Agenda and minutes

Councillors Woodbyrne and Ozdemir

None

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.

None

RESOLVED:

That the minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 4 February 2021 be confirmed and the Chair be authorised to sign them

The Chair stated that the special meeting of the Committee on climate change would now be held on 17 March 2021 at 7.00 p.m.

The Chair added that the scrutiny review report on Behavioural Change had now been discussed by the Executive and a response is awaited

The Chair stated that the order of business would be as per the agenda

For members of the public to ask questions relating to any subject on the meeting agenda under Procedure Rule 70.5. Alternatively, the Chair may opt to accept questions from the public during the discussion on each agenda item.

The Chair outlined the procedure for Public questions

Councillor Asima Shaikh, Executive Member for Inclusive Economy and Jobs, and Caroline Wilson, Head of Inclusive Development were present for discussion of this item, and made a presentation to the Committee, copy interleaved

During consideration of the report the following main points were made –

·         Noted Net Zero carbon programme governance model

·         Green Energy ambition – move towards a low carbon, more resource efficient economy that has fewer adverse effects on the environment. Industries need to contribute toward ecological sustainability, need to create a generation of green jobs, and need for innovative ownership structures that promote meaningful employee participation. Residents need to be skilled for these new sectors

·         Journey towards a green economy – Definition, research, scanning, scoping and green economy strategic framework and full action plan

·         Beginning to define the green economy – work underway collaborating on two pieces of work of pan-London work and research with London Recovery Board and Central London Forward. Initiated discussions with UCL to organise an expert roundtable to interrogate emerging research and application to Islington

·         Estimated there could be 6000 low carbon jobs created by 2050 in Islington

·         Scanning for early opportunities green jobs and skills – GLA projections for London indicate that new demand for 3400 and a replacement demand for 10300 over the period 2020-24 in the construction sector

·         Scoping policy – work underway – need to define policy framework to enable SME’s to be green, early stakeholder engagement, coherent policy framework to support local SME’s

·         Scoping partnerships – work underway included in the new Progressive Procurement strategy as part of the social value requirements. Integrated net zero targets into draft Anchor Institutions Framework

·         Next steps – work over next 6 months – strategic  - continue to evolve Green Economy strategic framework, appoint dedicated Green Economy officer, launch responsible sector initiative with construction partners to promote social value, continue to support apprenticeships, initiate business development programme for Chapel Market, Investigate circular economy initiatives, commission eco -friendly delivery service, explore ‘last mile’ delivery hubs, increase awareness of a sharing economy. Develop engagement with commissioners and local supply chains, agree a common ambition across anchor organisations on carbon reductions, develop work with local universities to promote innovation in carbon reduction

·         Noted that the NHS had recently published a net Zero carbon strategy and it was stated that work would be taking place with NHS providers and work is taking place with the Whittington Hospital

·         In response to a question it was stated that additional funding had been obtained to build on the air quality work recently carried out in Archway on green deliveries and that there would now be a focus on the Nags Head. This could also be linked in to low traffic neighbourhoods

·         A Member expressed the view that opportunities of low traffic neighbourhoods to use cargo bikes and e bikes to make deliveries. Councillor Shaikh stated that funding was not available at present but any funding from the GLA would be welcomed

·         It was stated that work was taking place  ...  view the full minutes text for item 438.

Councillor Asima Shaikh, Executive Member Inclusive Jobs and Economy was present and outlined the report

During consideration of the report the following main points were made –

·         Number of residents supported into paid work – target of 4000 over a 4 year period and on track to achieve this target. Q3 performance remained strong despite COVID and 473 residents were assisted into paid employment and it is hoped the target of 600 will be reached at the year end

·         103 parents of children 0-18 assisted into employment although engagement remains a challenge due to school closures and impact on parents being able to pursue employment

·         18-25 year olds supported into work – Q3 115 young people were assisted into paid employment

·         Number of disabled residents/long term health conditions – Q3 115 residents assisted into paid employment

·         278 BAME residents supported into paid employment and work is taking place with the Muslim Welfare House to employ two outreach workers

·         Council contracted suppliers – many jobs sourced with council contracted suppliers have been with Adult Social care providers due to the pandemic. Working to look across all key corporate contracts to ensure employment opportunities are maximised across all commissioned services

·         LLW entry jobs – new indicator and in Q3 achieved 80 LLW outcomes and it is hoped to increase the number of partners who report on LLW

·         Number of residents supported into apprenticeships with external provider – very low numbers at present due to low confidence in economic climate and other schemes such as Kickstart

