Agenda and draft minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Worden.

RESOLVED, that the minutes of the meeting held on 11^th April 2024 (circulated previously) be approved as a correct record subject to the following:

(a)  That a follow up letter be sent to the office of the Police and Crime Commissioner regarding additional funding for Street Marshalls as the Committee’s original letter, which was sent in March 2023 was not replied to.

The Director of Resources and Deputy Chief Executive advised that there was government funding available to Councils for Antisocial Behaviour (ASB) hotspots and that the Council had been awarded funding for Barnstaple under tier two for an amount of £25,000, which would contribute towards the funding of additional street marshalls for the first nine months of the financial year.

The Chair requested that item seven on the agenda be considered prior to item six on the agenda owing to personal reasons for of one of the attendees.

RESOLVED, that item seven on the agenda be considered prior to item six on the agenda.

Please telephone the Corporate and Community Services team to prepare a form for your signature before the meeting. Interests must be re-declared when the item is called. A declaration of interest under the Code of Conduct will be a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest, an Other Registrable Interest or a Non-Registrable Interest.  If the item directly relates to your interest you must declare the interest and leave the room for the item, save in the case of Other Registrable Interests or Non-Registrable Interests where you may first speak on the item as a member of the public if provision has been made for the public to speak.  If the matter does not directly relate to your interest but still affects it then you must consider whether you are affected to a greater extent than most people and whether a reasonable person would consider your judgement to be clouded, if you are then you must leave the room for the item (although you may speak as a member of the public if provision has been made for the public to speak) or, if you are not, then you can declare the interest but still take part).

There were no declarations of interest announced.

Service Manager together with the Head of Developer Services & Technical Performance, South West Water (SWW) to report regarding to the consultation process undertaken with water companies in relation to developments and the capacity of existing infrastructure.

NOTE: The Head of Place, Property and Regeneration together with officers from the Planning Policy team and the Lead Member for Regeneration, Economic Development and Planning have also been invited to attend the meeting.

At its meeting on the 7^th March 2024, the Committee were discussing the work programme for 2024/25 and its ongoing work in relation to water quality and resolved to invite the Service Manager to the next meeting of the Committee on 11th April 2024 to discuss the consultation process with stakeholders from water companies in regards to planning applications particularly around developments and the capacity of existing infrastructure for sewage and waste water.

Following the meeting, the Clerk approached the Service Manager who suggested that it would be beneficial to also have a representative in attendance from South West Water (SWW) and so it was agreed that they would attend this meeting together to answer questions from the Committee.

The Chair welcomed officers from the Council together with the Head of Developer Services and Technical Performance, South West Water (SWW) to the Committee.

She invited the Service Manager to address the Committee and explain the consultation process that the planning officers undertook with water companies in relation to proposed developments and the capacity of existing infrastructure for sewage and waste water.

The Service Manager advised that every planning application submitted for new build to the Council had SWW listed as statutory consultee whether that be for one or one hundred dwellings.

Since the end of 2023, the planning team had held regular meetings with SWW to discuss the sewage capacity of the existing infrastructure when an application had been proposed.

She explained that previously responses from SWW were listed on planning application documents as “no objections”. However, she acknowledged that there needed to be further information together with an explanation to show that they had looked at the capacity of the existing infrastructure and explain how they had reached their conclusion.

The Chair invited the Head of Developer Services and Technical Performance, South West Water (SWW) to address the Committee.

The Head of Developer Services and Technical Performance, South West Water (SWW) highlighted the following:

·       To put the situation into context, SWW assessed 30,000 planning applications per year, which ranged from small to large scale schemes.

·       They used a tool called “Supply and demand” where they entered the details of the planning application and the system then flags up any issues as a result of the proposed application.

·       They also used flow monitors to assess the characteristics of rainfall.

·       SWW had already held two workshops with North Devon Council and there was a third workshop planned for July 2024.

·       There was greater definition and detail contained within the consultation responses for larger applications.

In response to a question regarding how surface water runoff and flood risks were managed and addressed as part of the Local Plan and whether it might be beneficial to undertake a water cycle study to identify specific areas where sewage and waste water infrastructure was under pressure, the Senior Planning Policy Officer advised that the officers were in the early stages of preparing a new Local Plan.

