Councillors and committees

Agenda, decisions and minutes

Venue: The Council Chamber, Civic Centre, Station Road, Addlestone KT15 2AH

Contact: Carys Walker  Surrey County Council, Runnymede Civic Centre, Station Road, Addlestone, KT15 2AH

Items
No. Item

146/16

OPEN FORUM pdf icon PDF 265 KB

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    Before the formal Committee session begins, the Chairman will invite questions from members of the public attending the meeting. Where possible questions will receive an answer at the meeting, or a written response will be provided subsequently.

    Minutes:

    Prior to the commencement of the formal meeting. Residents were given the opportunity to ask questions to the committee and officers in attendance. These questions and their answers have been recorded in the attached document.

147/16

APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE AND SUBSTITUTIONS

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    To receive any apologies for absence and notices of substitutions from Borough

    members under Standing Order 39.

     

    Decision:

    Apologies for absence were received from:

     

    Miss Marisa Heath

    Cllr David Parr

    Cllr Mike Kusneraitis

    Cllr Nick Prescot

     

    Cllr Elaine Gill attended as substitute for Cllr Alan Alderson

    Minutes:

    Apologies for absence were received from:

     

    Miss Marisa Heath

    Cllr David Parr

    Cllr Mike Kusneraitis

    Cllr Nick Prescot

     

    Cllr Elaine Gill attended as substitute for Cllr Alan Alderson

148/16

MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING pdf icon PDF 152 KB

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    To approve the Minutes of the previous meeting as a true record. A copy of the minutes will be available in the room for half an hour prior to the meeting.

    Minutes:

    The minutes were agreed as an accurate record of the meeting of 3rd July, 2017.

149/16

DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

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    All Members present are required to declare, at this point in the meeting or as soon as possible thereafter

    (i)            Any disclosable pecuniary interests and / or

    (ii)           Other interests arising under the Code of Conduct in respect of any item(s) of business being considered at this meeting

    NOTES:

    • Members are reminded that they must not participate in any item where they have a disclosable pecuniary interest
    • As well as an interest of the Member, this includes any interest, of which the Member is aware, that relates to the Member’s spouse or civil partner (or any person with whom the Member is living as a spouse or civil partner)
    • Members with a significant personal interest may participate in the discussion and vote on that matter unless that interest could be reasonably regarded as prejudicial.

     

    Minutes:

    There were no declarations of interest from those committee members in attendance.

150/16

PETITIONS & LETTERS OF REPRESENTATION pdf icon PDF 883 KB

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    To receive any petitions in accordance with Standing Order 65. An officer response will be provided to each petition.

    Minutes:

    A petition signed by 48 residents was brought before the Committee. The petition was brought as a result of residents witnessing speeding through their estate and drivers ignoring directional signage, resulting in illegal turns.  A response to the petition was prepared by the Highways department and had been supplied to the petitioner and committee members in advance of the meeting. It is supplied as an annex with these minutes.

     

    In presenting the petition, the lead petitioner expressed that she felt the report prepared by the officer did not reflect the daily experience of residents in Franklands Drive. Having noted the most recent covert survey on 11September, the petitioner felt that a survey conducted a little later in the day, around school pick-up times, might have yielded different data. She also expressed concern that the issues may increase if the planned further development of the site was to go ahead.

     

    The local police sergeant who was in attendance was asked to comment. She noted the issue and the fact that the residents have also petitioned for CCTV from the borough council to address this and anti-social behaviour in the area. She asserted the importance of the police response being proportionate to the evidence presented and that although they were happy to continue working with residents in addressing issues, felt that the evidence did not support additional action at this time.

     

    In closing the item, the Chairman, who is divisional member for this area, stated that whilst she was aware of the issues as a result of correspondence with the petitioner, she felt that the report had accurately outlined the current circumstances and that she agreed with the recommendation of the report to take no further action. The committee concurred with this response.

