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Agenda and minutes

Venue: Committee Room 4, Town Hall, Upper Street, N1 2UD. View directions

Contact: Peter Moore 

Items
No. Item

381.

Apologies for Absence

Minutes:

Councillors Debono, Doolan, Klute and Chowdhury (for lateness)

382.

Declaration of Substitute Members

Minutes:

Councillor Marian Spall stated that she was substituting for Councillor Doolan

383.

Declarations of Interest

Declarations of interest

 If you have a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest* in an item of business:

§  if it is not yet on the council’s register, you must declare both the existence and details of it at the start of the meeting or when it becomes apparent;

§  you may choose to declare a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest that is already in the register in the interests of openness and transparency. 

In both the above cases, you must leave the room without participating in discussion of the item.

 

If you have a personal interest in an item of business and you intend to speak or vote on the item you must declare both the existence and details of it at the start of the meeting or when it becomes apparent but you may participate in the discussion and vote on the item.

 

*(a) Employment, etc - Any employment, office, trade, profession or vocation carried on for profit or gain.

(b)  Sponsorship - Any payment or other financial benefit in respect of your expenses in carrying out duties as a member, or of your election; including from a trade union.

(c) Contracts - Any current contract for goods, services or works, between you or your partner (or a body in which one of you has a beneficial interest) and the council.

(d) Land - Any beneficial interest in land which is within the council’s area.

(e) Licences- Any licence to occupy land in the council’s area for a month or longer.

(f)   Corporate tenancies - Any tenancy between the council and a body in which you or your partner have a beneficial interest.

 (g) Securities - Any beneficial interest in securities of a body which has a place of business or land in the council’s area, if the total nominal value of the securities exceeds £25,000 or one hundredth of the total issued share capital of that body or of any one class of its issued share capital. 

 

This applies to all members present at the meeting.

 

 

Minutes:

None

384.

Minutes of meeting on 20 July 2017 pdf icon PDF 164 KB

Minutes:

RESOLVED:

That the minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 20 July 2017 be confirmed and the Chari be authorised to sign them

385.

Matters Arising from the minutes

Minutes:

None

386.

Chair's Report

Minutes:

The Chair referred to the illness of Councillor Doolan and stated that he would be sending his best wishes on behalf of the Committee for a speedy recovery

387.

PUBLIC QUESTIONS

Minutes:

The Chair outlined the procedure for Public questions and filming and recording at meetings

 

A member of the Public referred to the fact that a recent meeting of the Children’s Services Committee had not been quorate at the start of the Committee. Councillor Gallagher stated that he had been slightly late to this meeting and that it was quorate from that point. In addition it was noted that PPS Committee was quorate that evening

388.

Thames Water - Response to Scrutiny Review pdf icon PDF 1 MB

Minutes:

Tim MacMahon, Head of Water Networks, Thames Water, Nigel Dyer, Chief Executive, Thames Water Infrastructure Alliance, Matthew Hackshaw, Area Services Manager, Thames Water Infrastructure Alliance, Eastern Northern London, Mark Matthews, Local and Regional Government Liaison Manager and Cecilia Larkin, Local and Regional Government Liaison were present for discussion of this item.

 

This item was taken in conjunction with the Thames Water Strategic Review and an update on the community meeting that had taken place the evening before between Thames Water and residents/businesses as a result of the Upper Street flood.

 

During consideration of the item the following main points were made –

 

·         Thames Water had found this a very difficult meeting to attend, given the feelings of residents and businesses that had been affected by the flood, and the complaints about Thames Water lack of goodwill following the flood, difficulties with compensation, dealing with loss adjustors etc.

·         It was stated that discussions were taking place at a senior level within Thames Water, on trying to institute a new for old replacement policy for items lost, and undertaking dealing with claims in a consistent manner

·         Case managers would be appointed by the end of November to deal with claims, and it was recognised that there needed to be an improvement in response management and the incident management team

·         Work is taking place with the Consumer Council for Water on future policy on insurance and discussions were taking place with TfL, to improve relationships and work more co-operatively

·         The Asset Management strategy was outlined in the strategic review, but Thames Water were proposing to increase investment and there is a need to improve knowledge to know the most relevant assets to improve

·         Members expressed the view that it was good to hear that Thames Water were seeking to make improvements, but that it was nearly 11 months since the Upper Street burst, and many residents and businesses had still not resolved compensation issues. The goodwill payment of £1000 paid to residents was not satisfactory and businesses had not even been paid similar compensation and this should be rectified

·         Members stated that they wished Thames Water to put in writing that they were willing to offer more than the goodwill payment already offered to residents, given the severity and trauma suffered by residents and businesses. Thames Water stated that they could update the Committee on developments at a future date

·         In response to a question it was stated that there had been 137 claims made by residents and businesses, and 73 had been settled with 64 still outstanding

·         It was stated that difficulties had been faced by claimants in proving losses, and Thames Water stated that they were working on improving guidelines in this regard in future, however they would be looking at goodwill payments if losses could not be proved by receipts or other appropriate data

·         A Member expressed the view that Thames Water were a large organisation and that whilst she appreciated that it was a difficult job to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 388.

389.

Thames Water Strategic Review pdf icon PDF 1 MB

Minutes:

This item was dealt with under Minute  388 above

390.

Thames Water - Response to St.John Street and Copenhagen Street bursts

Minutes:

Tim McMahon, Head of Water Networks, Thames Water, Nigel Dyer, Chief Executive, Thames Water Infrastructure Alliance, Matthew Hackshaw, Area Services Manager, Thames Water Infrastructure Alliance, Eastern North London, Mark Matthews, Local and Regional Government Liaison Manager, and Cecilia Larkin, Local and Regional Government Liaison Officer were present for discussion of this item.

 

During consideration of the report the following main points were made –

 

·         Thames Water apologised for the incidents and stated that it had been related to the work being carried out at Upper Street. The pipe was a 36” mains and was laid in 1856. 7 properties had been affected and 8000 residents had had no water for most of the morning

·         The consequences of the burst were less than the Upper Street burst, however there were problems getting supply back to high rise blocks of housing and Thames Water were looking to improve co-ordination with Local Authorities in sharing information in this regard

·         Thames Water stated that they were updating their GIS system and that there is an 18 month plan to update their systems to get a better understanding of the network. IBM had been commissioned to do work to ensure GIS systems are more accurately recorded against the asset base, and work is going on with experienced staff to get personal knowledge of the network as well. Thames Water were also looking to employ apprentices and other younger staff who could learn and retain this knowledge in the future

·         Reference was also made to the fact that Thames Water were looking at new technology to monitor trunk mains

·         Thames Water stated however that the mains in question is on a very complicated part of the network and the burst in this particular incident was caused by over pressurisation of the system

 

RESOLVED:

That Thames Water and the Council work more closely to co-ordinate information on housing stock, particularly, high rise housing, in order to alleviate future supply problems that may be caused as a result of the burst

 

 

The Chair thanked the Thames Water representatives for attending

391.

Monitoring Report

Minutes:

RESOLVED:

That the report be noted