Agenda item

To consider the draft final report of the former Environment & Sustainability Scrutiny Board, presenting their research and findings regarding approaches local authorities might take to delivering more sustainable street lighting, and agree, subject to any amendments, its submission to the Scrutiny Management Committee, in line with their decision to complete outstanding scrutiny topics as a matter of urgency.

Members considered the draft final report of the former Environment & Sustainability Scrutiny Board, which presented their research and findings regarding approaches local authorities might take to delivering more sustainable street lighting, and agreed, subject to amendments, its submission to the Scrutiny Management Committee, in line with their decision to complete outstanding scrutiny topics as a matter of urgency.

A revised version of the draft final report, which set out changes that had been agreed following consultation with officers in the Directorate of City Strategy, had been circulated to Members.

RESOLVED:That it be agreed that the revised report be submitted to Scrutiny Management Committee, in line with their decision to complete outstanding scrutiny topics as a matter of urgency, subject to the correction of typographical and grammatical points and the following amendments:

                        (i) To paragraph 9, to indicate that York paid £80k more per annum than Wigan;

                        (ii) To paragraph 10, to rephrase the first sentence to read, “There is potential to get a better deal than we have at present from electricity suppliers for all our street lighting, and such a change, including partial or full renewable energy sourcing, could generate substantial savings both in cost and carbon emissions”;

(iii)       To paragraph 13, to rephrase the final sentence to read, “At Wigan where all street lighting is powered by wind power on a ‘green power’ deal the authority has wiped 5.4 million kilos of CO₂ emissions from the authority’s slate.  It should be the aim of the City of York Council to achieve a comparable result”, and to convert the measurement therein from kilos to tonnes;

(iv)        To recommendation 2, to read, “Street Lighting and Finance Officers ensure that the cashable and non-cashable energy and financial savings are reported in Gershon Efficiencies responses, ring fenced and invested in increasingly sustainable street lighting stock”;

(v)          To paragraph 16, to read, “Planned replacement of the old mercury vapour lamps would improve the authority’s approach to social inclusion and equalities and would also bring both energy savings and reduced recycling issues”;

(vi)        To paragraph 18, to make reference to a motion passed by Full Council and a report considered at an Executive Member and Advisory Panel (EMAP) meeting on light pollution;

(vii)      To paragraph 20, to delete the word, “(Philips)”;

(viii)    To paragraph 22, to rephrase the first sentence to read, “To assure future best practice at the authority the database and street lighting strategy should provide the following audit detail enabling whole life costings for each lamp by stock type, ie;” and to reword point b) to read, “financial unit cost” and point c) to begin, “environmental unit cost,…”;

(ix)        To paragraph 24, to rephrase the first sentence to read, “Around 90% of the City of York Council’s street lights use electronic control gear to switch lamps on and off.  This is much more efficient than the old Cadmium Sulphide photo cells that used to be routinely used to switch lamps on and off”;

(x)          To recommendation 5, to read, “Upon completion of Audit, Street Lighting Officers should prepare a street lighting strategy for submission to the Executive”;

(xi)        To recommendation 7, to read, “Street Lighting Officers should recommend the use of PV powered ‘stand alone’ systems and other sustainable systems as the technologies improve or community netted systems installations for areas of the authority without grid netting requiring lighting.  Officers should in this instance consider whole life costs of installation, including offsetting the installation costs against savings made from electricity billing during the systems life.  The position on using PV and other advances to sustainable technology should be included in the annual highways report”;

(xii)      To add a further recommendation, between recommendations 7 and 8, to read, “That the Sub-Committee considering the final report of the former Planning and Transport Scrutiny Board regarding sustainable development be requested to include a recommendation to developers, in the form of an amendment to the Supplementary Planning Guidance (SPG), that all new or significantly refurbished developments should incorporate sustainable street lighting”;

(xiii)    To recommendation 9, to read, “That the Elected Member Energy Champion present a first version of the Regional Assemblies questionnaire to the October 2006 Council meeting and thereafter the Regional Assembly, as a record of the authority’s position across all sectors to date”;

(xiv)    To Annex A, to remove officers’ names throughout and delete the words “Nb see opening paragraphs of the report” from point 4;

(xv)      To Annex C, to indicate that DfT stands for Department for Transport.

REASON:To facilitate completion of the former Environment & Sustainability Scrutiny Board’s outstanding work.