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Agenda and minutes
Venue: Muriel Matters House, Breeds Place, Hastings, East Sussex, TN34 3UY
Contact: Coral Harding on 01424 451764 email: charding@hastings.gov.uk
Note: The recording of this meeting is available on line at: https://www.hastings.gov.uk/my_council/cm/?video=317278785
Items No. Item Apologies for Absence
Minutes:
Apologies received for Councillor Charman.
Declarations of Interest
Minutes:
Councillor
Minute
Interest
Webb
45.
Personal – Member of East Sussex County Council
Minutes of the Previous Meeting Held on 28th November 2018 PDF 70 KB
Minutes:
RESOLVED – that the minutes of the meeting held on 28th November 2018 be approved by the Chair as a true record.
Q3 Performance Report PDF 220 KB
Minutes:
The Director of Corporate Services and Governance submitted a report on the performance of the third quarter.
The council’s 2018/19 corporate plan is divided into 3 areas; Inclusion, Growth and Futureproof. The report is divided into these 3 sections and identifies activity and progress during the quarter across the areas.
The Assistant Director, Financial Services & Revenues gave an overview of the financial monitoring report. There are some late changes due to be published tomorrow. The Council has just received settlements from the Bexhill link road compensation.Councillor Webb stepped out of the Council Chamber at 6.07pm and Councillor Davies took over as Chair of the meeting.
The discussion moved on to the inclusion section of the report.
As of the end of June Biffa will take over the waste collection contract and the Council will take street cleaning in-house. A site in Castleham is ready for the in-house street cleaning team. Vehicles have been procured and all staff ready to go.The visitors centre is proceeding and the Council is reviewing its Anti-Social Behaviour Public Space Protection Order guidelines.
A question was raised in regards to the Council’s ability to sanction the current waste contractor during the handover period. It was noted that through the Joint Waste Partnership the Council can make concerns know to contractors and the Council plans to manage the remainder of the existing contract as well as possible.
A query was raised concerning the better use of CCTV with other agencies and what can be learnt from existing work with the police. In response it was highlighted that CCTV cost is a major issue. The Council have written to Sussex Police as there is concern we may not be able to bear all the cost and may need other agencies to share costs in the short term. Longer term, if funding is secure, we can build on our current work.
The Chair asked, with new emphasis on community policing, is the Police and Crime Commissioner for Sussex coming forward with plans to support community policing in Hastings and St Leonards? The answer was that at the last police and crime panel meeting funding, through an increase in the police precept, for a further 240 police officers and 150 community offices across Sussex was agreed. It is not yet clear where those new officers will be located.
The Leader of the Council highlighted that Hastings Borough Council is the only local authority in East Sussex that monitors CCTV locally and this does increase cost.
It was noted that the Hastings District Commander, Chief Inspector Sarah Godley, said the precept, if agreed, would lead to an additional 5 officers in Hastings.
The group asked if it would be possible to organise a meeting with the new District Commander. The Leader responded that he will arrange such a meeting.
A question was raised regarding emergency services response times. Taxpayers want to see faster response times, particularly with 101, and it was asked if the Commissioner has explored this in ... view the full minutes text for item 4.
Single Use Plastics Report PDF 182 KB
Minutes:
Councillor Evans and Chantal Lass, Sustainability Manager, presented a report to provide the Committee with an update on the review of the Council’s work to phase out Single Use Plastics (SUPS).
As part of the review, the team explored the background to the issue of plastics pollution. The review team have developed a set of recommendations for further research and activity for consideration by the Council, which they consider will help to reduce the Council’s use of single use plastics and more broadly reduce the Council’s environmental impact.The review team was setup following the single use plastics motion at Full Council. The team considered how to eradicate single use plastics across Hastings but realised it was more realistic to present Hastings Borough Council as a model for the community and work to remove single use plastics across the organisation.
Procurement policy is a big opportunity to reduce single use plastics and the Council could ask the procurement hub to score suppliers based on single use plastics and other environmental criteria.
The Chair thanked Councillor Evans and Chantal Lass for their work and for producing a very powerful report.
Discussion moved on to engaging local businesses to reduce plastic use and encouraging the manufacture of biodegradable plastics. It was agreed that this review should be embedded into the future work of the Committee.
The Continuous Improvement and Democratic Services Manager acknowledged that the Committee can keep this review as part of its work programme if it wishes to do so. He also noted that should the committee agree the report it will then be submitted to Cabinet, accompanied by a management response to the review recommendations.
An amendment is suggested and agreed to recommendation 10, that Hastings Transition Town be added to show support for joint working.
RESOLVED that the following recommendations be forwarded for Cabinet consideration:
1. To review the Councils sustainable procurement policy and actions to support reducing our purchase of SUP products.
2. Local events – explore how to reduce the use of plastic cutlery, food containers and cups for drinks e.g. re-usable stackable cups, at large scale events in the town. Investigate other local authorities sustainable events guide e.g. Brighton.
3. Carryout an audit of single use plastics in the Council’s operational buildings identifying which items are our own purchases or part of our contractors services e.g. office cleaning and create a single use plastics policy for the Council.
4. The Business Improvement District – could initiatives be developed with the town centre BID to reduce the use of plastics in local businesses e.g. take away food containers such as polystyrene boxes & plastic straws.
5. Discussions were held around the viability of phasing out other single-use plastic inside Council offices, to meet the 2019 commitment as part of the motion to Council. Further analysis and consideration of alternative options should be undertaken, by consulting with services across the council to clearly identify where SUPS use is most significant, and how this might be achieved.
6. To ... view the full minutes text for item 5.
Work Programme Update PDF 170 KB
Minutes:
The Continuous Improvement and Democratic Services Manager updated the Committee on the revised Overview and Scrutiny Committee Work Programme.
It was announced that the regeneration funding review is meeting witnesses now.
Another steering committee will meet before the next quarterly Committee meeting.
(Chair close the meeting at 7.42pm) -
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