Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors M McCartney and J Shaw-Wright.

Councillor K Franks was in attendance as a substitute for Councillor J Shaw-Wright.

A copy of the Register of Interest for each Selby District Councillor is available for inspection at www.selby.gov.uk.

Councillors should declare to the meeting any disclosable pecuniary interest in any item of business on this agenda which is not already entered in their Register of Interests.

Councillors should leave the meeting and take no part in the consideration, discussion or vote on any matter in which they have a disclosable pecuniary interest.

Councillors should also declare any other interests. Having made the declaration, provided the other interest is not a disclosable pecuniary interest, the Councillor may stay in the meeting, speak and vote on that item of business.

If in doubt, Councillors are advised to seek advice from the Monitoring Officer.

There were no disclosures of interest.

To confirm as a correct record the minutes of the meeting of the Policy Review Committee held on 14 January 2020.

The Committee considered the minutes of the meeting held on 14 January 2020.

RESOLVED:

To approve the minutes of the Policy Review Committee meeting held on 14 January 2020.

There was no Chair’s address to the Committee.

To discuss the work of the Low Carbon Working Group.

Appended to the agenda are the minutes of the Working Group meeting held on 16 January 2020.

The minutes of the Working Group meeting held on 27 February 2020 are being drafted and will follow.

Members noted that there had been two meetings of the Low Carbon Working Group, at which presentations and benchmarking data on the Council’s carbon footprint had been provided; however, there was still some outstanding data to be supplied.

Officers were looking for a steer from Members as to the priorities for the actions and projects resulting from their research.

Members acknowledged that the initial six-month time period was a tight timescale to work to and present recommendations to the Executive. A suggested way forward would be to provide an initial report to the Executive setting out ‘quick wins’ and actions that could be taken as soon as possible. Members would also request that the Executive allow the Working Group to continue its work throughout the rest of the year in order to examine longer term projects and ideas.

The Committee discussed the Northern Forest initiative and emphasised the importance of potential areas for planting in the district being identified as quickly as possible. Members felt very strongly that this should be moved forward at pace. It was noted that some parish councils had started to undertake similar work, and that some groups on the Council had a number of ideas that could be fed into policies such as the Local Plan.

Members asked that the following points be fed back to the Director for Economic Regeneration and Place:

·           That tree planting in the district to be taken forward as soon as possible.

·           That the Council begin to engage with parish councils, local landowners, estates and other stakeholders as soon as possible.

·           That potential sites for tree planting be identified in time for recommendations to be made to the Executive.

·           That if possible, some planting take place during the current planting season/this year.

·           That any outstanding benchmarking data be gathered by the next meeting of the Low Carbon Working Group.

·           To contact the County Council for schools to be involved in any tree planting initiatives.

·           That at the next meeting of the Low Carbon Working Group Officers present suggestions for ‘quick wins’ that they have identified.

·           That the Taxi Licensing Policy be amended to include a rule that taxis turn off their engines whilst waiting at ranks, and that a campaign against idling vehicles outside schools also be considered by Officers.

The Committee agreed at its next meeting in April they would want to be able to distil ideas into short and long term actions, working in conjunction with the ‘Ideas Lab’ that was agreed as part of the Council’s budget in February 2020.

Lastly, Members asked Officers to check the resources available (estimated to be £300k) for the low carbon work agreed at Council in February 2020 as part of new project bids within the Programme for Growth (P4G).

RESOLVED:

i.      That the report to the Executive on the work of the Low Carbon Working Group include identified ‘quick wins’ and actions that could be taken forward as soon as possible.

ii.     To ask the Executive to endorse the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 55.

To consider the Committee’s work programme for the remainder of the 2019-20 year, and to start planning for the 2020-21 year.

The Committee considered the work programme for the remainder of the 2019-20 municipal year but agreed that work planning for 2020-21 should be undertaken at the next meeting.

The Committee raised several points and asked that Officers provide responses to them outside of the meeting:

·           Whether the Taxi Licensing Policy neede4d to come back to the Committee for consideration.

·           Why consideration of the Animal Licensing and Alcohol Licensing policies had been delayed until June 2020.

·           To make it clear to Officers that the review of the Affordable Housing Policy should be brought to the meeting of the Committee in April, as the last piece of the ‘deep dive’ work into housing at the Council that Members had undertaken.

Lastly, Members asked that additional date and time options be circulated to Members for the next meeting of the Low Carbon Working Group.

RESOLVED:

i.      To note the work programme for 2019-20.

ii.     To ask Officers to respond to the points above after the meeting.

iii.   To consider work planning for 2020-21 at the next meeting of the Committee in April 2020.

iv.   That additional date and time options be circulated to Members for the next meeting of the Low Carbon Working Group.