Items
No. |
Item |
94. |
Apologies for Absence
Minutes:
Apologies of absence were received from Cllr
Leslie Hoskins, Cllr Baljit Hayre and Cllr Morley. Cllr Jordan
Meade, Cllr Tony Rana and Cllr Khabra acted as respective
substitutes.
|
95. |
Minutes PDF 94 KB
Minutes:
The minutes of the meeting of the Strategic
Environment Cabinet Committee held on Tuesday, 15 February 2022
were signed by the Chair.
|
96. |
Declarations of Interest
Minutes:
Cllr Khabra declared an interest as he was a
local taxi driver for the Borough.
Cllr Meade declared an interest as he sat on
the People & Places Board which was part of the Local
Government Association.
|
97. |
Design for Gravesham PDF 6 MB
Minutes:
The Committee were provided with a
presentation on ‘Design for Gravesham’ from the
Assistant Director (Strategic Regeneration).
The presentation had been published and could
be accessed through the below link:
Following the presentation, the Assistant
Director (Strategic Regeneration) fielded questions from Members
and explained that:
- There were a few
different examples of other local authorities ‘‘Design
Codes’ and the Assistant Director (Strategic Regeneration)
offered to meet with individual Members and go through those
different codes with them. The Assistant Director (Strategic
Registrations) advised that his background meant he had a good
understanding of what was considered an exemplar ‘Design
Code’ and he had an appreciation of what was valued in terms
of quality and use
- Community
engagement is vital and the next steps are set out as part of this
presentation. Stakeholders, Residents would be listened to, engaged
with and discussions would be had about what they want to see
delivered in the Borough which would ultimately feed into the
Strategy and broader regeneration agenda.
- The Assistant
Director (Strategic Regeneration) advised that there are ambitious
plans for community engagement which would start with one to one
meetings with groups such as stakeholders, education partners,
residents, faith groups and parishes etc. Strategic Regeneration are working in dialogue
with the Communities team on this. Those initial conversations
would help develop a pathway forward for regeneration in Gravesham
and lead the way for a more developed, full rounded approach to
regeneration in the Borough in the long term
- Part of the
community engagement plan was also for Members to be fully engaged
with; the Assistant Director (Strategic Regeneration) offered Ward
Members a chance to meet to tour their wards to listen to their
views and discuss potential initiatives/regeneration
- The Assistant
Director (Strategic Regeneration) shared the regeneration email:
regeneration@gravesham.gov.uk
- The Assistant
Director (Strategic Regeneration) agreed with the Committees view
that the river was an important aspect of Gravesham’s
heritage and acknowledged that the river went through many parts of
the Borough and required further support in wards such as Higham,
not just Northfleet and Gravesend
- Regeneration was
not without its challenges such as the recovery of the town centre
and meeting housing targets, but the Assistant Director (Strategic
Regeneration) explained that he was ready to have open discussions
with Members regarding the challenges and any proposed
solutions
- The code was still
in its very early creation and Members comments were only being
sought during this meeting; in the future there could be further
Member briefings to update on next steps/progress. The community engagement planned will help shape
the procurement process to find a suitable external partner to
develop Design for Gravesham. Finding a
suitable external partner was critical and the procurement process
would lead into the evaluation and choosing of a partner, which
would then lead to the development of the ‘Design Code’
itself. A consultation process and agreement would be sought from
this Committee and Cabinet as part of ...
view the full minutes text for item 97.
|
98. |
Transport Update PDF 8 MB
Minutes:
The Committee were provided with a
presentation regarding transport in the Borough from the Principal
Transport and NSIP Project Manager.
The presentation had been published and could
be accessed through the below link:
The Chair informed the Principal Transport and
NSIP Project Manager that she was previously unaware of the issue
at Stonebridge Road proposal and would discuss the matter with him
after the meeting.
Following the presentation, the Principal
Transport and NSIP Project Manager and the Assistant Director
(Planning) fielded questions and comments from Members and
explained that:
- Principal
Transport and NSIP Project Manager explained the current
consultation by KCC in relation to cuts in bus services. For
Gravesham these were the Gravesend to New Ash Green route on
Sunday’s only and the specialist Kent Karrier dial a ride
service
- The operational
date for the switch over of Fastrack buses to electric buses was
2023, just going out to tender; no other bus routes were planned to
be switched to electric. Electric vehicle charging points for buses
will be installed at Garrick Street as part of the enhancement work
carried out there. Until the electric bus is selected the form of
the charging point will not be known as the manufacturers use
different systems
- Bath Street was
being considered as another potential area for a bus lane, but no
operational time scale has yet been released; the design of the bus
lane would take local taxis needs into consideration
- The Government
recently announced a Electrical Vehicle strategy aimed at
increasing the amount of national car charging points to over
30,000. The Strategy placed an obligation on responsible transport
authorities, which is KCC for Kent , to develop a strategy for on
street charging points which came with a number of challenges due
to external power supply placement and specific requirements for
safe installation The Principal Transport and NSIP Project Manager
agreed that it was important to ensure proper maintenance of
existing cycling/walking routes such as the route along Gravesend
canal rather than creating new routes and advised that maintenance
would form part of the engagement process
- As part of the
Local Cycling and Walking Implementation Plan (LCWIP), Members
views were being sought on what they would like to see consulted
on, where maintenance was required and schemes that should be
implemented so that they could form part of the draft strategy
prior to public consultation in the autumn. An update from the
consultants, when appointed, would be brought back to the Committee
meeting in June 2022
- The Principal
Transport and NSIP Project Manager advised that the Council had not
put in a bid to the Department of Transport to host the new
headquarters for British Rail although Tonbridge had put in a bid;
it was likely that the headquarters would be placed somewhere in
the north of the country
- The Assistant
Director (Planning) attended the Garrick Street bus hub meetings
and it had been confirmed ... view
the full minutes text for item 98.
|
99. |
Enforcement Strategy Publication Version PDF 3 MB
Minutes:
The Committee were provided with the Planning
Enforcement Strategy for Gravesham 2022 and the Assistant Director
(Planning) sought comments from Members.
