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Agenda and minutes

Venue: Committee Room 5, Town Hall, Upper Street, N1 2UD. View directions

Contact: Ola Adeoye  020 7527 3044

Items
No. Item

128.

Apologies for Absence

Minutes:

Apologies were received from Councillors Doolan, Gallagher and Perry.

129.

Declarations of Substitute Members

Minutes:

There were no declarations of substitute members.

130.

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.

131.

Minutes of Previous Meeting pdf icon PDF 141 KB

Minutes:

 

RESOLVED:

That the minutes of the meeting held on 15 May 2017 be confirmed as an accurate record of proceedings and the Chair be authorised to sign them.

132.

Public Questions

Minutes:

A member of the public enquired on whether the Display Energy Certificates for all council buildings including the town hall had been updated.

In response, the Chair advised that relevant officers would respond to him and Committee Members on this issue in due course.

 

133.

Chair's Report

Minutes:

In response to the Chair’s suggestion on future meetings of the committee commencing at 7.30 instead of 7.00pm,  Members welcomed the new start time.
 
The Chair informed the meeting that on Friday 30 June, some Members of the Committee visited the Ecological centre in Gillespie Park , met staff of the centre and  ‘Friends of the Park’ volunteers to understand the operations and the challenges. The Chair advised that it was an informative visit and would hope that similar visits could be undertaken to other open spaces within the borough by the Committee later in the year.

The Chair advised Members that a site visit to the Bunhill Heat and Power Centre, was being organised around the autumn period as it would provide Members the opportunity to witness the ongoing construction with regards to the second phase of the project. 

134.

REGENERATION OF RETAIL AREAS SCRUTINY REVIEW - FINAL REPORT pdf icon PDF 220 KB

Minutes:

In the discussion the following points were made:

·         The Chair informed the meeting that due to an administrative error a recommendation had been omitted from the final report and that this had been tabled for Members consideration. The Chair also highlighted a few typographical errors in one of the recommendations.

·         A suggestion to include an additional recommendation to protect long standing local businesses from the impact of regeneration activities was noted. The exact wording of the additional recommendation to be delegated to the Chair and the Head of Economic Development Projects and Transport Planning.

·         Members were advised that the Council was in the process of developing its Economic Development Strategy and that recommendations from the review would be incorporated into the process. 

Councillor Russel moved a motion to include an additional recommendation to protect local businesses from the impact of regeneration plans in local areas.

This was seconded by Councillor Champion.

The Chair on behalf of the Committee expressed their appreciation to Councillor Court, Officers and the various contributors who had participated in the review.


RESOLVED:


1.    That the final report be agreed subject to including an additional recommendation which aims to protect local businesses from the impact of regeneration plans in local areas.

2.    That the changes be agreed by the Chair in conjunction with the relevant Officer and submitted to the Executive.

 

135.

AIR QUALITY - OFFICER UPDATE pdf icon PDF 192 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Paul Clift, Environmental Health Manager and Jo Shaw, Environmental Project Officer updated the meeting on issues around Air Quality, its ongoing projects and its challenges.

In the discussion the following points were made:

·         A new Air Quality Action Plan within an overarching Air Quality Strategy will be agreed by 2018.

·         The Council in conjunction with neighbouring authorities and businesses had participated in a number of projects aimed at reducing air pollution from businesses, such as the City Fringe Zero Emissions Network, Zero Emissions Network (ZEN), a Low Emission Neighbourhood  and a freight consolidation initiative with the London boroughs of Camden and Enfield.

·         The Council had also worked on anti-idling projects with schools, businesses and during events at the Emirates Stadium and elsewhere in the community on ‘Action Days’. With regard to vehicle idling, Members were informed that although this was against the law in Islington and drivers can be issued with fixed penalty notices, the law requires officers to ask a driver to switch off and if they don’t comply to that request, only then can a FPN be served. Although the legislation is weak regarding FPNs, the idling projects were a good opportunity to raise awareness and educate drivers on their part in causing air pollution hotspots, such as at school gates, rather than simply serving a fixed penalty notice. In response to a question, the meeting was advised that enforcement of idling is undertaken by two dedicated response teams and members of the Pollution Team (totalling approximately 30 officers) who will patrol hot spot areas such as outside school gates, bus stands and the Emirates Stadium on event days, as well as responding to complaints

·         In response to a question on the level of public awareness/campaign about pollution caused by idling vehicles, Members were advised that the Council was part of a City of London initiative, funded by the Mayor of London which was a high profile London wide campaign involving 10 boroughs. Islington has received media attention as part of this campaign from local press and was featured on BBC Breakfast news.   

·         The Environmental Health Manager informed Members that all local authorities within Air Quality Management Areas are required by both DEFRA and for London, the Office of the Mayor of London, to undertake an audit known as an Annual Status Report where local actions and information on air pollution levels are reported on a yearly basis. The Annual Status Report is also published on the Council website.

·         The meeting was informed that addressing air pollution requires working in partnership across different Council departments, with neighbouring authorities, in the community and with businesses More specifically with planning, Islington presently through its policy on home building programmes and its permitted development does not promote car ownership.

·         strategy was launched, the Officer acknowledged that although there was still more work to be done, there had been an overall improvement in air quality over recent years. The Council now complies with the majority of the EU/UK air quality limit values  ...  view the full minutes text for item 135.

136.

SCRUTINY TOPICS - 2017/18

Minutes:

RESOLVED:

 

1.    That the main scrutiny topic for 2017/18 would be Recycling.

2.    That the Scrutiny Initiation Documents be drawn up and agreed in principle by the Chair and Vice Chair and the scope of the scrutiny is to be formally agreed at the next meeting.

3.    That as part of the review, site visits to the North London Waste Authority, Hornsey Street depot and Bywaters be organised.

4.    That Officers facilitate a presentation regarding Recycling to Committee.

5.    That Officers facilitate a meeting with residents in Council Estates

6.    That the work programme reflecting the above be considered at the next meeting.

 

137.

WORK PROGRAMME 2017/2018 pdf icon PDF 69 KB

Minutes:

RESOLVED:

That the work programme be updated prior to the next meeting.