·         Number of new library users – new indicator on new library members as opposed to number of visits exceeded the profile in Q2 and Q3 – 995 joined in Q2 and 104 in Q3 well above target. Noted that Library premises were planned to open in a few weeks for click and collect and reopen on 12 April with social distancing in place. Noted that there has been a significant shift to ebooks and newspapers and magazines accessed by users

·         Number of schools engaged in 100 hours of work – met by 20 schools in Q2 and was lower due to the pandemic, however schools have engaged with the programme

·         Percentage of Council apprentices who move onto further employment or training within 3 months of completing their apprenticeship – all 4 apprentices who completed apprenticeships in the previous quarter progressed into further employment within the Council in Q2. Overall progression for this year stands at 78% which represents 7 out of 9 apprentices having progressed into employment

·         Noted that there is anecdotal evidence that residents are moving out of London since the start of the pandemic

·         Members congratulated the collaborative work between departments

                         The Chair thanked Councillor Shaikh for attending

Councillor Rowena Champion, Executive Member Environment and Transport was present for consideration of this item

During consideration of the report the following main points were raised –

·         Noted that based on Q1 and 2 tonnages the early projection of the 20/21 residual – non-recycled waste – per household is 350kg. This follows last years confirmed figure of 353kg and is the third  lowest amongst London Boroughs

·         Missed collections – average monthly reported waste collections in Q3 were 325 compared to 274 in Q2

·         Fly tipping – reported fly tips in Q3 were 573 in Q3 compared to 511 for the same period last year. This is attributed to lockdown, however 91%. Work is taking place with Greenspace and Public Protection. In addition the possibility of having volunteers to assist Council staff could be looked at

·         Leisure Centre visits have been subject to lockdowns and visitor numbers were around 20% of the level the same period of last year

·         Electric vehicle charging points – Council committed to installing 400 electric vehicle charging points over a four year period. There have been 262 installed to date

·         Road traffic collisions – no new data is expected until next year, and the 2019 figure had shown a substantial reduction from the previous year

·         Carbon emission reductions are ahead of target from Council buildings and the transport fleet

·         Fleet – work is ongoing to reduce the overall number of vehicles in use by the Council, though to some extent this has been offset by an increase in the Housing fleet with greater insourcing and more trade and technical staff

·         Low traffic neighbourhood schemes had been rolled out with 7 now in place and lessons are being learnt from each roll out

                        The Chair thanked Councillor Champion for attending

Councillor Rowena Champion, Executive Member Environment and Transport was present and was accompanied by Mathew Homer, Environment and Regeneration Department and outlined the report

During consideration of the report the following main points were made –

·         Vision 2030 net carbon zero strategy – on 26 November 2020 Council agreed it’s net zero carbon strategy

·         Waste minimisation and recycling targets -  Council supports London wide targets for increasing food recycling and overall levels of waste, and has achieved the second lowest level of household waste in London

·         Challenging inequality – aim to engage  with voluntary, faith based and cultural organisations to encourage them to raise awareness of recycling amongst their communities. Aim to reduce access to good quality recycling by progressively improving recycling facilities on estates. Trialling new recycling bins that are more accessible to residents

·         Food and garden waste – a review has been carried out into options for separate collection and processing of food and garden waste and officers are recommending based on financial implications of a service change that the current service model is retained as the lowest cost option

·         Expansion of food waste recycling to remaining estates – officers working with Housing and other landlords to progress the expansion of the service

·         Single use plastic – report considered by Committee in July 2019 setting out a range of actions being taken by the Council to reduce single waste plastic

·         Business waste – commitments to develop a new commercial waste business plan and communications plan and to launch a new food waste recycling service for businesses. The pandemic has had a significant impact on commercial waste and recycling service

·         Circular economy – commitment to develop a Circular Economy Action Plan but due to changing priorities in 2020, the deadline for this has passed, however work is taking place

·         Flats recycling package – committed to meeting service standards of flats recycling package to find ways to improve levels of recycling on estates

·         Communications – substantial focus to improve effective communications with residents

·         Reference was made to the need to promote washable nappies and it was stated that NLWA had a communications plan to promote this and encourage non-contamination by residents. Discussions were also taking place with manufacturers

·         Discussion took place as to fortnightly bin collections that are being introduced in L.B.Hackney and the view was expressed that this would not be suitable for  introduction in Islington

·         There were difficulties with recycling in communal bins and these had been redesigned to try to avoid contamination. Kerbside collections did not really have a contamination problem

·         Noted that there are zero packaging shops in Islington and that this should be encouraged

·         In response to a question it was stated that the recycling centre, because of its design was not suitable for pedestrian or bicycle access

The Chair thanked Councillor Champion for attending

RESOLVED:

That the report be noted