Agenda and minutes

It was proposed and seconded that Councillor Nigel Smith be reappointed as Chair of the Economy and Place Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

RESOLVED-

That Councillor Nigel Smith be re-appointed as Chair of the Economy and Place Overview and Scrutiny Committee for 2018/2019.

It was proposed and seconded that Councillor Samantha Cotton be reappointed as Vice-Chair of the Economy and Place Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

RESOLVED-

That Councillor Samantha Cotton be re-appointed as Vice-Chair of the Economy and Place Overview and Scrutiny Committee for 2018/2019.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Sue Lloyd Williams and Ronnie Hughes.

None.

None.

None received.

The Head of Regulatory and Housing Services, together with the Public Protection Manager, presented a report outlining the current environmental enforcement arrangements , and options going forward, in relation to the environmental enforcement contract extension.

As a responsible Local Authority, Conwy County Borough Council (CCBC) took its duties, to help ensure a clean and attractive environment, seriously and as a consequence, promotional and prevention work took place, together with   robust environmental enforcement to prevent and reduce littering, dog fouling and other actions caused by irresponsible dog ownership.

Since 2014, CCBC had worked with Kingdom Security Ltd to undertake such environmental enforcement. In 2016, a 2 year contract, extendable by a year, was entered into with Kingdom.  The 1 year extension being due to commence on 10 August, 2018.

Public interest in the local environmental quality was high, and complaints about littering and dog fouling had consistently been in the top 5 received by the Council.  Littering and dog fouling cost CCBC over £2m annually to clean the County’s open spaces.

The aim of the environmental enforcement work undertaken by Kingdom was deterrence, as solely warning or advising people that they had offended, with no penalty being attached, was not an effective or sustainable prevention approach. More likely to work, and a commonly used model, was the promotional preventative work, undertaken through Regulatory Services “Keep it Clean: No Messing” campaign, coupled with an effective penalty if offences were committed. 

Since the service had been undertaking such an approach, and working with Kingdom, CCBC’s local environment had become cleaner, as evidenced by the Keep Wales Tidy Street Cleanliness Surveys.    Since 2014, Conwy’s Street Cleanliness Indicator had increased from just under 70 to over 72 in 2017/18 (The Wales average was 69.2); similarly, over the same period, the percentage of Conwy’s streets with dog fouling present on them had reduced from nearly 20% to 5% (2017/18 Wales average being 8.6%).

In addition, the service had undertaken a number of surveys over the years (attached as Appendix 2 of the report). In the most recent survey (2017 summer months), 98.5% of the public surveyed supported a strong stance on enforcement.

The following options were available to Members for consideration:

·         Extend the contract for a further year from 10 August, 2018.  This would enable time for the Council to consider and decide on any alternative environmental enforcement options available, and enable environmental enforcement work to continue in the meantime, at no cost to the Council. The Council would continue to work with Kingdom to mitigate any concerns/difficulties reported by some members of the public.

·         Do not extend the contract. Environmental enforcement would then cease and there would be no income to set against enforcement costs or which could be used for effective prevention and promotion work.  A legitimate tool, which could be deployed in response to the considerable numbers of littering, dog fouling and irresponsible dog ownership complaints received would not be available. In addition there would be a £200k shortfall in the Regulatory  ...  view the full minutes text for item 138.

The Head of Law and Governance presented the Growth Vision and Strategy for the Economy of North Wales: Governance Agreement for the first stage of regional working for scrutiny and approval.

Cabinet approved the Growth Vision for the Economy of North Wales in October 2016. The vision set out a collective and strategic ambition for North Wales for infrastructure development, skills and employment, and business growth.  The Cabinets of the other five partner Councils in the region similarly adopted the strategy.

North Wales was subsequently formally invited to develop the strategy into a Growth Deal Bid for national investment and the conferment of powers to the region by the UK and Welsh Governments.  At the time a statutory Joint Committee model was adopted, by all partners, as the preferred one for governance of work on the Bid.

Members were informed that a Governance Agreement was required to formalise the constitutional arrangements and confer decision-making powers to the Board within prescribed limits. The Board had two stages of Bid development to manage. The first stage, leading to the agreement of a Growth Deal with Governments, was the Bid preparatory and development stage that would run until mid-2019.

The second stage, post agreement of the Bid, which would run from mid-2019, would be the Bid implementation and delivery stage. There would be a second Governance Agreement to cover this stage.

The report did not attempt to present the content of the developing Growth Deal Bid in depth, as its prime purpose was to present the Governance Agreement for adoption.   Members were informed that the Economic Ambition Board would be agreeing a Strategic Proposition for the Bid at its next meeting (15 July, 2018), which, once finalised, would be made available to the memberships of the partner bodies. All six Councils were being encouraged to hold internal briefings with their Members to both keep them up to date with developments and to take their views as part of ongoing consultation and engagement

Whilst Members were supportive of the Growth Vision and Strategy for the Economy of North Wales: Governance Agreement, some concern was expressed regarding the recent Welsh Government statement not to move forward with the proposed Swansea Bay Tidal Power Lagoon and questioned, if such a decision could impact upon the proposed Colwyn Bay Tidal Lagoon project.  In response, the Strategic Director – Economy and Place assured Members that there was continuing consultation across sectors in the development of the Bid, together with  priority programmes and projects, which might qualify for support.  The statement concerning the Swansea Lagoon project did not necessarily mean that the North Wales project could not be pursued.  The scheme was considered credible and it was hoped a statement of support from the North Wales Ambition Board would be released in due course.

A further report on the Bid implementation and delivery stage would be presented to Overview and Scrutiny in a couple of months.

Members welcomed the update and requested that they be kept up to date  ...  view the full minutes text for item 139.