Venue: Council Chamber, Arun Civic Centre, Maltravers Road, Littlehampton, BN17 5LF. View directions
Contact: Helen Burt
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Apologies Minutes: Apologies for absence had been received from Councillors Blanchard-Cooper and Greenway.
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Declarations of Interest Members and Officers are invited to make any declaration of pecuniary, personal and/or prejudicial interests that they may have in relation to items on this agenda, and are reminded that they should re-declare their interest before consideration of the items or as soon as the interest becomes apparent.
Members and Officers should make their declaration by stating:
a) the item they have the interest in b) whether it is a pecuniary/personal interest and/or prejudicial interest c) the nature of the interest
Minutes: There were no declarations of interest.
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The Committee will be asked to approve as a correct record the Minutes of the Environment Committee held on 20 June 2024. Minutes: The Minutes of the meeting held on 20 June 2024 were approved by the Committee. These would be signed after the meeting.
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ITEMS NOT ON THE AGENDA THAT THE CHAIRMAN OF THE MEETING IS OF THE OPINION SHOULD BE CONSIDERED AS A MATTER OF URGENCY BY REASON OF SPECIAL CIRCUMSTANCES Minutes: The Chair explained to Committee that due to a Member request, she wished to make a change to the published order of the agenda, by moving agenda Item 11 [2 Hour Town Centre Parking Schemes] to before Item 7 [Draft Final Out-Turn – 2023/24]. The Committee approved this change by a show of hands.
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Public Question Time To receive questions from the public (for a period of up to 15 minutes)
Minutes: No public questions had been submitted for this meeting.
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Combined Cleansing Services Contract Overview and Performance Update This report will provide Members of the Environment Committee with an update in respect of the Council’s Combined Cleansing Services Contract over the past twelve months and will include a presentation from the Council’s incumbent contractor Biffa. [25 Minutes] Additional documents: Minutes: The Chair welcomed Steve Usher, Senior Business Manager from Biffa, who was in attendance virtually, to the meeting.
Upon the invitation of the Chair, the Environmental Services & Strategy Manager presented the report, which provided an update in respect of the Council’s Combined Cleansing Services Contract over the past twelve months. He highlighted that an in-cab technology solution, provided by Biffa, enabled real-time updates from the crew on work progress and allowed for the easy recording of why a collection may have not been able to take place, which had improved service efficiency. He also highlighted the consistently high performance in relation to missed bin figures.
The Senior Business Manager from Biffa then delivered his presentation to Members [available to view on the Arun District Council Environment Committee web pages] which covered the following:
Members then took part in a question and answer session and the following points were raised:
The Committee noted the contents of the report and the presentation provided by the Council’s incumbent contractor, Biffa.
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Two Hour Town Centre Parking Schemes The Council operates separate 2-hour parking schemes in Littlehampton and Bognor Regis with aim of supporting town centre footfall, though there is a lack of robust evidence to link such schemes with footfall. The current 2-hour parking schemes in Bognor Regis and Littlehampton town centres both expire at the end of 2024. This report sets out proposals to continue 2-hour parking schemes in each town centre beyond 2024, following recommendations by the Free Parking Scheme Review Working Party. [15 Minutes]
Additional documents:
Minutes: Upon the invitation of the Chair, the Group Head of Technical Services presented the report. At its meeting on 7 September 2023, the Environment Committee resolved to establish a Working Party to comprehensively review the free parking schemes and report its recommendations to the Committee. The membership of the Working Party was made up of the Chair of the Environment Committee plus four other members of the Committee, two named representatives from each of Littlehampton and Bognor Regis Town Councils, a named representative of the Bognor Regis Business Improvement District (BID) and a named representative of Littlehampton traders. At the first meeting of the Working Party members received an Officer presentation on the current scheme, including limitations, and also agreed the Terms of Reference and Objectives of the Working Party. Members of the Working Party had been asked to submit proposals for discussion at the second meeting. A wide range of ideas had been submitted by two members, which were appraised, debated and shortlisted at the second meeting. The Working Party had recognised the significant advantages of a virtual disc over a physical disc, however recognised some people may not be ready for this transition, so recommended the physical disc should remain available at a higher price than the virtual disc, which would help to incentivise the transition.
At the third meeting, the Working Party made a recommendation to the Environment Committee which was ‘A single disc that covers both Bognor Regis and Littlehampton town centre car parks, using Option B, a hybrid scheme of both physical and virtual discs, with the virtual discs costing less for the end users to purchase than the physical discs. The costs of these to be decided by the Environment Committee, guided by the outcome of public consultation.’
