PERFORMANCE AND OVERVIEW COMMITTEE

LOCAL ECONOMY & ENVIRONMENT

RECORD OF MEETING HELD ON 17^TH OCTOBER 2006      

Present: 

Councillor S Roberts (Chair); Councillors D N Bebbington, P K Butterill, R Cartlidge, A Crawford, P A Hallett, M A Hollins, A C Johnson, A Moran, R Stafford and L T Wood     

Officers in attendance (for whole or part):       

P Ancell           Executive Director, Environment and Development

D Moulson       Democratic Services Officer

Apologies:      Councillor S J S Mottram   

27.         DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

No Member declared any personal or prejudicial interest in respect of any item of business on the agenda.    

28.         RECORD OF MEETING

AGREED: That the record of the meeting held on 25^th July 2006 be approved as correct.       

29.         WHIPPING DECLARATIONS

In accordance with Paragraph 18 of the Performance and Overview Procedure Rules, Members were invited to declare in respect of items where the whip had been applied.  No such declarations were made. 

30.         REFERRALS FROM THE BOARD/COUNCIL     

The Committee noted that there were no referrals from the Board or Council.  

31.         RESPONSE FROM THE BOARD   

31.1  Stapeley Water Gardens – Development Brief                   

At its meeting on 25^th July 2006, the Committee had considered the report of the Executive Director Environment & Development regarding Stapeley Water Gardens Development Brief. 

Members had expressed concern about the proposed access from London Road for the residential element of the development and had supported the Board’s request to investigate an alternative access with the Highways Authority.                     

Subsequent to the issue of the report to the Board, a further revision had been proposed to provide a single access for the whole site from Peter de Stapleigh Way with the existing access from London Road being closed.  Cheshire County Council Area Highways Office had approved this, in principle. 

The decision of the Board (No.44) was to formally adopt the Development Brief as a Supplementary Planning Document, as amended at the meeting. 

32.         BOARD REPORTS

The Committee considered the following report which the Board would consider at its meeting on 19^th October 2006:

Borough of Crewe and Nantwich Local Development Scheme (LDS) - First Review    

The Local Development Scheme (LDS) for Crewe and Nantwich had been approved by the Board in 2005 and the report outlined proposed changes to the document arising from the first review.   

The Executive Director Environment & Development drew Members’ attention to Table 1 in the LDS which listed a number of key documents; the first four (which had been prepared) constituting the core of the Local Plan, with the remaining six to be drawn up as supplementary planning guidance.  It was noted that the drawing up of the documents would present a challenging timetable for officers.         

The Committee commented as follows -     

Ø            Wildlife corridors and conservation areas should be included in the open space document with connecting green corridors a key theme     

Ø            Large housing areas identified in the Local Plan should be monitored to ensure that the number of dwellings agreed were provided

Ø            Clarification needed to be given as to what constituted windfall sites, backland sites and tandem developments

Ø            Guidance on affordable housing should be robust enough to ensure it could be applied successfully to developers

33.         FORWARD PLAN OF BOARD DECISIONS                             

The Committee received the Board’s Forward Plan for 30^th November 2006, 4^th and 11^th January 2007 and 8^th February 2007.           

34.                  PERFORMANCE MONITORING

The report submitted to the Committee provided service performance information on the agreed basket of Key National Performance Indicators for the period April – June 2006.

35.                  VACANCY MANAGEMENT - MONITORING 

At its meeting on 13^th June 2006, the Committee had requested to receive regular updates on the decisions on the Vacancy Panel in relation to those posts falling under the Committee’s areas of responsibility.  The first of these reports had been included on the agenda. 

In supporting the methodology of the management process, a Member stated that, in his opinion, the potential for saving money by leaving posts unfilled was an underlying factor which was driving the process and should be identified.  He requested that details be provided as part of the report as to the length of time a post had remained vacant for and whether any savings had accrued during this period.  This would identify whether gains were being achieved over the short or long term, although consideration would need to be given as to whether this had been offset by the need to pay overtime or honorariums to staff covering the vacant post.                      

AGREED: 

a) a report on options for filling the post of Tourism Officer be submitted to the Committee; and

b) additional information as outlined above be included on the schedule submitted to the Committee. 

36.                  OPEN SPACE REVIEW – PRESENTATION BY COUNCILLOR R CARTLIDGE

Councillor Roy Cartlidge, Shadow Portfolio Holder for the Local Environment presented to the Committee the findings from various stakeholders meetings held to consider Open Space: Vision of the Future – a report drawn up by the Labour Group to complement the open space review being undertaken by the Council.    

Councillor Cartlidge reported that the events had been well attended with a number of issues (business, tourism, conservation) being discussed, the responses received having been set out in the report.  He cautioned that as there were a number of strategies and documents which explored the issue of open space, it would be important for the Council to adopt a cohesive approach to the subject to ensure that any potential for improvement was not lost through fragmentation. 

Members’ attention was drawn to The Commons Act 2006 which had come into force after the report had been published.  The Act would have an impact on the Open Space Review and Councillor Cartlidge suggested that the Committee might wish to examine the implications of the Act in more detail.  

The Committee commented on the strength of feeling and sense of involvement expressed by the public in the report and considered that the Board should be made aware of the responses received.       

AGREED: That the summary document from the Open Space: Vision for the Future launch event held on 21^st August 2006 be submitted to the Board for consideration and comment on the recommendations contained within.       

37.                  WORK PROGRAMME – TASK GROUP UPDATE

The Committee received updates from two of its Task Groups - Affordable Housing and Town Centres Car Parks.  

37.1         Affordable Housing

Councillor Margaret Hollins spoke on the Task Group’s behalf.

The Affordable Housing Task Group had met on several occasions over the last 2-3 months and had considered four key areas relating to affordable housing:

Ø        Effectiveness of current policy

Ø        Housing Needs Survey and changes required to respond to the document i.e. guidance to developers, policy on disposal of land, policy on commuted sums, preferred partners

Ø        Role of developers, planners and Housing Associations in delivering affordable housing

Ø        The use of commuted sums

A report on the Group’s findings would be submitted to the Committee at its next meeting. 

37.2         Town Centre’s Cark Parks

Councillor Arthur Moran spoke on the Task Group’s behalf.

Work had been carried out previously regarding the provision of car parking in the borough.  The Task Group had revisited the current position and had reconsidered the status of a number of car parks in the borough.  An examination into the feasibility of transferable parking tickets had also been undertaken.  A number of recommendations had emanated from the Task Group’s discussions which, it was noted, would be submitted to the Committee at its November meeting. 

It was noted that two further areas of work would be undertaken by the Task Group; consideration of parking provision in Nantwich and the impact of decriminalisation on parking across the Borough. 

38.                  DATE OF NEXT MEETING

Two meetings of the Committee had been scheduled for November to coincide with meetings of the Board.  The Board’s meeting on 9^th November had been cancelled and the Committee was asked to indicate whether it still wished to meet on 7^th November given that its next meeting was scheduled for 28^th November 2006.      

AGREED: That the meeting of P & O Local Economy & Environment Committee scheduled for 7^th November be cancelled.      

.......…………………….  Chair