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Agenda and minutes

Items
No. Item

333.

Apologies for Absence

Minutes:

Councillors Gantly, Russell, Gallagher and Doolan

334.

Declaration of Substitute Members

Minutes:

None

335.

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

336.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 147 KB

Minutes:

RESOLVED:

That, subject to the addition of Councillor Rowena Champion in the list of Members Present for the meeting of the Committee on 8 March 2017,  the minutes of the meetings of the Committee held on 18 January and 8 March 2017 be confirmed and the Chair be authorised to sign them

337.

Matters Arising from the minutes

Minutes:

None

338.

PUBLIC QUESTIONS

Minutes:

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

339.

Chair's Report

Minutes:

The Chair reported that the Committee would be holding meetings with OFWAT on 20 April and Thames Water on 4 May to consider the independent report that is being produced for Thames Water on the recent major bursts across London.

 

The Chair stated that Members of the Public, residents and businesses affected were welcome to attend both meetings

340.

Flooding Scrutiny - Residents and Businesses - Verbal

Minutes:

The Chair stated that the meeting had been convened to consider any issues that residents and businesses wished to raise with the Council as a result of the flooding in Upper Street. Residents of Devonia Road and Charlton Place were present together with businesses affected by the flood, together with Jackie Ambrosini of the Angel BID.

 

During discussion the following main points were raised –

 

·         A number of businesses were still closed and were still not likely to open again before June

·         Some residents could not return to their properties and were still living in temporary accommodation and some were not expected to return until June/July

·         Residents and businesses expressed concern that despite promises made by Thames Water that no residents or businesses would not lose out financially as a result of the flood little progress had been made in resolving claims and in paying for losses, although it is now well over 3 months since the incident

·         The Committee noted that residents and businesses were extremely concerned that the promises made by Thames Water at the meeting on 1 February were not being honoured and only a few claims had been settled. Only a few number of people had received any payments and were being ‘stonewalled’ by the loss adjustors and there is no single contact point in Thames Water who could be spoken to about claims

·         Concern was expressed that flood victims are finding it difficult  to get answers in relation to their claims, or any interim payments, which were important to businesses in coping with the aftermath of the flood

·         It was noted that enquiries and e mails about claims were going unanswered and it is unclear who in Thames Water is taking overall responsibility for resolving these issues

·         The Committee were of the view that Thames Water should provide a timescale for dealing with these claims and appoint a named person who residents and businesses can contact should they need to escalate issues that are not being resolved

·         The Committee were also of the view that Bob Collington should attend the meeting on 29 March at 7.30 p.m. that Thames Water had arranged and noted that many Members of the Committee had not been notified of the date of this meeting and that the time had been set that was not convenient to businesses and Thames Water had been advised of this

·         Residents and businesses expressed the view that they would wish the Council to play more of a co-ordination role with Thames Water on assisting with residents and businesses insurance claims and the Chair stated that he would raise this matter with the Executive

·         The Committee were also of the view that Thames Water should provide details of properties  that have put in insurance claims as the Council did not maintain this information

·         Scepticism was expressed at the promises made by Thames Water that nobody would be worse off as a result of the flood that had been made would be kept and noted that  ...  view the full minutes text for item 340.