Agenda and minutes

There were no apologies.

The minutes of the previous meeting held on 23 August 2022 were approved as a correct record.

(Moved by Councillor R Ford and seconded by Councillor J Harper)

Councillor S Peaple declared a non-pecuniary interest in the Future High Streets Fund Quarterly Update item, as a Director of Tamworth Co-operative Ltd.

There was no update from the Chair on any items not otherwise covered on the Agenda.

The Chair reported that at the August meeting, the Committee had considered 2 local plan related reports;

(i)            Statement of Community Involvement and Local Development Scheme Report, and

(ii)          Local Plan Issues and Options Consultation Report

The recommendations from this Committee relating to item (i) in terms of the time for / number of public speakers at Planning Committee were made and were supported by Cabinet. 

(Discussion item)

None.

(Report of the Leader of the Council)

The Chair invited the Leader of the Council and the Assistant Director, Regeneration and Growth to introduce the Net Zero Carbon – baseline report.

The Assistant Director highlighted that the baseline report had been commissioned following a competitive tender around a year ago and the Consultants were in attendance to provide an overview of the findings of the report to the meeting.

The Consultants explained the following aspects from the baseline report:

1.    Key definitions used;

2.    An overview of the declarations of net zero emissions made by local authorities across the United Kingdom

3.    The Declaration made by Tamworth Borough Council to make the Council’s activities net-zero carbon by 2050 with aspiration to achieve that by 2030 should the council be financially able to do so;

4.    The process followed by the Consultants to compile the evidence base;

5.    The areas of emissions within scope, which included council owned operational buildings, the communal areas of council owned property, relevant streetlighting, waste, the council fleet and other forms of council travel and direct emissions from specific suppliers;

6.    The process undertaken to collect the relevant data;

7.    The baseline data for 2019/20 where the two key areas identified as the largest sources of emissions were building related and related to the council waste collection service;

8.    Recommendations for improving the evidence base, in terms of collecting data from missing sources, for example working from home emissions and better seeking improved data from procurement activities.

9.    In terms of Housing, energy efficiency and decarbonisation of housing stocks was reported to be a thread of housing management over a 30 year plan, and it would be important to have projects ready to move as funding became available from central Government

10.In terms of non-domestic council building, the importance of undertaking an energy audit of the estate and to explore the building stock required.

11.In terms of business transport and travel where the core objective would be to  reduce the number and distance of such journeys and replacing short journeys with alternative methods of travel; cycle and walking and use of public transport.

12.In terms of leisure and street lighting, the programme to replace street lights with LED lights would positively impact, and whilst the council did not operate leisure services currently if it did this would tend to be a large contributor to emissions and would need to be accounted for.

13.In terms of waste this was a significant part of the carbon baseline and a shared service with Lichfield District Council and therefore recommendations would be to work jointly.  Areas to consider; the transport side looking at ultra low vehicles and ensuring any depot had the ability to charge those vehicles and to look at the location of the depot to minimise emissions to the joint service, and also to consider other areas of waste recycling which could be available.

14.In terms of procurement, to look at working with neighbouring authorities to increase purchasing power in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 46.

(Report of the Leader of the Council)

The Leader introduced the Future High Streets Fund Project Officer who provided an overview of the report which updated the Committee on the progress of the Future High Streets Fund programme.

Councillor Sheree Peaple declared a non-pecuniary interest, as a Director of Tamworth Co-operative Ltd.

The Committee commented and sought clarifications in the following areas:

1.    To understand how the team was seeking to continue to deliver the project within budget. It was reported that they would carefully scrutinise designs and if there were opportunities, through the iterative design process, to design aspects differently which could reduce costs, for instance in terms of internal layouts, whilst not impacting the overall scheme deliverables, these would be pursued.

2.    The Committee sought further reassurance and further oversight.  The Assistant Director reported that the Programme Board had the whole oversight of the project and that Board met monthly and received detailed dashboards through which all designs and cost decisions were considered.

3.    The Committee sought clarification on activities which were running concurrently and whether that affected the budget or funding from Government, if we were not ready by 2024. The Leader reported that the project remained on target to deliver the relevant aspects funded by the Government on schedule noting that work in the town centre would continue beyond 2024 which was not funded by Government but funded by the Council. The Assistant Director further reported that it was now that the project was in RIBA stage 3 that detailed costings were becoming clearer.

4.    The timeline for works in Middle Entry and the demolition to start and how this would affect the businesses in Middle Entry.  It was reported that some of the assets remained in the ownership of Peer Group and that some aspects were in the Council’s ownership and it was therefore possible that works would be undertaken at different times.  However, the logistics had not yet been detailed in this area, but the aim would be to minimise the impact on local businesses.

5.    The retention of the heritage parts of the Co-operative building, where it was confirmed that the heritage features were to be retained and it was hoped that additional features would be revealed through the works.

RESOLVED that the report be endorsed.

(Moved by Councillor S Goodall and seconded by Councillor P Turner)

The Committee thanked the Leader and Officers 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 items were identified for the Committee’s consideration at this time.

To receive updates from any Working Groups

It was agreed that the Committee would receive an update from the Transport Integration working group at its next meeting.  Councillor M Cook offered to join the working group.  The Committee supported further work being undertaken by the working group in this area and noted that there were multiple forms of transport and transport providers in the locality.

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

The Committee updated its work plan as follows:

Infrastructure, Safety and Growth Scrutiny Work Plan