Basingstoke & Dean Borough Council Community, Environment and Partnerships Committee Meeting

Councillor Carr was replaced by Councillor Izett.

Councillor Lee was appointed as Vice Chair of the Community, Environment and Partnerships Committee for the 2023/24 municipal year.

There were no declarations of interest.

There were no urgent matters considered.

The minutes of the meeting held on 15 March 2023 were confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

Councillors Tomblin, Hussey, Robinson, Howard-Sorrell, Slimin and Court (reserve member) were appointed to the Tree Appeal Single Issue Panel.

Confirmation of nominations would be sought from the Labour Group Leader.

The committee received a presentation which provided an update on the actions undertaken in relation to the Climate Change and Air Quality Strategy.

In response to questions from the committee and comments made the following was established:

·         Councillors’ mileage claims for travel to and from council meetings was considered when looking at working towards a carbon neutral council.

·         Government was considering legislation to standardise waste recycling throughout the country.  The committee would be updated as further information became available.

·         A written response would be provided regarding achieving nutrient neutral development with mitigation in sensitive river catchments.

·         The main housing associations had attended a Members Advisory Panel to discuss their programme of improvements and investment programme to improve energy efficiency in their housing stock.  It was requested that further information on their plans be provided, if possible, in the next climate change update.

·         Green infrastructure such as car charging points or reference to environmental community interest groups should be included in the community profiles for each ward.

·         The electric vehicle market and opportunities to move the council’s vehicle fleet to electric vehicles was constantly under review however there was no range of larger vehicles such as tippers currently in existence on the market.

·         Quantitative evidence on progress to achieve the targets of net carbon zero for the council in 2025 and for the borough by 2030 would be useful in future updates.

Resolved: To note the contents of the update.

The committee considered a report which proposed a revised approach to enhancing the range of demographic information already provided within ward profiles by developing ward-based community profiles. The profiles sought to summarise the physical and social assets within place-based communities, to help develop a consistent understanding of community strengths and opportunities across the borough.

The current ward profiles had been updated from the 2020/21 census data and would be available on the council’s website.  The intention was that the community based profiles would complement the information already available.  Engagement would be undertaken with the council’s internal teams to ascertain what information was already held and with ward members, the council’s partners and parish and town councils.

The committee were invited to ask questions to officers which established:

·         Crime and anti-social behaviour statistics would be included in the profiles.

·         The intention was to provide a community profile for each of the 18 wards however it was recognised that some wards had multiple communities particularly where there were multiple parishes which may require more than one profile and a summary for the ward.

·         A time recording exercise would be undertaken for the first few profiles which would assist to establish the estimated timescale to complete the process.  The intention was to update the profiles on a rolling programme.

·         Through the engagement process with partners and the voluntary sector to establish an evidence base, service gaps and opportunities should be identified.

·         The scale of a community building and facilities available could be included in the profile information with signposting to more detailed information.

The committee discussed the report and were supportive of the proposed approach to develop community profiles.  It was considered that the profiles would be useful documents.  Comments made included:

·         There were some communities that would benefit from support from the council to encourage volunteers and to help build resilience and self-sufficient communities.

·         To engage with ward members at the time of looking at the timescale for each community profile.

·         A section for green infrastructure should be included in the profiles to help identify areas for development opportunities and potential external funding to support projects.

·         There should be further development of the opportunities and needs section of the profiles.

·         In developing the profiles it was important to work with the health sector and voluntary sector to identify community needs.

·         It was requested that a schedule for delivery of the profiles be bought back to committee.

Resolved: The committee supported the proposed approach to developing ward-based community profiles.

The Chair proposed that the report be deferred to a future meeting to allow the new administration to receive a full debrief which may result in revisions to the report and to enable the Cabinet Member to be in attendance.

Resolved:     The item be deferred to a future meeting.

The committee considered the work programme.  The Chair confirmed that the Green Infrastructure Strategy would be presented to the committee at its meeting in July.

It was suggested that a full list of policies and strategies scheduled for review by the committee would be useful.

Suggestions for future items were:

·         Aquadrome

·         Leisure Park

·         Leisure and Recreation Needs Assessment