Agenda and draft minutes

None received.

A member with a disclosable pecuniary interest or a prejudicial interest in a matter who attends a meeting of the authority at which the matter is considered:

(i) must disclose the interest at the start of the meeting or when the interest becomes apparent, and

(ii) may not participate in any discussion or vote on the matter and must withdraw from the meeting room.

A member who discloses at a meeting a disclosable pecuniary interest which is not registered in the Members’ Register of Interests or the subject of a pending notification must notify the Monitoring Officer of the interest within 28 days of the disclosure.

Disclosable pecuniary interests, personal interests and prejudicial interest are defined at Paragraphs 5-7 and Appendix A of the Members’ Code of Conduct.

Cllr Stanton indicated that he was on the Board of Homes for Haringey and thus would need to declare this interest in housing related matters of the Panel.

The Chair will consider the admission of any late items of urgent business. (Late items will be considered under the agenda item where they appear.  New items will be dealt with at item 10 below.

The Chair indicated that Steve Russell, Housing Improvement Manager (Private Housing) had been invited to attend the meeting to discuss Houses of Multiple Occupation (HMO) issues in relation to the new waste and recycling service and would be invited to speak under the relevant agenda item (number 8).

To consider any requests received in accordance with the Council’s constitution.

None received.

To note the terms of reference of the Environment and Housing Scrutiny Panel.

The panel noted the report which outlined the agreed terms of reference of the Environment and Housing Scrutiny Panel (E & H SP).

The panel wished it to be noted that there should be a visual public record of the scrutiny process which should include scrutiny panels as well as the main overarching Overview & Scrutiny Committee.   It was agreed that webcasting would aid transparency of scrutiny process and help to develop public engagement and it should therefore be an aim of the council for webcasting to be introduced for all scrutiny panels. 

AGREED:     That the necessary adaptations can be made to appropriate committee rooms to enable future webcasting of scrutiny panel meetings and for more than one room to be webcast if the Council Chamber is already in use.  (OSC)

a) Panel work programme for municipal year 2012/13

b) Future meetings of the Environment & Housing Scrutiny Panel

c) Evidence gathering sessions

The Chair highlighted the main issues that the E & H SP would be considering during it’s work in the year ahead.  These included:

§         The roll out of the new waste and recycling contract

§         Strategic review of parking (CPZ) in North Tottenham in relation to THFC

§         Community engagement within the regulatory process e.g. planning & licensing

§         Strategic enforcement (integration of enforcement functions across the Council)

The panel requested that it be noted, that there was an unacceptable time gap between when the new structure for scrutiny was agreed by Council (May 2012) and the first meeting cycle of scrutiny panels (September 2012).  It was hoped that there would be a reduced delay in the next municipal cycle.

To receive a report from the Director of Finance.  Attending:

Lyn Garner, Director, Place and Sustainability

Phil Harris, Assistant Director, Adults and Housing

The panel noted the budget monitoring report which was presented to Cabinet in September 2012. 

The panel noted that there were a number of budgetary pressures in relation to services covered by the Environment and Housing Scrutiny Panel these included:

§         a £800k spending pressure on the housing repairs budget

§         impact of benefit changes

§         budget pressures from the increasing cost of landfill (tax) and,

§         a projected income shortfall (£200k)derived from parking fees and charges.

Parking fee income

The panel briefly discussed the issue of income from parking further to the work undertaken by Overview & Scrutiny Committee in the last municipal year and teh discussion had at this Committee on 23/7/12.  The main points of this discussion were:

§         An income of £5.8m was forecast for parking fees and charges against an expected total of £6.0m (£200k shortfall);

§         Panel members noted that charges had increased recently and noted claims by local residents and businesses that this was having an impact on local businesses and that greater consideration needs to be paid to the sustainability of local town centres in setting charges;

§         Parking income performance was not uniformly across local town centres, as in  some areas this had increased (Green Lanes, Muswell Hill and Crouch End) though in others it had declined (Wood Green)

§         It was noted that the Council undertook regular assessments of parking pressures in local town centres and evaluated vacancy rates at points throughout the day.

