Agenda and minutes

The minutes of the previous meeting held on 15^th June 2021 were approved as a correct record.

(Moved by Councillor Dr S Peaple and seconded by Councillor A Cooper)

There were no declarations of interest.

To receive an update from the Chair

There was no update from the Chair beyond items covered later on the agenda.

Update on responses received to Reports of the Infrastructure Safety & Growth Committee.

The Chair reported that he attended Cabinet on 17^th June 2021 to provide a verbal update to Cabinet on this Committee’s consideration of the Future High Streets Fund – Terms of Reference at its previous meeting.  The Chair reported that Cabinet approved the report and its recommendations.

(Discussion item)

There were no additional matters referred to this Committee.

(Update from the Assistant Director Assets)

Councillor Maycock joined the meeting at 6.05pm.

The Chair introduced the Fire Safety / Inspection update and invited the Assistant Director, Assets to provide an update to the Committee.

The Assistant Director reported that:

• Very little had changed in relation to our position since the last report to this Committee in December 2019 as we had largely been waiting on the Building Safety Bill.
• However, we had continued to operate in a ‘Business As Usual’ mode.
• Initial survey of buildings had been completed in order to provide Government Returns and to identify likely future programmes.  There were no incidents of note to report.
• Despite COVID we had continued to undertake our regular programme of Fire Risk Assessments as planned and had completed any works arising from those assessments.
• The programme of fire door replacements in the high rise blocks had now been agreed and will be rolled out. This was delayed initially as there had been a major shake-up in Fire Door certification.
• The implications of the Fire Safety Bill were reviewed by our external compliance consultant who advised that our current policies and approach would put us as compliant with the Bill.
• We had commenced the process of formalising our policy in relation to electrical safety inspections to bring it more in line with gas safety inspections. It was anticipated that a report will be taken through Cabinet later in the year to approve the policy.

In terms of the recently published Building Safety Bill, the Assistant Director reported that:

• The Building Safety Bill was published on 5^th July 2021 and it was announced that there would be a Building Safety Regulator.
• We had been advised that it could well be later this year before this came into effect and at the moment we were still not clear on how it would be introduced in terms of phasing.
• The Bill did not look significantly different to earlier versions that were circulated and had previously been reported to this Committee.
• There were budgets in place for the role of Building Safety Manager.  However, this role had not yet been appointed as we still needed to understand exactly what the Act would require of the role.
• Some works had commenced in preparation:-

1.     Consultant appointed

• 2. Type 4 Fire Risk Assessments underway across high-rise
  3. Consultant to assist with the production of Building Safety Manuals
  4. Consultant to assist with digital record keeping and Building Information Management systems
  5. Currently seeking tenders for updated structural survey of blocks
  6. Updated electrical inspection programme would feed into project
  7. Inspections to be extended to a sample of low-rise blocks
• We would need to further develop more pro-active communications with residents and Leaseholders within our blocks.

The Committee sought and received clarifications in the following areas:

·       Fire door replacement programme, where it was confirmed that the delay to this programme was as a result of the re-certification of fire doors in the market.

·       The requirement or not for 3D mapping of buildings, where it was confirmed that this  ...  view the full minutes text for item 16.

(Report of the Portfolio Holder for Regulatory and Community Safety)

The Chair introduced the Portfolio Holder, Councillor Doyle, and the Assistant Director, Growth and Regeneration and the Planning Policy and Delivery Team Leader to the meeting to present the report on the Local Development Scheme and Local Plan Timetable which would be considered at Cabinet on 8 July 2021.

The Local Development Scheme (LDS) is required to set out the Council’s programme for the preparation of Local Development Documents over a three-year period to inform the public and other stakeholders about the likely dates for opportunities to get involved with the plan-making process. The current LDS was published in 2018 and set out a work programme up to the end of 2021. Whilst the timeline set out in LDS has not yet reached its conclusion, it does include for an annual review, and it was reported that the timescales for individual projects had changed sufficiently such that it was considered appropriate to publish an updated version.

The Planning Policy and Delivery Team Leader reported that the proposed LDS set out the broad timeline over a period of three years leading to a planned submission for examination in late 2024.

The Committee sought and received clarification on:

·       The role of the Local Plan Working Group in the process, which it was reported would be reconvened as part of this process and before consultation started.  It was reported that the benefits of utilising the Local Plan Working Group as a conduit for comments from councillors was that it was cross party and was more generally involved in planning policy developments.  It was noted that detailed involvement by councillors in the process was required.

·       The coverage within the process and local plans (including neighbouring plans) of HS2, as well as climate change and the role of Electric vehicles, and the requirement to future proof local homes regarding EV charging. It was noted that these detailed comments should be fed into the Local Plan Working group process for consideration.

·       The ambitious timelines set out to develop the new plan and the reasons for this, where it was reported that whilst the geographic area of Tamworth was fairly small this could facilitate shorter timelines and that additionally some evidence based work had already commenced which could be used.

RESOLVED that the Committee recommend the report to Cabinet for approval.

(Moved by Councillor Dr S Peaple and seconded by Councillor S Goodall)

The Committee thanked the Portfolio Holder, Assistant Director and Planning Policy and Delivery Team Leader for their attendance who then left the meeting.

(Discussion item – link to Forward Plan is attached)

http://democracy.tamworth.gov.uk/mgListPlans.aspx?RPId=120&RD=0&bcr=1

No further additional items were identified.

To receive updates from any Working Groups

The Chair updated the Committee as follows:

·       Fireworks – following an initial discussion with Officers, the Chair proposed that a meeting open to all members be scheduled. 

·       Events – Councillor Dr S Peaple had circulated to members a note of the working group’s meeting held in February, and it was agreed that this would not currently be a priority to progress.

(Update and discussion on the Infrastructure Safety & Growth Scrutiny Work Plan)

The Committee considered its work plan and updated it as follows:

Infrastructure, Safety and Growth Scrutiny Work Plan