Meeting documents

Venue: Mezzanine Room 2, County Hall, Aylesbury. View directions

Contact: Sharon Griffin  Maureen Keyworth

Note: Please note that this meeting will be webcast - please use the "Webcasts" menu link 

Media

Webcast: View the webcast

Items
Note No. Item

1.

Election of Chairman

Additional documents:

Minutes:

RESOLVED

 

That Warren Whyte be elected Chairman of the Environment, Transport and Locality Services Select Committee for the ensuing year.

 

2.

Appointment of Vice Chairman

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Minutes:

RESOLVED

 

That David Carroll be appointed Vice-Chairman of the Environment, Transport and Locality Services Select Committee for the ensuing year.

10.00am

3.

Apologies for Absence / Changes in Membership

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Minutes:

Apologies for absence were received from Mr Lambert and Mr Carroll.

4.

Declarations of Interest

To disclose any personal or disclosable pecuniary interests.

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Minutes:

Mr Bendyshe-Brown declared an interest as he is a driver for the Risborough Area Community Bus.

5.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 274 KB

Of the meeting held on 13 May 2014 to be agreed as a correct record.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The minutes of the meeting held on the Tuesday 13 May 2014 were agreed as a correct record.

 

Matters Arising

Page 12 - Crime and Disorder Annual Update

The Needs Assessment is to be circulated to members when published.

Action: Mr Sainsbury/Clerk

6.

Public Questions

This is an opportunity for members of the public to put a question or raise an issue of concern, related to Environment, Transport and Locality Services.   Where possible, the relevant organisation to which the question/issue is directed will be present to give a verbal response.  The member of public will be invited to speak for up to four minutes on their issue.  A maximum of 30 minutes is set aside for the Public Questions slot in total (including responses and any Committee discussion). This may be extended with the Chairman’s discretion. 

 

For full guidance on Public Questions, including how to register a request to speak during this slot, please follow this link:

 

http://www.buckscc.gov.uk/about-your-council/scrutiny/get-involved/

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Minutes:

There were no public questions.

10.15

7.

Chairman's Report

For the Chairman of the Committee to provide an update to the Committee on recent scrutiny related activity.

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Minutes:

The Chairman reported the following;

 

Section 106/EU funding & external funding

In addition to the monthly Environment Select Committee meetings, a meeting has taken place with the Chairman of the Finance Select Committee in relation to the inquiry being undertaken by the Finance Select Committee which includes Section 106 planning gains and investment to mitigate development in the county. This will be discussed in more detail under item 10 of the agenda.

 

EU funding and external funding will also be discussed under item 10 of the agenda.

 

Public Transport Inquiry Working Group

A very useful first workshop took place on the 10 June with officers and the Cabinet Member.  The workshop gave the opportunity to understand the current policies in place and some of the budgetary issues.

 

Work is taking place to structure the two day evidence gathering sessions that are scheduled for the 24 & 25 July.  The evidence sessions will include bus operators, commissioners, providers and contractors of public and client passenger transport. Further details will be published in due course.

10.20

8.

Transport for Bucks - status update

Members will receive a status update from the Cabinet Member for Transportation and the Service Director of the Place service on the various internal and external reviews taking being undertaken. This status update is in advance of the full select committee monitoring session of all elements of the TfB review (including progress towards to the ETL inquiry recommendations) which will take place at 02 September committee.

 

Ruth Vigor-Hedderly, Cabinet Member for Transportation

Gill Harding, Service Director, Place

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Chairman welcomed Ruth Vigor-Hedderly, Cabinet Member for Transportation, Mark Shaw, Deputy Cabinet Member for Transportation and Gill Harding, Service Director, Place, to the meeting.

 

The Cabinet Member for Transportation gave the following overview of the current reviews subsequent to the provision of a fuller update at the September meeting of the ETL Committee:

 

The opportunity to update Members of the Committee on the current position of the reviews is welcomed. On the 1 April 2014 I was elevated from Deputy Cabinet Member for Transportation to Cabinet Member for Transportation.  Following this appointment I made the decision to commission an independent consultant – Gate One.  Gate One submitted CV’s to appoint an individual to work with Bucks County Council and Ringway Jacobs to carry out a discovery phase of the review.

