To receive verbal updates from the Cabinet Members for Community Services and Environment &Transport and the Corporate Director, Growth, Environment & Transport on the following:
· Highway Operations
· New HWRC and Transfer Station Contracts
· Redevelopment of Sittingbourne HWRC and Transfer Station
· Waste Tonnages
· Sustainability
· Transport Strategy
· Old Chalk New Downs
· Public Rights of Way
· Trading Standards
Minutes:
Community Services
(1) The Cabinet Member for Community Services began his update by reporting to the Committee that the Leader has decided to move Trading Standards and the Coroners into his portfolio. These services had a very a strong synergy with Community Safety which was already in the portfolio and the three formed a very sensible block.
Trading Standards
· A number of highly targeted campaigns were currently running protecting consumers and supporting legitimate businesses:
1) ‘Stop the Scammers’ campaign. KCC had visited over 400 chronic scam victims in Canterbury and Thanet and provided them with help and ongoing support. The campaign would soon be moving into new areas – Dover, Shepway, Sevenoaks and Tonbridge & Malling where KCC had intelligence on major scams.
2) Second Hand Cars campaign. Second hand cars were the most complained about consumer product in Kent. A list of around 4,000 consumers who regularly buy second hand cars had received advice, and car dealers had been inspected and provided with information to give to customers. One dealer had said he thought KCC’s leaflet was “…one of the best and simplest thing that had come from Trading Standards in recent years…”.
3) Rogue Traders. Trading Standards were now having a big impact on rogue traders in Kent.
o The No Rogue Trader Campaign had used intelligence to target 34,000 households in areas where rogue traders are known to operate.
o KCC’s new Fair Trader Scheme had launched in partnership with Checkatrade.com. Following the launch on the 27 November consumers in Kent had over 1,000 ‘Trading Standards approved’ traders (builders, plumbers etc.) to choose from, protected by the fact that they had passed rigorous intelligence and criminal checks by KCC Trading Standards.
(2) The Cabinet Member for Environment and Transport gave Members updates on the following:
Highways & Transportation
Highway Operations
· All Parish Seminars had taken place and had generally been well received by all who attended. The main themes of these seminars had been budget savings, the impact of the weather on highway repairs, winter service, fly-tipping on the highway and highway drainage and flooding.
· Pothole Grant funding spend on highway repairs continued. A number of resurfacing projects would be delivered in the early spring programme through the re-surfacing contract with all grant funding to be spent by 31 March 2015.
· Pothole numbers remained low and at expected levels for the time of year.
· District teams continued to have additional pressure due to overgrowth enquiries which could be time consuming.
· Highway safety inspections were being fully undertaken and low numbers of enquiries for insurance claim forms continued.
· The winter service policy had been signed off for the year and all winter service preparations had been completed. KCC were fully stocked with salt and the campaign for the year “we are prepared…are you?” was under way.
· The Highways out of hours emergency on call team was now back up to full strength for the winter following the reduced numbers of staff who were on call throughout the summer months.
Waste
New HWRC and Transfer Station Contracts
· The new Household Waste Recycling Centre and Transfer Station contracts with Biffa Municipal commenced on the 1 November. The contracts include the operation of 12 of KCC’s portfolio of 18 waste facilities, and were spread across the mid and east Kent areas.
· The contracts represent a significant development on previous arrangements, with much of the risk of fluctuation in materials markets now carried by the contractor, together with a strong emphasis upon innovation and customer care.
· The contracts would also deliver substantial revenue savings over their initial six year term. Negotiations were taking place with providers of the remaining six sites with a view to recreating some of the benefits of the new contracts, particularly in relation to customer care and risk management, across all sites.
Redevelopment of Sittingbourne HWRC and Transfer Station
· Consultancy services for the design and build of the first phase of this redevelopment had been commissioned. This phase included improving the road access to the site, and in particular enlarging the access through the scenic railway bridge in order to enable the full range of waste transport vehicles to service the site.
· This phase of the works was anticipated to be completed in the financial year 2014-15, with the full redevelopment works completed in 2015-16. Once complete, the works would enable a separation of public and commercial traffic, allow for the acceptance of a full range of materials for recycling and composting from Swale Borough Council, and offer potential to increase the generation of income through an improved trade waste offer.
Waste Tonnages
· Waste tonnages had shown a significant increase in this financial year. This increase, which was reflected across the country, was due to the combination of an improved economic climate, and the unusual weather conditions which had enabled significant growth of vegetation for each month of the year.
· Pleasingly, the recycling and composting arrangements in place had more than kept up with this growth, with recycling still running ahead of target. However, there had been a significant financial impact on the increase in waste volume; although this had been in part offset by the significant savings on contracts recently procured for waste facilities, organic waste, and dry recyclable materials.
(3) The Corporate Director, Growth, Environment and Transport gave Members updates on the following:
Environment, Planning & Enforcement
Old Chalk New Downs
· A partnership between Kent County Council, the Kent Wildlife Trust, the Countryside Management Partnerships, Kent & Medway Biological Records Centre, Tonbridge & Malling, Gravesham and Medway Councils, had recently been awarded £1.3 million by the Heritage Lottery Fund to increase habitat connectivity at landscape scale between Kemsing Down and Detling Hill.
· This project would focus on chalk grassland and other downland habitats and increase their size and condition. Habitats would be restored in locations where they historically existed and links made between existing habitats patches through the establishing of habitat corridors. The project aims to not only improve quality habitat for species movement and spread, but also in the restoration of the connection between people and their landscape.
Public Rights of Way
· The annual report for PROW showed some of the impressive work carried out by this popular service last year. A few highlights from the report include:
Ø Over 807,000 metres of paths cleared for use
Ø 6,540 faults on the network resolved
Ø 706 planning applications responded to in order to ensure that the public’s right to walk and cycle in the countryside was not lost, and in many cases improved.
· Members can find out more about the service in the Countryside Access Improvement Plan found on the KCC website.