As requested at the final meeting of the Working Party, public consultation had been carried out, which had received 338 responses. The mean average response to the question around what people felt represented good value was £8.44 for the virtual disc, and £9.74 for the physical disc, however there were three high responses which distorted this. The median average had therefore also been calculated which was £3 for both virtual and physical discs.
The recommendation to Committee was that the virtual disc continue to be £3, but the physical disc be priced at £10. This took into account the consultation responses, but that people may have understated what they considered to be good value; that the disc would now cover two towns, whereas they only covered one under the current scheme; the recommendation of the Working Party that there be price differential sufficient to encourage buyer behaviour towards the app; it also took account of the high production and admin costs of the physical discs, and the need to attenuate the parking revenue losses the Council incurs. The scheme remained exceptional value.
The Group Head of Technical Services explained to Members that despite a number of research papers being produced in the UK, there was a ... view the full minutes text for item 217. |
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Draft Final Out-turn - 2023/24 The report sets out in further detail the Committee’s revenue and capital programme draft final out-turn position for the 2023/24 financial year and compares this expenditure against the approved budget. [10 Minutes]
Minutes: Upon the invitation of the Chair, the Group Head of Finance and Section 151 Officer presented the report, the purpose of which was to appraise the Environment Committee of its draft 2023/24 final out-turn, subject to external audit, against the 2023/24 budgets approved by Full Council at its meeting of 9 March 2023. There was an underspend of £956k, which was a positive shift of £617k from the £339k underspend reported in Quarter 3. The reasons for this were outlined in paragraphs 4.3 – 4.8. The Capital Programme showed an underspend, however the majority of this would be carried forward to the following year as slippage.
Members then had an opportunity to ask questions. Clarification was requested on ‘£258k overspend relating to specialist fee expenditure on the Keystone Centre’ in paragraph 4.7. The Group Head of Finance and Section 151 Officer explained this needed to be read in conjunction with paragraph 4.5 that referred to a £250k variance on the Keystone Centre. He explained this related to a grant payment of £250k to Littlehampton Town Council, which was effectively revenue costs, funded by capital resources. Both £250k figures offset one another in the revenue budget.
Paragraph 4.4 stated £385k of salary savings were due to unfilled staff vacancies, and it was asked whether these positions would be filled. Officers confirmed they were trying to fill those vacancies.
The Committee noted the report. |
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Budget Monitoring report to 30 June 2024 The report sets out in further detail the Committee’s revenue and capital programme budget performance projections to the 31 March 2025. [10 Minutes]
Minutes: Upon the invitation of the Chair, the Group Head of Finance and Section 151 Officer presented the report. The Quarter 1 forecast anticipated an underspend of £11k. He drew Members’ attention to Table 2 in paragraph 4.2. He drew Members’ attention to Table 3 in paragraph 4.6, and explained that whilst there appeared to be an overspend under Improvement & Discretionary Grants, this was not actually the case, as additional funding had been allocated from West Sussex County Council, so whilst more would be spent than budgeted for, more funding had been received.
Members then took part in a question and answer session and the following points were raised:
The Committee noted the report.
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Budget 2025/26 Process The report provides a summary of the budget process for 2025/26 for Members’ consideration and approval, noting that it was approved by the Policy & Finance Committee on 9 July 2024. It is expected that the budget process will be supported by ad hoc briefings to Members as and when necessary. [5 Minutes]
Minutes: Upon the invitation of the Chair, the Group Head of Finance and Section 151 Officer presented the report, which provided a summary of the budget process for 2025/26 for Members ‘consideration and approval, noting that it was approved by the Policy & Finance Committee on 9 July 2024. It was expected that the budget process would be supported by ad hoc briefings to Members as and when necessary.
There were no questions from Members.
The Committee noted the report.
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River Road Car Park Review Ongoing review of the Council’s Car Park assets and charging structure in accordance with the Off-Street Parking Strategy and associated Action Plan. [20 Minutes]
Additional documents:
Minutes: Upon the invitation of the Chair, the Group Head of Technical Services presented the report. River Road car park in Arundel had 14 spaces, and was around 50 metres from the larger Crown Yard Car Park. Prior to the closure, River Road car park operated as a seasonal permit car park only. It closed on 31 July 2023 to provide full access to the Environment Agency to enable them to carry out repairs to the river wall as part of the flood defence work. The Environment Agency had indicated that they expected to retain occupation of the car park until approximately mid-September 2024. In accordance with the Council’s financial and car parking strategies, Officers had undertaken a review of its use. It had been identified that as a result of operating for seasonal permit use only, River Road car park generated just 7.6% income per bay of the neighbouring Crown Yard pay & display car park for the same period. A series of options had been consulted upon, and the Officer recommendation was to introduce a combination of both pay & display and leased bays, with effect from when the Environment Agency vacated the site. 10 spaces within the car park would become pay & display, while 4 spaces would be offered for lease.