The Assistant Director (Planning) advised that
the Strategy took into account Members comments made on an earlier
draft at the December 2021 Strategic Environment Cabinet Committee
meeting. The document had been sent to Digital Team to make it 100%
accessible and following any additional Member comments it would be
signed off in due course by the Portfolio Holder and published on
the Councils website.
Members made the following suggestions to the
Strategy:
- There were a
multitude of complex legal terms in the document which members of
the public and Members may find hard to understand; a short
glossary of terms should be added to the Strategy and published to
the website alongside the Strategy as well as links to definitions
of certain terminology
- Section 16
referenced violence towards officers but that paragraph should be
amended to include violence towards Members as well. In addition,
the paragraph should link to the Councils corporate policies that
advise what would happen if someone committed violence towards an
officer/Member and the consequences of those actions
- The Strategy
needed to be more widely publicised to the public rather than just
published on the website as well as shared to the Councils planning
agent forum
In response to the suggestions, the Assistant
Director (Planning) explained that:
- Use of technical
terms had been flagged by Members previously and Officers had tried
to be much clearer about what terms meant and the different stages
in the strategy so that people wouldn’t be misled. The
intention was that an FAQ document would be created and published
alongside the Strategy on the Councils website; the FAQ document
would hopefully answer all of the publics questions and explain any
confusing aspects of the Strategy. The Assistant Director
(Planning) noted the suggestion to provide links to definitions of
certain terminology
- The Assistant
Director was happy for the paragraph to be extended to Members as
well; violence towards Members had been discussed previously
especially around Planning Committee and Members addresses being
published when they submitted planning applications to the
Committee. Legal had been contacted to see what measures could be
implemented to better protect officers and Members during the
planning process. The Assistant Director (Planning) advised that
she would need to check if links could be used to the corporate
policy documents as it could cause accessibility issues on the
document, but the Strategy could definitely reference the
policy
- The Assistant
Director (Planning) advised that the Strategy would be 100%
accessible and would be advertised on all Council social media
platforms as well as the website. In addition, a section of the
upcoming ‘Your Borough’ magazine had been allocated to
the advertisement of the Strategy and notification of the new
Strategy would be attached to the
bottom of all Planning Officers emails which were regularly sent to
applicants/agents. The Strategy would also be promoted to local
legal firms that dealt with conveyancing ...
view the full minutes text for item 99.
|
100. |
Q3 2021-22 Corporate Performance Report PDF 85 KB
Additional documents:
Minutes:
The
Committee was presented with an update
against the Performance Management Framework, as introduced within
the council’s Corporate Plan, for Quarter Three 2021-22
(October to December 2021).
The
Assistant Director (Communities) directed Members to appendix two
to the report and provided Members with a
statistical overview of the Council’s performance against
each performance indicator for quarter two.
The
Assistant Director (Communities) and the Assistant Director
(Planning) fielded questions and explained that:
- Information held on the amount of social Council houses the
Council had in stock fell under the Housing Portfolio, but the
Assistant Director (Communities) agreed to raise it with the
Director (Housing) and circulate the figures to Members outside of
the meeting; it was thought to be below 6000 houses due to the
‘right to buy’ scheme
- As
the matter also fell under the Housing Portfolio, the Assistant
Director (Communities) agreed to talk to the Director (Housing) to
see if there were any delays in the Council’s own programme
of delivering affordable and social housing schemes and circulate a
response to Members outside of the meeting
- The Assistant Director (Communities) agreed with Members that it
was a shame that shops/cafes weren’t open later during the
Lights Festival in Town which attracted thousands of people. The
Economic Development Team would do more to communicate with high
street shops/cafes when certain large Council events were scheduled
in order to ask them to stay open later to provide service to large
crowds
- The Council were ambitious in taking on so many applicants for
the Kickstart Scheme particular with hybrid working arrangements in
place, but managers worked very hard with their placements. Each
young person was treated as an individual and this required time
and there were some challenges with a few of the Kickstarters who
were not ‘work ready’.
Eleven dropped out of the scheme and the Council learnt a lot from
the reasons for this.. The responsibilities for the Scheme came to
an end on 31 March, but there would still be placements in place
until June. During the next few months managers would work with
them to try and find permanent positions for them in the Council
work force or, working with their Work Coaches to find positions in
the wider economy. If a Kickstarter was unable to get any job then
they would go back onto Universal Credit and look for a job
placement through the Job Centre. The Assistant Director
(Communities) advised Members that the employer could only do so
much to get young people ‘job ready’ but the Council
could also look to work with the Job Centre to increase
self-confidence and improve young people’s mental
health
- With regards to the Government’s Levelling Up agenda, the
UK Shared Prosperity Fund to be allocated to lower tier authorities
was due to replace the European Programmes and Government have
asked for Investment Plans to be prepared to respond to local needs
in respect of business, jobs and skills
related issues. The Assistant Director (Communities) advised that
there was a ...
view the full minutes text for item 100.
|
101. |
Any other business which by reason of special circumstances the Chair is of the opinion should be considered as a matter or urgency.
|
102. |
Exclusion
To move, if required, that pursuant to Section
100A (4) of the Local Government Act 1972 that the public be
excluded from any items included in Part B of the agenda because it
is likely in view of the nature of the business to be transacted
that if members of the public are present during those items, there
would be disclosure to them of exempt information as defined in
Part A of Schedule 12A of the Act.
Part B
Items likely to be considered in Private
|