Agenda and minutes

Councillors Doolan, Klute, Chowdhury, Wayne, O’Halloran, Court

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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.

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RESOLV ED:

That the minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 22 March 2017 be confirmed as a correct record of the proceedings and the Chair be authorised to sign them

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

The Chair stated that he intended to continue with the meetings of the PPS Committees on 4 May, to deal with the independent review commissioned by Thames Water and the consequent report on major bursts in London, and also the 25 May PPS Committee. The Chair added that he intended, because of the announcement of the General Election, to limit the meeting of the Committee on 25 May, which would commence at 7.00 p.m. to consideration of one item relating to serious youth violence in the borough and the proposed revisions to the arrangements for Community Safety and the Police would be in attendance for such meeting. Members present concurred with this view.

The Chair added that he would be attending a meeting in Lambeth on 25 April relating to the flooding there and other Members were welcome to attend if they wished.

The Chair enquired of other boroughs that were present if they were of the view that the meeting at the GLA scheduled on 10 May should continue given that the proposed meeting of the GLA Environment Committee on 24 May had now had to be cancelled due to the General Election announcement. Other boroughs present felt that this cancellation would be advisable and the Scrutiny Officer was requested to rearrange revised dates after the General Election

The Chair welcomed Aileen Armstrong, Keith Mason and Mark Anderson from OFWAT and also Councillors Jack Holborn, Chair of Lambeth Burst Water Mains Scrutiny Commission and Councillor Andy Wilson, Vice Chair Overview and Scrutiny Committee and member of Lambeth Burst Water Mains Scrutiny Commission.

Scrutiny officers from L.B.Lambeth, Gary O’Key and L.B.Lewisham Charlotte Dale were also present.

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

·         OFWAT outlined their role as an independent regulator and that they wanted Thames Water to be accountable and take responsibility for delivering a good service to its customers

·         A pricing review took place every 5 years and Thames Water needed to present a business plan to OFWAT and this was scrutinised to ensure that there is an efficient service being provided and effective standards were being provided. In addition Thames Water needed to demonstrate accurate information is being provided and how the service is being delivered

·         Penalties could be applied by OFWAT if Thames do not deliver services to a satisfactory standard

·         OFWAT stated that they wished to refute any suggestion that the bursts had resulted in them not making funding available to them as a result of the price review in 2014 and that they had actually approved funding for Thames Water proposals at that time that had been requested

·         There is regular contact between OFWAT and Thames Water and there had been recent discussions between the Chairs and Chief Executives of OFWAT and Thames Water on the problems of communication and that it was felt that this needed to be improved, especially Thames making more use of social media

·         OFWAT stated that Thames Water have an obligation to provide a high quality service to customers and if they did not deliver this then OFWAT could impose penalties

·         OFWAT informed Members that Thames Water in addition to their statutory oblgations have ODI’s on serviceability and they had not achieved their serviceability in 2015/16 and the position is not known yet or 2016/17

·         In response to a question as to the fact that Thames Water had referred to the difficulty of repairing mains bursts due to cost and the need to close roads and that this may impact on their desire to effectively replace the ageing Victorian pipes. OFWAT stated that such work is not measured as a KPI requirement and that OFWAT tried to capture outcomes rather than inputs. A Member stated that in his view this should be considered in future as a KPI in future

·         The Chair referred to the fact that the Victorian pipes in London were over 150 years old and Thames Water had stated that over one third of these had been replaced. The Chair expressed the view that the remaining pipes should be replaced as soon as practicable given their age. However Thames Water had also stated that when they had replaced pipes many of these did not actually need replacement and that to do so was not an efficient use of resources  ...  view the full minutes text for item 348.