The panel also noted, that at a meeting of Overview & Scrutiny Committee (July 2012), the Leader had agreed that any further scrutiny of parking pay and display charges should be delegated to the Environment & Housing Scrutiny Panel.  The panel noted that although no decisions had been taken, this may be explored further by the panel in the future

          Welfare reforms

The panel noted that there were likely to be significant but as yet uncertain budget pressures on the whole council budget welfare reforms coming in to effect from April 2013 onwards.  It was noted that the introduction of a welfare cap (£26k) and changes to housing benefit rules would have a far reaching impact on local people.  These reforms would present major operational and financial pressures in relation to homelessness and temporary accommodation services.  Initial estimates suggested that together this may result in an additional £5.9m service pressure.

It was noted that the AD for Adults and Housing would be producing a report for Cabinet in November 2012, which would provide further detail of the welfare reforms, the anticipated impact and mitigating actions that the Council might take. The panel felt that it would be useful if Overview & Scrutiny Committee could receive this report at a future meeting.

AGREED:    That the report by the AD for Adults and Housing on the impact of (housing) welfare reforms (due at Cabinet in November) is also sent to a future meeting of Overview & Scrutiny Committee (OSC).

The panel noted that as part of its work programme for 2012/13, Overview  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

a) To note and agree the terms of reference for scrutiny involvement for the roll-out of the new waste and recycling service.

b) Members of the panel to report back from site visits around Haringey undertaken on the 18^th September 2012.

c) To hear evidence from Single Frontline Service, Haringey Council: Attending:

Stephen McDonnell, Assistant Director

Michael McNicholas, Client & Performance Manager

d) To hear evidence from Veolia Environmental Services.  Attending:

Pascal Hauret, Municipal Services Director

Lynn Davis, Project Manager

Terms of reference

The panel reiterated that it wanted to undertake an objective assessment of the service which encompassed both successes and areas for service improvement.  The panel also wanted to reinforce that the purpose of this work was to (1) provide feedback that could assist the phase 3 roll out of the new service and (2) identify how the Council could encourage more people to recycle. 

AGREED:  The terms of reference report for scrutiny involvement with the waste and recycling service was noted and agreed by the panel. 

Report back from Panel visits

The panel visited a number of areas around the borough on the 18^th September 2012 to look at ‘case studies’ in relation to the waste and recycling service.  A report of the panel visit was tabled at the meeting (attached).  These case studies were also discussed by Single Front Line in the following agenda sub-item.

          Evidence from Single Front Line Service and Housing Management

Officers from Single Front Line Service provided a presentation on a number of case studies to illustrate issues which it has faced in the implementation of the new waste and recycling service across Haringey.  In addition, an officer from the Housing Improvement Team discussed the regulation of houses of multiple occupation (HMO) with the panel.  The following provides a summary of the discussions of the panel, which has been categorised in to themes for ease of reference.

          Community engagement / consultation

The panel visited Milton Avenue (N6) to view the problem of wheelie bins in a conservation area.  The properties in this area had little front garden space to store wheelie bins and so these were kept on the street.  The panel noted that some residents felt that the presence of bins on the street detracted from its character.  Whilst there had been some rationalisation of bins (new 360l bins being shared among residents), there was a perception that there was still an unacceptable number of bins on the street.

It was noted that residents of the street had been visited twice as part of a consultation for preferred receptacles for waste and recycling collection that involved two rounds of door knocking for each property.  Of the 140 households surveyed, there were 42 responses of which 76% indicated that they wanted to retain the wheelie bins.  It was noted however, that there was still some ongoing dissatisfaction with the new service by some local residents who would have preferred twice weekly collections for residual waste, a system which was operational in adjacent Camden. 

AGREED:   The panel requested clarification on waste collection arrangements in Camden and that this is reported back. (EHSP)

The panel noted that community engagement was important prior to the establishment of the new waste and recycling service to ascertain the preferred options of local residents.  It was noted that street assessments were undertaken in all areas in Phase 1 and Phase 2 to identify specific street issues (i.e. small gardens) and assess what waste receptacles would be most  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

None.