Minutes of a meeting of the Environment and Transport Overview and Scrutiny Committee held at County Hall, Glenfield on Thursday, 9 June 2016. PRESENT Mr. I. E. G. Bentley CC Mr. D. Jennings CC Mr. D. C. Bill MBE CC Mr. A. E. Pearson CC Mr. G. A. Boulter CC Mr. S. D. Sheahan CC Mr. J. G. Coxon CC Mr. D. A. Sprason CC Mr. S. J. Hampson CC In attendance. Mr. P. Osborne CC, Lead Member for Highways and Transport, Flooding (minutes 11 – 15 refer). 1. Appointment of Chairman. RESOLVED: That Mr. D. Jennings CC be appointed Chairman of the Environment and Transport Overview and Scrutiny Committee for the period ending with the date of the Annual Meeting of the County Council in 2017. (Mr. D. Jennings CC in the Chair) 2. Election of Deputy Chairman. RESOLVED: That Mr. D. C. Bill MBE CC be elected Deputy Chairman of the Environment and Transport Overview and Scrutiny Committee for the period ending with the date of the Annual Meeting of the County Council in 2017. 3. Minutes of the meeting held on 7 April 2016. The minutes of the meeting held on 7 April 2016 were taken as read, confirmed and signed. 4. Question Time. The Chief Executive reported that no questions had been received under Standing Order 35. 5. Questions asked by members under Standing Order 7(3) and 7(5). The Chief Executive reported that no questions had been received under Standing Order 7(3) and 7(5). 2 6. Urgent items. There were no urgent items for consideration. 7. Declarations of interest. The Chairman invited members who wished to do so to declare any interest in respect of items on the agenda for the meeting. Mr. S. Sheahan CC and Mr. J. Coxon CC each declared a personal interest in regard to item 12 on the agenda, ‘Draft Rail Strategy for Leicester and Leicestershire’ as they owned property within close proximity of the proposed HS2 route. Both members stated that, should the debate on this item go into matters of detail regarding the location of the HS2 line, they would consider the matter a “personal interest that may lead to bias” and leave the room. 8. Declarations of the Party Whip. There were no declarations of the party whip. 9. Presentation of Petitions under Standing Order 36. The Chief Executive reported that no petitions had been received under Standing Order 36. 10. Recycling and Household Waste Site Commissioning Options. The Committee considered a report of the Director of Environment and Transport setting out the future commissioning approach to delivering 13 of the 14 Recycling and Household Waste Sites in the County. The report was to be considered by the Cabinet at its meeting on 17 June. A copy of the report, marked ‘Agenda Item 10’, is filed with these minutes. The Director introduced the report by stating that the current contract with Environmental Waste Controls (EWC) had been in place since July 2006 and was scheduled to expire in 2017. The Department had considered a number of options beyond this point including re-tendering the contract and insourcing the service. The Director was recommending to the Cabinet that insourcing be pursued as it enabled the Department to realise savings of £290,000 of the £400,000 MTFS savings target without significantly impacting the service received by the public. The Committee had received a letter from Mark Allen of EWC regarding the proposals and the Department had issued a response which the Chairman read out for the benefit of members. A copy of the letter and the Department’s response is filed with these minutes. Arising from discussion the following points were raised: (i). The extent to which commercial approaches to waste management were taken varied significantly across the country. Members were advised that by bringing the service in-house there would be little to no change for the public whilst at the same time building in the increased flexibility that outsourcing would not provide; 3 (ii). In response to concerns raised around the risks associated with bringing the service in-house the Director reported that the Department had sufficient knowledge and the expertise to mitigate these risks having merged in house services for highways; (iii). In response to a suggestion for further consideration of operating the service on a more commercial basis the Director reported that, whilst the Council was increasingly looking to adopt a more commercial approach to some of its services, it was his view that this was not the right service to run on this basis at this time; (iv). The Whetstone and Loughborough Waste Transfer Stations were out of scope of the report as these fell under separate budget lines, and involved much more significant bulk haulage of waste; (v). If approved, the recommendations would delegate authority to officers to bring the service in-house. However this would only proceed if the independent peer review process viewed the proposals as favourable for