within the North Wales Growth Deal and Ambition North Wales to secure  funding and identify such positive projects was remarkable.  He reported on a visit to the impressive Digital Signal Processing Centre at Bangor which was funded by this initiative.   He was pleased to see so many low carbon green energy projects, especially within the agri-food and tourism sectors which was good for rural communities.

The recommendations in the report were moved and seconded by Councillors  Mike Peers and Richard Lloyd.

RESOLVED:

That the Committee considered and noted the Quarter 2 Performance.

(a)          That the committee noted the levels of progress and confidence in the achievement of priorities as at mid-year within the 2022/23 Council Plan.

(b)          That the committee endorsed and supported the overall performance against 2022/23 Council Plan performance indicators as at mid-year.

(c)          That the committee was assured by explanations given for those areas of underperformance.

In presenting the report the Chief Officer (Planning Environment & Economy) said this mid-year report covered the areas of the Council Plan which related to this Committee. 

He provided detailed information on the four areas of red risks

·      Procurement – engagement with smaller companies to deliver energy projects or energy efficiencies within properties and provided detail on the Dynamic Processing System.

·      Digital Connectivity in Rural Areas – he referred to the December meeting where this was identified as a pressure as an officer post had not been filled.  It was hoped to fill the role before the new financial year.

·      Social Value – this was something that should go to all areas of the council

            The Chief Officer (Streetscene) reported on the red risk for Regional Transport Plan.  Further guidance was awaited from Welsh Government (WG) on how local authorities were expected to deliver the Regional Transport Plan.  Draft Guidance was issued for local authorities to comment on before Christmas and the authority’s comments had been returned to them.  This remained a red risk as there was no firm plan on how this was going to be delivered.  The authority was proposing to review the Integrated Transport Strategy for Flintshire to understand how this fed into the Regional Transport Plan but this was unable to happen until WG had outlined their expectations.

The recommendations in the report were moved and seconded by Councillors Richard Lloyd and Ian Hodge.

RESOLVED:

(a)          That the committee noted the levels of progress and confidence in the achievement of priorities as at mid-year within the 2022/23 Council Plan.

(b)          That the committee endorsed and supported the overall performance against 2022/23 Council Plan performance indicators as at mid-year.

(c)          That the committee was assured by explanations given for those areas of underperformance.

There were no members of the press or public in attendance.

There were no members of the press or public in attendance.

(The meeting started at 10.00 am and ended at 11.42 am)

…………………………

Chair