 

Bart Smith was appointed to carry out the interviews and the work programme.  He has a wealth of experience in civil engineering and Local Authority working. This piece of work took three weeks during which there was a very intensive amount of interviews with local people, Local Area Technicians (LATs) and Strategic Directors etc. Following the discovery phase, a presentation took place at Green Park which during which the following three options were advised;

 

·         To carry on as we were

·         To look at going out to the market again and restarting the whole process

·         To work with the current contractor Ringway Jacobs

 

The decision was made to continue to work with Ringway Jacobs.  This decision was not made lightly; it was made because of the determination and the encouragement Ringway Jacobs showed the Local Authority that they wanted to make the contract work. Both the client and the contractor recognised the failings and that the contract didn’t work as well as it could have.

 

When the contract was first written and produced in 2009 it was very unique in terms of only a few Local Authorities, if any, having this type of contract in place. Over the period of 2009-2014 much has changed in legislation and also within Transport for Buckinghamshire.

 

Work includes looking at developing new governance, new policies and procedures and Bucks County Council becoming the intelligent client.  A small forensic analysis will take place of the Value for Money report which was commissioned in January 2014. A workshop with all stakeholders is taking place next week during which future plans will be discussed.

 

The structure of how Ringway Jacobs operates across the County Council has been looked into. The service has now been broken down into depots.  Amersham is a newly created depot.  The LATs previously based at Handy Cross who cover Amersham and Chiltern areas are now located at the Amersham depot.  Each depot has its own supervisor and manager and has been tasked with looking at how they can become effective and efficient, how savings can be made and how money can be brought back into the service i.e. the set-up of traffic management - 70 plus traffic operations were due to go ahead.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

10.35

9.

Public Transport Inquiry pdf icon PDF 107 KB

Members will hold their first public evidence session of the committees public transport inquiry.

In this evidence session members will consider the financial challenges and will examine the County Council’s current policy in relation to public transport and bus subsidies and its ability to cope with the budgetary pressures and future challenges.

 

Andrew Clarke, Passenger Transport Manager

Ryan Bunce, PSD Service Lead, Place

 

Papers

Supporting Information for Public Transport item

ETL Public Transport Inquiry: Transport Policy context

 

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Minutes:

Andrew Clarke, Passenger Contract Transport Manager and Ryan Bunce, PSD Service Lead, Place were welcomed to the meeting.

 

The Chairman explained that the initial meeting of the ETL Working Group inquiry into public transport has taken place. Mr Bunce and Mr Clarke were asked to give an overview of the current County Council policies for public transport and the plans to update the policies.

 

Mr Bunce explained that the County Council’s highest level policy starts with the third Local Transport Plan (LTP3) which sets out the objectives for transport across the county.  The objectives are listed in figure 1 shown on page 24 of the agenda pack i.e. encouraging sustainable travel and the coach way project.

 

There are a series of more specific policies such as the Transport for Bucks Strategy which was developed by Bucks County Council in 2012.  It sets out the challenges the Council faced; changes in Central Government bus subsidy; changes in rural demand for public transport; and concerns over the sustainability of client transport services.  It suggests a core network of bus services across the county supported by community transport and information hubs to promote the use of these services.

 

This document played a key part of shaping services that are currently in place in Buckinghamshire. The document provides some evidence of the public opinions of bus travel and some of the challenges faced at that time.

 

The Council also produces area specific strategies to set out its approach to transport challenges in particular areas such as the Southern Quadrant Transport Strategy covering an area of High Wycombe.  These strategies tend to focus on infrastructure and physical measures rather than subsidies or timetables etc.

 

There are also previous and future strategies to consider as some of these have played an important part in shaping the bus services currently provided. LTP2 originally set out the objectives of reducing congestion and improving accessibility by splitting the network as detailed in the Travel Bucks Strategy (core, urban, inter-urban and secondary rural service). Whilst this document was produced in 2006 document and some of the challenges faced today are quite different, it does explain how we got to where we are. LTP3 expires in 2016 and work is currently taking place to produce LTP4. Areas identified from the Working Group include the need for the plan to link very closely to funding mechanisms and for it to be workable and deliverable.LTP4 will take into account the conclusions of the reviews currently taking place.