the Council. Whilst there had been no requirement to consult EWC on the proposals, it was suggested that they should submit any relevant information which they felt would inform the peer review process; (vi). If the Service was to be brought in-house, job losses would be minimised as EWC’s operational staff would be able to TUPE transfer to the County Council. RESOLVED: a) That the intention to insource the Recycling and Household Waste Service as detailed in paragraphs 48 to 53 of the report be supported; b) That the comments of the Committee be forwarded to the Cabinet for consideration at its meeting on the 17th June. 11. Quarter 4 Performance Report. The Committee considered a joint report of the Chief Executive and Director of Environment and Transport outlining the quarter four performance results for the Environment and Transport Department. A copy of the report, marked ‘Agenda Item 11’, is filed with these minutes. Arising from discussion the following points were raised:- (i). As the performance for internal recycling rates at the County Council had continued to be poor, the Department had continued to work at the areas where performance was at its lowest. As the Committee had been advised at a previous meeting, performance at County Hall remained to be good and the under- performance was found at other Council buildings; (ii). The rollout of LED lighting across the County had been delayed due to an issue involving the IT systems required for managing the new lighting systems. However this issue had now been resolved and the Department was now slightly ahead of its target for implementation of LED lighting; 4 (iii). Members expressed concern over the red rating for those killed or seriously injured on Leicestershire’s highways, stating that this had now been an issue for a sustained period of time. In response officers advised that there had been improvements to road casualty rates over the last 15 years largely as a result of improvements to car safety technology and that, as these improvements had now plateaued somewhat, it was becoming increasingly difficult to further reduce road casualties. Furthermore, increased economic growth meant that there was more traffic on the roads and, as this was likely to continue to be the case, the Department’s target to reduce road casualties by 40% was being reviewed. A report would be brought to the Committee later in the year on the Road Safety Partnership which may address this issue; (iv). Arising from queries from members, the Committee was advised that the police were not consulted on highway improvement schemes as specialist safety auditors were experts in this area. RESOLVED: That the contents of the Quarter 4 Performance Report be noted. 12. Draft Rail Strategy for Leicester and Leicestershire. The Committee considered a report of the Director of Environment and Transport Department outlining the draft Rail Strategy for Leicester and Leicestershire. A copy of the report, marked ‘Agenda Item 12’, is filed with these minutes. The Director reported that there were four key priorities outlined in the Strategy for Leicester and Leicestershire to focus on. These were: to maximise the benefits from the midland Mainline Services; to achieve the best results for Leicestershire from Phase 2 of HS2; to improve connectivity in the region and to national destinations; and to ensure that rail access and economic development were planned together. The Committee was being asked to comment on these priorities as part of the consultation process. In January 2014 the Cabinet outlined its position with regard to HS2. In the Autumn Statement it was announced that the East Midlands Hub would be located at Toton as suggested by the County Council in its consultation response. Arising from discussion the following points were made:- (i). Members welcomed the outcome from changes to the HS2 route announced in the Autumn Statement which would allow Leicester to be directly linked to the high- speed line via the Midland Mainline. The line would link up at the East Midlands Hub to be based at Toton; (ii). Concern was expressed that the report made little reference to Hinckley station which officers agreed to rectify. A bid had been submitted to the Leicester and Leicestershire Economic Partnership for the ‘Nuckle’ project which aimed to enhance services along the Leicester to Birmingham line. It was hoped that this project would enable a service from Leicester to Coventry to be opened which would subsequently contribute to a half-hourly service through Hinckley; (iii). Concern was expressed that there was no direct reference to South Wigston Station in the Strategy. Accordingly, officers agreed to include reference to the 5 ways in which South Wigston Station would benefit from the planned enhancements as part of the ‘Nuckle’ project in the final version of the Strategy.