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Agenda and minutes

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Contact: Zoe Crane  020 7527 3044

Items
No. Item

82.

Apologies for Absence

Minutes:

There were no apologies for absence.

83.

Declarations of Substitute Members

Minutes:

There were no declarations of substitute members.

84.

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.

85.

Minutes of Previous Meeting pdf icon PDF 213 KB

Minutes:

·         A member commented that there would be cost efficiencies if Islington became part of the ultra low emission zone due to neighbouring boroughs being in the zone.

·         A member asked officers for more information on the Silver-gilt in London in Bloom that had been achieved by Islington. Officers confirmed that in the past council resources had been used. However this time, the community had worked together to achieve the award.

·         A member asked when the findings of the solar panels on council buildings task and finish group would be submitted to the committee and was advised that this should be ready by the next meeting.

 

RESOLVED:

That the minutes of the Environment and Regeneration Scrutiny Committee meeting on 12 May 2015 be confirmed as an accurate record of proceedings and the Chair be authorised to sign them.

86.

Public Questions

Minutes:

A member of the public queried the lack of parking spaces on St John’s Way. Officers confirmed that Controlled Parking Zones (CPZ) would be reviewed and that officers would look into this specific concern.

87.

Chair's Report

Minutes:

There was no chair’s report.

88.

Communal Heating witness evidence - Jonathan Graham, Association for Decentralised Energy

Minutes:

Jonathan Graham, Head of Policy at the Association for Decentralised Energy (ADE) gave a presentation on District Heating and Heat Consumers.

 

In the presentation and discussion, the following points were made:

·         The ADE vision was “for an energy system that was dictated by the consumers needs rather than one that dictated to them, creating a more local, efficient and less costly energy system”.

·         The following services were delivered: - Combined heat and power; district heating and cooling; and demand side services.

·         The ADE had more than 90 members which included local authorities, housing associations, university campuses, industrial manufacturers and energy suppliers and it was funded by members.

·         District heating was common in other European countries. It was most common in Scandinavia, Germany and Sweden.

·         There were currently 405,000 dwellings in the UK with district heating and 4% of heat demand was met by district heating schemes. There was a Government ambition to grow district heating to meet 14% of heat demand by 2030, where suitable. However district heat not the right solution in all places. It worked best in urban areas with high density.

·         There were 50,000 dwellings on modern district heating schemes and new build and retrofit planned projects would provide district heating to a further 50,000-60,000 dwellings.

·         377,000 dwellings had been put on district heating systems as a result of block heating refurbishment. This equated to 2% of dwellings.

·         There was potential for 3-8million dwellings to have district heating.

·         District heating was growing at about 10% per year. There was much investment in London through the London Plan and ECO delivery.

·         32 university schemes had been completed and 17 more were planned. 64 hospital schemes had been completed with a further 20 schemes possible.

·         Local authority led development required authorities to undertake energy master planning, address planning requirements, conduct brokering, procuring, operating and owning heat networks and direct ECO funding.

·         Emerging schemes included Leicester City Council, Newport City Homes Limited, Manchester – Media City, Newcastle - Riverside Dean, Stoke and Association of Greater Manchester Authorities.

·         London schemes included Olympic Park and Stratford City, Southwark SELCHP, Guildhall, Bastion House and London Central Markets, Pimlico District Heating, Bloomsbury Heat & Power, Kings Cross, Barkantine Heat and Power, Greenwich Millennium Village, Shoreditch and Bunhill in Islington.

·         Established schemes with growth potential included Birmingham, Nottingham, Shetland Heat, Energy and Power, Southampton City Council, Woking, Sheffield, Milton Keynes and Aberdeen Heat & Power.

·         Benefits of district heat included being able to access a wider range of heat generation technologies, being able to generate heat more efficiently, lower energy costs, reduce labour and maintenance costs as well as CO2 emissions. It also helped to tackle fuel poverty and cold homes.

·         Challenges included high heat network losses which added to costs and could cause overheating, systems not being designed to exploit value from CHP electricity sales, capital cost cutting (‘value engineering’) resulted in higher running costs, there could be poor communication between contractors, district heat suppliers and building managers/network operators and a lack of transparency between  ...  view the full minutes text for item 88.

89.

Environment and Regeneration Scrutiny Committee Arrangements and Terms of Reference pdf icon PDF 153 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

 

RESOLVED:

That the membership appointed by Annual Council on 14 May 2015 and the terms of reference and working arrangements be noted.

90.

Scrutiny Topics - 2015/16

Minutes:

It was suggested that the following work be undertaken:

·         A scrutiny review could take place into smart cities, looking at how the use of technology could improve areas such as recycling and parking.

·         Consideration of the consultation process for Quietways should be scheduled prior to the consultation taking place. A representative from Waltham Forest could be asked to attend.

·         CCTV on estates could be considered. Officers confirmed that the cameras on estates were linked to the council’s CCTV. Housing was responsible for camera upgrades and there was a programme for this.

·         A session on recycling could be arranged after the recycling pilot had taken place.

·         Councillor Murray could be invited to attend a meeting once the Community Infrastructure Levy had been introduced to speak on how this would be apportioned.

 

RESOLVED:

That subject to approval by the Policy and Performance Scrutiny Committee, a scrutiny review be conducted into Smart Cities and that sessions be arranged on the consultation process for Quietways, recycling, CCTV on estates and the Community Infrastructure Levy.