Agenda and minutes

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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.

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A member proposed the following addition to the minutes, item 7: “A member of the committee noted the option for local residents to agree to manually weed their pavements instead of them being sprayed with pesticides.

RESOLVED:

That the minutes of the meeting held on 10 November 2022 be confirmed as an accurate record of proceedings and the Chair be authorised to sign them subject to the added comments above.

The chair informed the Committee that the date for the working group had changed to Wednesday 25th January 2023, the theme of which was ‘retrofitting and insulating our homes’.  Professor Linda Clarke and Elaine Trimble from Cally Energy had attended and spoken about their work in this area.

The Chair explained the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill had a second reading in the House of Lords and the 11 recommendations were the outcome of the committee’s investigation scrutinising the effects the reforms had on planning systems in London. The Committee was encouraged to send any comments and responses to the Chair.

Healthy Minds and Healthy Bods (HMHB) had launched London Health Walks, and started two new walks, in both Finsbury Park and Highbury Fields.  They relaunched their Islington/Hackney group and welcomed people to join on Thursday 16th February.  They meet outside Highbury Grange Medical Practice (N5), leaving at 11am until 12.30pm.

The order of business changed so that item 9 was presented first.

The Chair thanked Dr Daniel Evans for attending and advised that he would present item 9

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.

None.

Theme for the meeting: Transport

The Committee received a presentation from Will Umney, Team Leader for Transport Planning, on Net Zero Carbon Transport Workstream. The following key points were raised in the discussion:
 

• In compact cities, the effective local transport of people, products and materials was central to a circular economy, enabling local goods and material flows. This in turn supported smaller scale transport options for goods and effective local public transport options, reducing energy and resource consumption and greenhouse gas emissions and improving local air quality.
• Islington’s transport networks made a significant contribution to the borough’s CO2 emissions (116,000 tonnes in 2019) contributing towards climate change. The elimination of transport related emissions would support the achievement of the Council’s goal of tackling climate change by achieving net zero carbon emissions in Islington by 2030.
• People targets and initiatives: to achieve 90% of all trips being taken by active and sustainable transport, a 4.6% reduction in private car ownership, a 9.2% increase in trips by public transport, and 93% of residents to live within 400m of the strategic cycle network.
• Goods targets and initiatives: to achieve a 10% reduction in freight traffic in the morning peak-time
• Materials and procurement: Reuse of materials, adopt a progressive procurement approach for investment into the public transport system to support local supply chains and leverage maximum social value.
• Last Mile Deliveries: Identify micro distribution hubs to provide space for local couriers for last mile deliveries; Promoting cargo bikes as a first choice alternative to vans for last mile deliveries; Increase Out of Home delivery options including parcel lockers.
• The Council wanted to enable employment growth and increased economic activity within the borough. It was, however, recognised that an economic development model built on perpetual growth presents significant challenges to the Council’s Net Zero Carbon 2030 commitment and to the borough’s transport system. The Council wanted to meet the twin challenges of building a fairer Islington and tackling climate change by building a green economy that will provide green, low carbon jobs, including the transport sector.
• Officers responded to concerns over e-bikes and cycle hire providers; explaining that the Council was trying to work with the providers to mitigate issues such as dumping of the bikes and irresponsible use. As well as looking at a pricing structure for these in which there would be an update in due course. Cllr Champion also explained that these types of bikes were a very well used service, but the concerns raised were very valid.
• Questions arose over the use of parcel lockers, including not wanting these to be at the expense of pavement space or an unused service. Councillors suggested that these should be installed in places where there was business interest or public buildings such as libraries, which could produce an income stream. Officers explained that concerns were already raised over loss of highway space and accessibility issues surrounding parcel lockers, but these would be placed in areas they were needed and did not cause a nuisance.
• Officers reiterated that driving had  ...  view the full minutes text for item 72.

The Committee received a presentation from Dr Daniel Evans on his work on the Urban Agriculture Project. The following key points were raised in the discussion:

