Agenda and minutes
Venue: Committee Room 5, Town Hall, Upper Street, N1 2UD. View directions
Contact: Ola Adeoye 020 7527 3044
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Apologies for Absence Minutes: Apologies were received from Councillor Bell-Bradford. |
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Declarations of Substitute Members Minutes: There were no declarations of substitute members. |
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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.
Minutes: There were no declarations of interest. |
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Minutes of Previous Meeting PDF 58 KB Minutes:
RESOLVED: That the minutes of the meeting held on 17 April 2018 be confirmed as an accurate record of proceedings and the Chair be authorised to sign them. |
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Public Questions Minutes: The Chair informed the meeting that public questions will be taken during consideration of each item on the agenda.
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Chair's Report Minutes: The Chair welcomed everyone
and in particular the newly elected councillors to the first
meeting of the Environment & Regeneration Scrutiny
Committee.
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ARRANGEMENTS AND TERMS OF REFERENCE PDF 85 KB Additional documents: Minutes: RESOLVED:
That the membership, terms of reference and dates of meetings of the Environment & Regeneration Scrutiny Committee for the municipal year 2018/19 be noted.
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OVERVIEW - ENVIRONMENT & REGENERATION SERVICES Minutes: Brahm Kainth, Director of Public Realm
provided an overview of the Environment and Regeneration
Department, highlighting the various services and
challenges. The following main points were noted in the
discussion: ·
Kevin
O’Leary, is Corporate Director, Environment and Regeneration.
There are three Service Directors, Brahm Kainth (Public Realm), Jan
Hart (Public Protection) and Karen Sullivan (Planning and
Development). The department supports five Executive members,
Councillors Burgess, Hull, Shaikh, Ward and Webbe. ·
Public
Protection covers emergency planning, licensing, noise and
anti-social behaviour, environmental health, cemetery service,
cctv, and crime and disorder. · Public Realm covers open green space and leisure, highways, street maintenance, rubbish and recycling, energy services, such as the Bunhill Power Station, and parking enforcement.
·
Planning and
Development covers the determination of planning applications,
planning enforcement, building control, inclusive economic
development and transport planning. ·
The
department has more than 1,000 staff, half of whom are involved in
front-line services, such as street maintenance. The current
year’s budget is £80 million for operating expenditure
and £20m for capital expenditure. It generates around
£25 million a year. ·
In response
to concerns about parking around House on the Rock, the Director of
Public Realm requested further details so that officers could
investigate whether the concerns relate to the terms of the
planning consent, the parking bay design, or parking
enforcement. ·
In response
to a question on whether planning permission is required for
installation of electric charging points, the Director of Public
Realm advised that this depends on the type of contract and who
installs the points. The Council has permitted rights, but any
installation by the Mayor of London’s office would require
permission. ·
An officer
from the department works with the transport policy team on the
distribution of charging points across the borough. The Council
endeavours to meet residents’ requests as well as placing
them in strategic places, such as shopping areas, taxi ranks and
the ultra-low emission zone. In response to a question about
street cleansing the Director of Public Realm advised that from 4
June all residential streets would be swept daily (Monday to
Friday). Each sweeper has been allocated a regular, manageable
area. Caretakers are still responsible for housing
estates. |
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2017/18 QUARTER 4 PERFORMANCE REPORT- ENVIRONMENT PDF 124 KB Minutes: The Director of Public Realm presented the
Quarter 4 Performance Report. The following points were noted in
the discussion.
·
The increased number of missed collections was due to changes
introduced by the Service. The difficulties this caused have now
been rectified and the number of missed collections has
reduced. · Although the tonnage of recycling remains the same as previously, more of it is being rejected as being contaminated. This is because buyers demand higher-quality products rather than because of an increase in contamination by residents.
· Director of Public Realm advised that meeting the London recycling target is challenging for all authorities, not only Islington. Key measures taken to increase the rate include educating residents, placing cameras in hot spots, and putting up new signage around communal recycling bins.
