Agenda, decisions and minutes

Members are required to notify any substitutions by midday on the day of the meeting.

Late substitutions will not be accepted and Members attending as a substitute without having given the due notice will not be able to take part in the meeting.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Michael Muir.

Audio recording – 3:20

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Michael Muir.

Councillors Cathy Brownjohn and Gerald Morris were absent.

To take as read and approve as a true record the minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on the 22 February 2023.

RESOLVED: That the Minutes of the Meeting of the Committee held on 22 February 2023 be approved as a true record of proceedings and signed by the Chair.

Audio Recording – 3:44

Councillor Steve Jarvis, as Chair proposed and Councillor Amy Allen seconded, and it was:

RESOLVED:That the Minutes of the Meeting of the Committee held on 22 February 2023 be approved as a true record of the proceedings and be signed by the Chair.

Members are reminded that any declarations of interest in respect of any business set out in the agenda, should be declared as either a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest or Declarable Interest and are required to notify the Chair of the nature of any interest declared at the commencement of the relevant item on the agenda.  Members declaring a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest must withdraw from the meeting for the duration of the item. Members declaring a Declarable Interest, wishing to exercise a ‘Councillor Speaking Right’, must declare this at the same time as the interest, move to the public area before speaking to the item and then must leave the room before the debate and vote.

(1)   The Chair advised that, in accordance with Council policy this meeting would be recorded. The recordings would be available on both the Council’s YouTube page, as well as the Council’s ModGov site.

(2)   The Chair reminded Members to make declarations of interest before an item, the detailed reminder about this and speaking rights was set out under Chair’s Announcements on the agenda.

(3)   The Chair reminded Members that the Council had declared a Climate Emergency.  This was a serious decision and means that, as this was an emergency, all of us, Officers and Members had that in mind as we carried out our various roles and tasks for the benefit of our District.

Audio recording – 4:25

(1)   The Chair advised that, in accordance with Council policy this meeting would be recorded. The recordings would be available on both the Council’s YouTube page, as well as the Council’s ModGov site.

(2)   The Chair reminded Members to make declarations of interest before an item, the detailed reminder about this and speaking rights was set out under Chair’s Announcements on the agenda.

(3)   The Chair reminded Members that the Council had declared a Climate Emergency.  This was a serious decision and means that, as this was an emergency, all of us, Officers and Members had that in mind as we carried out our various roles and tasks for the benefit of our District.

Members should notify the Chair of other business which they wish to be discussed at the end of either Part I or Part II business set out in the agenda. They must state the circumstances which they consider justify the business being considered as a matter of urgency.

The Chair will decide whether any item(s) raised will be considered.

There was no other business notified.

Audio recording – 5:00

There was no other business notified.

This note highlights proposed items scheduled in the work programme for the Cabinet Panel on the Environment for 2023/24. The Work Programme below sets out the proposed topics for the 2023/24 Civic Year.

The Policy and Strategy Team Leader provided a verbal update on the Work Programme for the 2023/24 civic year.

Audio recording – 5:10

The Policy and Strategy Team Leader gave a verbal presentation and advised:

·       The report highlighted the proposed items scheduled in the work programme for the 2023/24 civic year.

·       The proposed themes for the Panels this year would be Work Programme and Water in July, Sustainable Development in September, Waste in December and Achievements in March 2024.

·       The Action Tracker was currently under review by the Policy Team and would be brought to the September meeting to highlight any changes.

·       North Herts Council was leading on the Biodiversity Strategic Action Plan for the Herts Climate Change Sustainability Partnership (HCCSP). It was currently under review by the sub-group to take into account actions to date.

·       The second round of the Solar Together Scheme would open for registrations in August until October.

·       Work was being done on a Climate Risk Log. This would identify risks to Council Services and the wider district from Climate impacts, and actions that could be taken.

·       The second round of Home Upgrade Grants was currently being worked on, which would allow for eligible households to apply for retrofitting measures. This round would be available for off-gas properties, properties rated EPC D to G and those who had an income of less than £31k per year.

·       London Luton Airport Documents were being reviewed which covered climate resilience, green-control growth, infrastructure and air quality.

·       The Climate Hive continued to provide residents with updates on bee corridors, wildflower areas, events and green courses.

·       Work was ongoing to align the Climate and Environmental goals with planning projects such as the Baldock Expansion.

In response to a question at the last meeting from Councillor Chris Hinchliff, the Policy and Strategy Team Leader advised that iChoosr was monitoring the investigation into forced labour allegations in the Global Solar Supply Chain. iChoosr were a Member of Solar Energy UK and were signed up to the UK Solar Energy Supply Chain Treatment.

To receive petitions, comments and questions from the public, as well as presentations from external organisations, including:

·       Thames Water

·       Herts Middlesex Wildlife Trust

Presentations were received by the Cabinet Panel from organisations including:

·       Thames Water

·       Anglian Water

·       Affinity Water

·       Herts Middlesex Wildlife Trust

Audio recording – 11:40

Tim Beech from Thames Water gave a presentation with slides and advised:

·         Water treatment was a biological process which involved filtering effluent and removing solids, with samples taken at the final stage before being fed back into the environment.

·         Storm tanks were filled if the inlet flow was too high. If the storm tanks reached capacity, it would discharge water back into the environment.

·         Causes of overflows included infiltration, misconnection, inundation, physical damage, dual manholes and unauthorised connection.

·         The water industry was a cause of poor water quality, along with other factors such as agriculture, urban and transport.

·         The River Health Action Plan aimed to discharge high quality effluent that met required standards and eliminate pollutants. Working collaboratively with partners was also part of the action plan.

·         An interactive overflow map had been introduced to document the position and performance of treatment works.

·         There were six treatment works in North Hertfordshire, with upgrades planned to be completed in 2024.

·         £9million was being investment across 3 ‘Smarter Water Catchments’ to test innovative ways to manage water environments. It was hoped more catchments would be invested in from 2025.

·         Long term investment was needed over a 25-year plan to reach the goal of higher quality water.

·         There was a catchment strategic plan for Hertfordshire, which broke down the level of investment needed by factors such as flood risk and climate change.

·         The Drainage and Wastewater Management Plan (DWMP) would be used in the next business plan to ask for a substantial amount of funding.

N.B. Councillor Dominic Griffiths joined the meeting at 19:54

In response to the questions from Councillor Steve Jarvis, Mr Beech advised that the objective was to produce higher quality effluent. Weston Treatment Works was not a priority site as there were other sites that had more storm overflow.

Councillor Steve Jarvis commented that it seemed that treatment works in rural areas had more spillage problems than treatment works in urban settlements. Mr Beech commented that it was likely to due to the rural works being more susceptible to infiltration, and urban works tend to have bigger capacity and infrastructure.

Joe Stack from Anglian Water gave a presentation with slides and advised:

·         Water Recycling involved the return of wastewater to the environment.

·         Strategic goals for Anglian included achieving environmental and social prosperity across the network, creating a sustainable future for the region and to achieve significant improvement and resilience to drought and flooding.

·         The Get River Positive Campaign was launched in March 2022 in partnership with Severn Trent, with goals including ensuring storm overflows do not harm rivers and to be open about the performance of the organisation.

·         £811million was being invested as part of the Water Industry Natural Environment Programme over the next five years.

·         Agriculture, urban developments, non-native species and misconnections all had an impact on river water quality.

·         Factors that affect sewer operations included debris, fats and grease, misconnections and root ingress.

·         Aims included eliminating serious pollutants by 2025, with less serious  ...  view the full minutes text for item 73.