Agenda item

The Cabinet Member for Environmental Services, Planning and Sustainability will be in attendance to discuss his priorities and challenges for this municipal year.

The Cabinet Member for Environmental Services, Planning and Sustainability attended the meeting to discuss his priorities and challenges for the municipal year.

He reported that his two priorities for the year were around tackling the budget and sustainability issues.

He confirmed there was a need to examine discretionary waste charges due to the reduction in the Local Government grant. He reported that £2.3 million of the budget was spent on disposal and collection of waste and street cleansing.

It was reported that the budget in Environmental Services, Planning and Sustainability needed to be reduced by £2.5 million over the next two years.

The Cabinet Member felt that in order to achieve this target efficiencies on the delivery of services, additional income could be raised through discretionary charges in waste management and selling specific services (such as assistance at Pre Application stage for applicants applying for planning permission).

Questions from Members to the Cabinet Member included;

·        Were there plans to increase recycling in the city?

·        Was there a trend of losing recycling sites?

·        What could be done to encourage residents who lived in flats to recycle?

·        How would staff costs be reduced?

·        Why was reducing the city’s Carbon Footprint one his priorities?

·        What evidence had come to light for the Administration to increase the number of new houses within the Local Plan?

In regards to plans to increase recycling, Members were told of a number of two pilot schemes to recycle plastic that had taken place around the city. The Cabinet Member informed the Committee that some of the recycling sites would continue to operate where they are economically viable and where there is the agreement of landowners.

Some Members wished for the Council to be more proactive in providing recycling boxes to those who lived in flats, particularly as owners had to pay a service charge to a private management company.

In response to a Member’s question about staff redundancies it was noted that management staff in the City and Environmental Services department had reduced by a third and there had also been a 40% reduction in backroom staff over the last three years. The Council had sought to avoid compulsory redundancies and had used temporary staff before changes had been made to services.

The Cabinet Member informed the Committee that he felt that focusing on reduction of the Carbon Footprint was important as it would reduce costs. He spoke about a number of sustainable transport developments such as the increase in electric buses, which would help with York’s Air Quality levels.

In relation to the question about the increase in the number of new houses in the Local Plan, the Cabinet Member informed the Committee that changes had been made due to a result of changes to planning legislation (the Article 4 direction) and government housing projects.

Members felt that a written report from the Cabinet Member would have been helpful.

Resolved:  That the Cabinet Member’s verbal report be noted.

Reason:     So that Members are kept aware of the priorities within the Cabinet Member’s portfolio.