She took the Committee through the process with  ...  view the full minutes text for item 11.

Head of Environmental Enhancement and Service Manager (Refuse & Recycling)to report.

At its meeting on 7^th March 2024, the Committee resolved to invite the Head of Service for Environmental Enhancement to attend a future meeting of the Policy Development Committee to answer questions in relation to the Waste and Recycling Service.

The Chair welcomed the Head of Environmental Enhancement and the Service Manager (Refuse and Recycling) to the meeting.

The Head of Environmental Enhancement explained that the report which presented the Capital Scheme was considered by Full Council on 27^th March 2024 and had generated a really good discussion amongst the members.

He introduced the Service Manager (Refuse and Recycling) to the Committee and explained that he was there to provide an update to the members in relation to the latest position regarding the Brynsworthy Recycling Works project.

The Service Manager (Refuse and Recycling) highlighted the following points to the Committee:

·       The two main parts of the project, which were:

Ø  Part 1 – Capital Building Works.

Ø  Part 2 – New Baler and Associated Conveyors.

Ø  Dormouse habitat survey had been undertaken on the site and new dormouse boxes would be placed around the site to replace what was being removed.

·       Part 1 – Building Works.

The building works consisted of the following:

Ø  Upgrade of the drainage system (Environment Agency EA requirement).

Ø  A building to cover the glass bay (EA requirement).

Ø  Fire Suppression System in the process hall.

Ø  Bunding around the process hall to retain fire water.

Ø  New modular building for office staff.

Ø  New weighbridge located by the side road.

·       Part 2 – New Baler and Associated Conveyors.

This part of the works consisted of the following:

·       A New 12 tonne per hour baler.

·       Sunken conveyors to reduce manual intervention.

·       Advanced optical sorting equipment to separate materials.

·       Ability to separate plastic into valuable streams.

·       Plans of new building works – Modular Building, which detailed the layout of the new office accommodation for Waste and Recycling office based employees.

·       The operations plan, which detailed the new layout of the processing hall.

·       Detailed plans for the new baler together with cross section illustrations.

He outlined the challenges that could potentially arise during the building phase of the project, which were as follows:

·       Insufficient parking on site at Brynsworthy for office based employees whilst the builders utilised the rear car park.

·       Temporary movement of office staff upstairs when the portacabin was demolished.

·       Continued operations with minimal effect on customers.

·       Continued operations on site to process material and maintain income generation.

The Chair thanked the Service Manager (Refuse and Recycling) for his presentation.

The Head of Environmental Enhancement advised the following:

·       The importance of the installation of the Fire Suppression System in the process hall, which in the event of a fire would prevent water runoff from the site and ensure that the Council did not lose its permit to process recyclable materials.

·       The new baler would ensure that the process would be undertaken quickly and efficiently.

·       The Council was as  ...  view the full minutes text for item 12.

The Committee considered the work programme for 2024/25 (circulated previously).

The Committee discussed the proposal to potentially change the dates of the scheduled meetings for 2024/25 (circulated previously) following a request from Councillor Jones owing to a clash with his Parish Council meetings.

The Vice Chair advised that he did not have an issue with the proposed changes and felt that it was reasonable to accommodate Councillor Jones’s request.

Councillor Jones thanked the Clerk for her work in putting the proposed date changes together.

The Committee discussed the actions and outcomes from the special meeting in relation to water quality in February 2024.

Councillor Jones advised that other Councils had a separate working group purely focussed on improving water quality and suggested that the Committee appoint a Sub-Committee to undertake the external elements of work separately from the work of the main committee.

The Chair advised that the Committee needed to consider the impact upon the officer resources to support a separate sub-committee and that the Committee should instead focus on working more closely with Torridge District Council in a joint capacity.

The Director of Resources and Deputy Chief Executive also advised that the thematic groups which had been established as part of the revision of the Local Plan would cover a lot of the work that the Committee were looking at.

RESOLVED:

a)    That the proposed date changes for 2024/25 be agreed;

b)    That the work programme be noted; and

c)    That clarity in relation to the structure of the thematic groups be provided to the Committee.

Councillor Jones thanked the Committee members for their agreement and support with regards to his request to amend the Committee dates.