151/16

WRITTEN PUBLIC QUESTIONS pdf icon PDF 371 KB

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    To receive and answer any questions from Surrey County Council electors within the area in accordance with Standing Order 66.

    Minutes:

    A written question was received from Bishopsgate School in Englefield Green asking the committee if a change in speed limit and parking restrictions could be implemented to improve road safety outside of the school. A response was obtained from our Highways department and the school and committee were provided with this response (which is supplied with these minutes). The head teacher and bursar of the school attended the meeting to present the question. They had witnessed car passing at speeds that had alarmed them and noticed that signage had been obscured on the highway so that it was unaffected. They asked for assistance in identifying any measures that could be put in place to improve safety.

     

    The Area Highways Manager (AHM) acknowledged the question and noted the school’s concerns. Fortunately, this location does have a good safety record and has no recent road injuries or fatalities.

     

    The AHM remarked that it had been decided that  new signage and road markings were to be installed but this had been delayed due to financial constraints. However, the school could expect to see these implemented in the next 2-3 months. In addition, a proposal to conduct a speed limit assessment has been put forward to be considered for the next financial year.

     

    With respect to the parking, a parking review will be carried out in the next 12-18 months and measures could be recommended as a result of this. Options were outlined in the engineer’s report.

     

    The committee was in agreement with the suggestions proposed.

152/16

WRITTEN MEMBER QUESTIONS

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    To receive any written questions from Members under Standing Order 47.

    Minutes:

    No written member questions were raised.

153/16

DECISION TRACKER [FOR INFORMATION] pdf icon PDF 86 KB

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    Minutes:

    The decision tracker was reviewed by the committee. It was suggested by the Chairman that the remaining item relating to a Rights of Way hearing should stay on the tracker until it was known whether an appeal would be lodged.

154/16

ENVIRONMENT AGENCY: WINTER READINESS AND INCIDENT PREPARATION [FOR INFORMATION, NO REPORT} pdf icon PDF 1 MB

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    A presentation given by the Environment Agency officer for Runnymede to present an update of their current activities with respect to winter readiness, major incident plans, temporary defences and work with partners and community groups.

    Minutes:

    The Environment Agency’s officer for Runnymede presented to the Committee, the measures that the agency had undertaken in readiness for any flooding incidents as we go into winter. She was joined by a representative from Applied Resilience who manage the emergency planning for the borough.

     

    There are now three, strategically located hub depots in the country from which, temporary flood defence resources can be deployed within 12 hours of a flooding emergency. These hubs are run by the logistic company Eddie Stobart. The nearest hub to Runnymede is in Crick which is on the M1.

     

    Among the new measures, the Environment Agency have 40 kilometres of temporary flood barrier that can be put into position to protect areas that are in danger of flooding. 150 people have been trained as site deployment leads who can attend the locations where flooding is threatened and ensure that the resources are implemented in an effective and timely manner.

     

    It is however to be noted that temporary defences will not prevent flooding in all situations due to the different ways in which flooding can manifest itself. Concern was expressed by the Committee that these defences would not be appropriate where flooding was due to a rise in ground water, as was the case in Egham in 2014.

     

    In this instance homeowners who lived adjacent to the waterways had riparian rights which means that they had a legal responsibility to maintain them but as many of them were are elderly or immobile, this led to practical difficulties in carrying this out. It is suggested that a community flood group may choose to clear ditches on behalf of less physically able residents, as one of their key activities to prevent this happening in the future.

     

    Applied Resilience presented the work that they are currently doing with community groups. Their focus is currently on established groups who have emergency plans in place to make sure that these are updated and tested.As part of this, an event is being held in November which will invite groups to take part in an exercise that will simulate an emergency scenario against which their plans can be tested. Councillors welcomed this event and asked that they be kept apprised of this and events of a similar nature so that they can keep their residents informed.

     

    In addition, a report will be brought to a later committee to outline the roles of all the agencies involved in incident planning and recovery and to demonstrate the responsibilities of each.