The Item had been deferred from the previous meeting to allow Members to visit the car park and look at the concerns raised by Arundel Town Council, which were around making the road dangerous. The highway authority had been consulted and did not raise any objections. Arundel Town Council had also raised concerns about the estimates for the income from the lease of bays being unrealistic, however Officers felt the only way to determine what was achievable was to test the market. This option was expected to increase revenue from £2k to over £30k, and was considered to strike a balance between the needs of the residents and visitors to the town.
The recommendations were proposed by Councillor Huntley and seconded by Councillor Bower.
Members then took part in a debate and the following points were raised:
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A report was taken to Full Council on 8 Nov 2023 following Storm Ciaran. The event followed unprecedented rainfall in October 2023 and resulted in flooding across the District. Full Council recognised the impacts on business and residents agreeing that the Environment Committee should establish a Forum to review the incident, to investigate and consider the contributing factors, impacts and possible solutions.
This report seeks to update the Committee following the third meeting of Arun Flood Forum, held on the 5 August 2024. [15 Minutes]
Additional documents:
Minutes: Upon the invitation of the Chair, the Flooding and Coastal Engineering Manager presented the report, which provided an update to Committee following the third meeting of the Arun Flood Forum held on 05 August 2024. He explained that following a round of introductions, each authority provided updates against the previous meetings actions. The Forum had then been presented with a cross organisation presentation featuring information from the Environment Agency, Southern Water, Arun District Council and West Sussex County Council. The Chair had then invited representatives of Flood Avoidance Community Taskforce (FACT) to provide an update on their work. A copy of the presentation and minutes of the meeting were attached to the Environment Committee agenda pack. The Flooding and Coastal Engineering Manager also highlighted that Committee were asked to note the proposed changes to the town and parish council representation on the Flood Forum in future.
Members then took part in a question and answer session and the following points were raised:
The Committee noted the report.
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Additional documents: Minutes: Upon the invitation of the Chair, the Group Head of Environment and Climate Change presented the report, which set out the performance of the Key Performance Indicators at Quarter 1 for the period 1 April 2024 to 30 June 2024.
The recommendations were proposed by Councillor Huntley and seconded by Councillor Worne.
The Chair invited debate and one Member stated they were concerned about the recommended removal of CP37, CP38, CP39 and CP40 from the KPI list for Environment Committee, as believed these to be badly performing. The Group Head of Technical Services did not believe these to be poor performing. He explained there had been difficulties recruiting a qualified building control surveyor, however this vacancy had now been filled. Through the remarkable efforts of the team, the next day inspection target was still achieving 97%. CP39 was currently showing as red, however he believed this to be the least impactive of them. The Member accepted this.
Having noted the contents of the report
The Committee
RECOMMEND THE POLICY & FINANCE COMMITTEE that
1. that the removal of CP37, CP38, CP39 and CP40 from the KPI list for Environment Committee (para 4.8), be approved
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Outside Bodies Minutes: Cllr Wallsgrove gave an update on the last meeting of the Sussex Bay Restoration Project which took place on 13 June 2024 [A copy of the full report has been uploaded to the Environment Committee pages of the Arun District Council website]. |
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The Committee is required to note the Work Programme for 2024/25. [5 Minutes]
Minutes: Upon the invitation of the Chair, the Group Head of Technical Services presented the Work Programme, explaining that after publication of the agenda, the Economy Committee had made a recommendation to the Environment Committee around Beach Access, which would be brought to the next meeting.
Members were invited to ask questions. It was asked that documentation explaining why a site visit of the Ferring Rife car park would be taking place early the following year, be provided to Ward Members. The Group Head of Technical Services explained a full briefing would be provided to Ward Members nearer the time, and this was currently ongoing work.
The Group Head of Finance and Section 151 Officer confirmed the ‘Budget Monitoring Report September 2024’ would be added to the Work Programme for November, and the ‘Budget Monitoring Report December 2024’ and the ‘2025/26 Budget Proposals Report’ to the January 2025 meeting.
The Committee noted the Work Programme.
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