Agenda and minutes

There were no apologies for absence.

There were no declarations of substitute members.

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.

There were no declarations of interest.

RESOLVED:

That the minutes of the Environment and Regeneration Scrutiny Committee meeting on 15 June 2015 be confirmed as an accurate record of proceedings and the Chair be authorised to sign them.

Public questions would be taken during the relevant items on the agenda.

There was no chair’s report.

Paul Taylor, Transport Engineering Manager gave a presentation on the Quietways Consultation.

In the presentation the following points were made:

·         For the last five years, the Traffic and Parking Service had undertaken web based consultation using Survey Monkey. Consultees were given an A5 card directing them to the web page to respond to the consultation. The response rate was generally 9-12% which was the same as when paper based consultation previously took place.

·         The recent Quietway consultation followed the standard procedure. However, there were too many drawings to include on Survey Monkey so the council website was used with a link to Survey Monkey. The response rate was low at 1% so more elaborate documents were delivered to all properties in the consultation area. This increased the response rate to 4%.

·         The Waltham Forrest Mini-Holland scheme was a £30million scheme to transform areas of Waltham Forrest to provide more cycle friendly streets and change the streetscape design. The Commonplace web based consultation system was used as an engagement tool, to interact with residents and stakeholders and gather and share information.

·         The council had contacted Commonplace to find out the costs that would be incurred if Commonplace was used on the Quietways consultation and an initial quote was £10,000. The council did not have funding for this but could ask TfL to fund it.

·         The council would be trialling the use of Commonplace on a small road zebra crossing on Canonbury Road at a cost of £1500. This would enable officers to see how the process worked and whether it would be useful for the Quietways consultation.

·         It was important to consider the wording of the consultation to encourage all types of road users to respond.

Simon Munk, Council Liaison Officer, Waltham Forest Cycling Campaign gave a presentation on the use of Commonplace in the Mini-Holland scheme in Waltham Forrest. In the presentation the following points were made:

·         In the first Mini-Holland scheme, standard consultation notices were sent out and a public meeting took place. The scheme was controversial and without an effective engagement tool, many local residents had expressed their views on social media websites. Following this, Commonplace was used in the second wave of schemes and there had been much more positive engagement. Each user could see the comments of others. Respondents had also flagged up other issues in the area which provided useful data for officers.

·         Without the use of Commonplace or a similar system, it was likely that the scheme would have been lost.

·         The scheme’s area covered half a square kilometre and included 15 road closures, four of which were in place now and the rest would follow.

·         On street trials had been used which included roads being closed off for a period of three weeks with the use of large portable planters and barriers. Where this did not work the barriers could be easily removed or moved to another location.

·         The scheme was adjusted following the trials.

·         The scheme had been controversial but by  ...  view the full minutes text for item 97.

The committee received the EU energy efficiency directive and heat metering report which set out the implications of the 2014 EU Energy Efficiency Directive for Islington’s Housing Service including the need to procure a heat metering supplier and operator.

RESOLVED:

That the consideration of this item be deferred to a future meeting to enable a relevant officer to attend to answer the committee’s questions.

RESOLVED:

1) That the work programme be noted.

2) That the next meeting would take place on 7 September 2015.