• The aim of the project was to integrate environmental, spatial, and social characteristics of a cluster of underutilized city spaces to determine how best to use these to support a local, circular, and sustainable food supply chain.
• In Islington the project focused on was Octopus Community Plant Nursery, Hollins and McCall Estate, Tufnell Park Road as this was an underutilised space
• The project aimed to map clusters of under-utilized sites at the ‘ward’ scale; to collect environmental, spatial and social information from each site; to build a model whereby this data was used to optimize and assign different food supply chain functions to each site, from composting and germinating seedlings to cultivation and food exchange and to build a user-friendly dashboard so that anyone (e.g. urban land planners) can input information about a cluster of sites and see the most optimum uses for each one.
• This was a heavily community-based project so as well as computing what was technically possible (with regards to Environmental and/or Spatial variables) the Dashboard results could have been weighted to account for preferences of the community, for example not wanting to use sites for composting.
• Councillors asked for further explanation on community engagement and expansion.
• Dr Evans explained that while the project ended in March, they had been keen to remain in Islington and expand the methods used to be able to update with new areas that may open.
• He also explained that it was important to the project to engage with all stakeholders and those that live around the area. They also wanted to do a series of pop-up workshops, so the community had been engaged at all stages. They had also been looking to find further funding to continue the project beyond March. As part of the project, they aim to provide the community with useful and proper information such as how to compost properly to catalyse interest and conversation surrounding this.
• The project would also improve biodiversity in the area as taking underutilised areas for growing means a 100% increase in biodiversity and through food initiatives this will engage the community in other aspects such as net zero carbon.
• One important aspect of the project that had created the dashboard was that anyone after can use it. It could be updated continuously and was easy to use.

Resolved

That the report be noted

The Executive member for Environment, Air Quality and Transport presented this item.

The Executive Member asked for questions from the committee regarding the report published in the agenda. The following key points were raised in the discussion:

• There was a greater focus on housing estate recycling and how to make this easier, as currently, curb side properties performed better in this area. Officers were looking into the capacity issue as a key priority of as they were aware there was not always sufficient room for estate recycling.
• The Council was trying to encourage the Recycling Champions Programme, as well as increase the use of clothes banks to recycle unwanted clothing. Housing recycling was also a key priority in the short term as well as a push to spread correct and useful information on what can be recycled where.
• The Corporate Director of Environment explained that they wanted to have a briefing with Councillors to update them on what was happening with the Sobell Leisure Centre following recent flooding caused by a burst water main, and the progress of the insurance claim.
• The Executive Member and Corporate Director of Environment responded to questions from the public regarding Seasonal Health Intervention Network (SHINE). They explained that staff shortages and increase in demand for the service had delayed reaching targets but that the recruitment drive had been positive, and more resources  had been made available for SHINE.

Resolved

That the report be noted.

The Committee received a presentation from Sarah Hitchcock, Head of Net Zero Carbon Programme, on the Q2 Performance Report.  The following key Points were raised in the discussion:

• Buildings, Housing, Commercial and Infrastructure: The UCL report had now been completed on housing stock; There had been a delay in some works due to procurement issues, but this was moving forward and has had a lot of resident engagement; grant fund application for Bevin Court pilot expected to be submitted (up to 50% match funding, with funding to be drawn down by March 2025) and other pilot projects were progressing.
• Transport: all deliverables on track
• Sustainable and Affordable Energy: all deliverables on track; GreenSCIES Phase 2 was now underway. Specialist input had been procured to facilitate the final design development and outline business case preparations. Timescales would be updated in due course. Solar PV was to be delivered to 5 corporate buildings this financial year
• Green Economy: most deliverables on track; ongoing work on mapping skills; the requirement for Net Zero Carbon had been added to Islington Council’s Affordable Workspace Specification document along with references to planning guidelines. This would be shared with all developers at pre app stage and appended to the S106 agreement. This would be for all S106 from this point onwards; £2.7 million pounds awarded under the strategic development fund
• Natural Environment, Waste Reduction and Recycling: majority of deliverables on track; private tree planting initiative was delayed due to recruitment issues; a lot of successes in fundraising; 230 entries for Islington in bloom; flats above shops food waste trial launched.
• Planning: delays in adoption of local plan; new officer to take forward the Supplementary Planning Document (SPD).
• Engaging, Empowering and Partnering: focus on stakeholder engagement over the next quarter; Staffing changes have delayed commissioning of Council led events. NZC Team and comms had supported community led events including Car Free Day (which they were linking to play streets and the Islington Environmental Emergency Alliance event at Union Chapel); comms plan had stalled over summer, but an agency was now helping; launched the net zero carbon champions.
• Finance and Investment: working closely with other London boroughs, the green finance initiative and 3Ci.

Officers gave clarification to the Committee on some points raised:

• Campaigns for increasing waste recycling included pulling together a series of activities for March and engagement workshops to explore the barriers to recycling. As well as looking at behaviour change programmes and getting officers in post to help with this.
• The next wave of de-carbonisation funding was not live yet, there had been technical challenges but had been successful in in getting applications in and now waiting for the next round of funding.
• Officers indicated they would send the latest update on the future of the Bright Sparks re-use and repair project once they had received this.
• Officers confirmed they would check technical details surrounding questions regarding the decarbonisation of the pension fund.

Resolved

That the report be noted

ACTIONS

Officers to provide further information to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 75.

Resolved

That the committee noted the work plan