 

The County Council also feeds into the Buckinghamshire Thames Valley Local Enterprise Partnership Strategic Economic Plan which sets out proposals for investment in the area, including a range of transport measures such as direct public transport and the quality of transport centres.

 

Mr Clarke explained that in terms of public transport on the ground, the 1985 Act deregulated the bus industry and introduced commercial operations whereby the operators can set their own bus routes and timetables. They are required under law to operate each route on  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.

11.30

10.

Committee Work

 

Members will consider update papers on Committee activity and agree next steps in relation to topics that the Committee Chairman and supporting Members have considered following Committee interest.

Additional documents:

10a

External Funding Opportunities : A Committee update paper (themes and topics) pdf icon PDF 108 KB

This was a topic highlighted by committee members at previous Committee meetings in relation to funding transport and planning infrastructure. The Committee Chairman, Warren Whyte, and supporting Member Tim Butcher, have undertaken further investigations and their findings are within the summary paper. There is also a scope (which captures the areas verbally agreed at within previous committee meetings) attached for information. Members will consider and agree the findings and next steps.

 

Papers:

·           External Funding Opportunities

·           External Funding Opportunities for BCC – Committee exploratory research paper

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Members of the Committee were referred to page 29-38 of the agenda pack which gives a summary of the work undertaken with various members of the Authority to investigate External Funding Opportunities.

 

The Chairman emphasised that the reason for this area of investigation was regarding the funding opportunities that relate specifically to planning and infrastructure and whether the County Council was maximising the opportunity to secure all external funding. The report includes from useful evidence from Bucks Business First (BBF) and the Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP)

 

Members of the Committee AGREED and APPROVED the six draft recommendation areas detailed on page 36 of the agenda pack.

 

Members of the Committee AGREED that the report is to be sent to the Finance and Resources Committee for endorsement. The timeline is to be given for the return of the recommendations prior to the September meeting of the ETL Select Committee.

 

A letter is to be produced by the Environment Select Committee for the relevant Cabinet Members.

10b

S106 Developer Contributions pdf icon PDF 123 KB

Members were briefed on this topic at Committee in November 2013. The Chairmen of both ETL and FPR Select Committees, (due to both Select Committees considering the topic worthy of further investigation), met with relevant officers to consider those areas of concern to Members. An update paper is attached along with an inquiry proposal/suggested next steps for the Committee to consider and agree.

 

Papers:

·           Select Committee Chairman update on S106 investigations

·           Buckinghamshire County Council’s approach to S106 – a joint Select Committee inquiry (draft) proposal

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Members of the Committee were referred to the update on S106 investigations on pages 39-46 of the agenda.

 

The Chairman explained that S106 Developer contributions arise from developments in the county and are administered by the District Councils as the planning authority.  The County Council can often be a major part of the process when it comes to education and transport or infrastructure type mitigations.  The report encapsulates the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) to a certain extent but it concentrates more on the existing S106s that are in place and the processes for managing how these are delivered and well as negotiations for future S106. The Chairman added that S106 are still in legislation and will always exist for mitigations on site. The CIL is supposed to avoid the general negotiation for known costs to other infrastructure that a development would incur.

 

Community Infrastructure Levy is to be added to the main report and the summary.

Action: Policy Officer

 

The Committee AGREED that a working group should be set up to look at the report in more detail with a review to redrafting and sharpening the contents. A meeting is to be arranged with the Chairman of the Finance and Resources Select Committee to discuss the report.

 

11.45

11.

Committee Work Programme pdf icon PDF 29 KB

Members will discuss the Committee Work Programme and proposals for future items.

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Minutes:

Members of the Committee NOTED the Work Programme.

 

Members of the Committee AGREED that the item on Bulky Waste should be moved to the October meeting.

11.55

12.

Date of the Next Meeting

The next meeting is due to take place on Tuesday 2  September 2014 in Mezzanine 2, County Offices, Aylesbury at 10.00am.  There will be a pre-meeting for Committee Members at 9.30am.

 

Future meeting dates for 2014

Tuesday 14 October

Tuesday 18 November

 

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The next meeting is due to take place on Tuesday 2 September 2014 in Mezzanine 2, County Offices, Aylesbury.  There will be a pre-meeting for Committee Members are 9.30am.

 

Future dates and times for 2014

Tuesday 18 November