·
With regard to Council’s plan to ensure that Islington
fulfils its goal of being a carbon neutral borough, the meeting was
informed that for a number of years Islington had been pioneering
ground breaking measures to address climate change and although the
present focus of Council is on reducing fuel poverty, this has a
beneficial effect as carbon consumption is reduced. Members were
informed that Council’s strategy and policy in this area was
being reviewed and that no timescales could be provided as this was
subject to government legislation, campaigning and infrastructure
being in place. ·
Councils
have no power to introduce local congestion charges. The extension
of the Ultra Low Emission Zone into
Islington will have an impact on pollution. Islington continues to
the first local authority to introduce CO2 based
charging for permits and has introduced a diesel surcharge for pay
and display parking. · Officers and the Executive Member for Environment and Transport were considering closing streets around schools to traffic at the beginning and end of the school day in orderto reduce the emissions to which the children are exposed.
RESOLVED
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2017/18 QUARTER 4 PERFORMANCE REPORT - EMPLOYMENT AND SKILLS PDF 210 KB Minutes: Councillor Shaikh, Executive Member, Economic Development presented the Q4 Performance Report.
·
Overall the Council is achieving its targets on reducing
unemployment and supporting people into work. It is focusing on the
long-term unemployed, particularly young people and those facing
multiple barriers to employment.
·
The number of parents supported into employment was good compared
with the same period last year. This was as a result of improved
processes for capturing data on outcomes from partners, and Team
Islington being able to provide more employment opportunities for
residents with physical disabilities. ·
The increase
in the number of apprentices taken on by the Council has been made
possible by aligning the apprenticeship scheme with the school
term, and by ensuring that schools are aware that their school
leavers have the option of a good-quality apprenticeship. ·
Islington
has the highest proportion of London school leavers going into
apprenticeships, which is attributable to the Council’s
aligning the scheme with the school year. ·
Officers are
considering setting targets to measure performance on Adult
Community Learning. An update will be provided at a future
meeting. ·
Officers
indicated that a large number of apprentices are placed in the
construction sector, others within NHS, and some in engineering
firms. A breakdown of sector-by-sector apprenticeship placements
will be provided. · In response to concerns that Greenwich Leisure Limited were not taking on enough apprentices, considering the high level of investment in the borough, the Head of Greenspace and Leisure Services advised that GLL has been achieving their target of 20 apprentices per year. Concern was also raised about the loss of self-employed instructors. The Head of Greenspace and Leisure Services responded that GLL operates a mixture of self-employed and full time employees to ensure continuity of classes. ·
The Council
focuses on providing employment support to groups that are not well
served by other providers. ·
The Council
continues to look at ways of increasing the skills of young people
interested in the technology sector to enable them to find careers
in coding and programming. An update will be provided at a future
meeting. ·
With regards
to the support provided to school pupils, support for all pupils
continues for up to two years after they leave school after which
they are the responsibility of the local authority in which they
reside. In the case of Islington
College, however, the Council only support pupils that reside in
Islington. ·
On the
question of how Council promotes apprentice schemes on housing
estates, the meeting was advised that the Council’s iWork
service set up Employment Clusters (located in Finsbury Park,
Archway and South Cluster) with the aim of reaching out to local
residents and community groups to publicise employment
opportunities including apprenticeships. RESOLVED
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SCRUTINY TOPICS AND WORK PROGRAMME 2018/2019 PDF 50 KB Minutes:
1.
That officers presenting quarterly reports on Employment and
Environment performance attend two out of four meetings in the
municipal year. This arrangement will be reviewed later in the
year.
2.
That the main scrutiny topic for 2018/19 would be Resident and
Volunteering Engagement in Parks and Open Spaces.
3.
That a mini-review of the procurement of the Council’s fleet
be considered in September 2018.
4.
That the Scrutiny Initiation Document be drawn up and agreed in
principle by the Chair and Vice Chair and the scope of the scrutiny
be formally agreed at the next meeting.
5.
That, as part of the scrutiny, site visits to parks and open spaces
will be organised.
6.
That Friends Groups and Community Garden Groups will be invited to
a meeting.
7.
That the work programme reflecting the above be considered at the
next meeting. |