     

     

     

155/16

HIGHWAYS DRAINAGE & WET SPOTS [FOR INFORMATION, NO REPORT] pdf icon PDF 1 MB

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    A presentation given by the Area Highways Manager outlining the county council’s approach to tackling highways drainage and wet spots

    Minutes:

    The Area Highways Manager (AHM) presented the committee with an overview of the recent audit carried out on work performed by the highways drainage contractors. A previous report had uncovered a variety of inconsistencies in the contractor’s practices and demonstrated that there was a need to monitor the work more effectively.

     

    Amongst some of the measures put in place to remedy these issues was a better use of technology to check that jobs had been completed in the appropriate locations and financial penalties issued when key indicators had not been met.

     

    As part of the presentation, the AHM was able to show a screenshot of software that the team are using to montor wet spots and drainage issues and extended councillors an invitation to view it in real time.

     

    The presentation ended with a case study featuring a location in Surrey Heath where the team had to liaise with Network Rail to address flooding issues under a railway bridge which was successfully resolved.

     

     

156/16

HIGHWAYS UPDATE [FOR DECISION] pdf icon PDF 365 KB

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    The Area Highways Manager will present this information update to the Committee and answer any of the members’ questions.

     

    Additional documents:

    Decision:

    The Local Committee (Runnymede) agreed to:

    (i)            Note the progress with schemes and revenue funded works for the 2017/18 financial year.    

    (ii)           Note the budgetary position.        

    (iii)          Note that a further Highways Update will be brought to the next meeting of this Committee.

    (iv)         Defer this item until further information is brought to the November meeting.

    Minutes:

     

    The Area Highways Manager (AHM) presented a report which updated the committee on the progress of this year’s schedule of works and financial position. The report also included a proposal to introduce bus stop clearways at two existing bus stops on the A318 New Haw Road, Addlestone (Recommendation iv). This would prevent parking in the immediate vicinity of the bus stop, providing buses with a safe place to fully pull in alongside the kerb and prevent passengers from having to board or alight a bus in the carriageway, whilst avoiding the parked cars.

     

    The Committee’s discussion of the report centred on this item. Councillors who were familiar with the bus stop in question, contended that this was not a bus stop that is well used and that preventing parking in an area where it was already at a premium would only cause there to less available parking elsewhere.

     

    As this is a bus stop that has been operational for some time, members enquired what had prompted officers to seek this measure now and what evidence existed to demonstrate that the introduction of the bus clearways was now needed. In view of that information not having been provided, the committee deferred the decision on this item and requested that the Passenger Transport team supply their rationale, along with any supporting data, for consideration at the next meeting.

     

     

     

    The Local Committee (Runnymede) agreed to:

    (i)            Note the progress with schemes and revenue funded works for the 2017/18 financial year.    

    (ii)           Note the budgetary position.        

    (iii)          Note that a further Highways Update will be brought to the next meeting of this Committee.

    (iv)         Defer this item until further information is brought to the November meeting.

157/16

COMMUNITY SAFETY UPDATE [FOR INFORMATION] pdf icon PDF 210 KB

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    A review of activities carried out by the Safer Runnymede Partnership in 2016-17 to address local issues. This will be presented by a representative of the Runnymede Police team.

     

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    The Committee were presented an update regarding crime and community safety in the borough. The presentation gave an overview of crime statistics against a number of activities such as burglary and anti-social behaviour. The presentation also covered the police team’s recent community engagement activities and how they addressed recent issues such as traveller incursions.

     

    The sergeant explained the national guidance for dealing with traveller incursions which were set out in slide 7 of her presentation and that any measures they take are in line with this guidance. The Committee related instances where  police seemed reluctant to enforce injunctions even thought there was criminal activity occurring. The sergeant explained that police can only intervene when criminal activity is reported and can be ‘caught in the act’ Serving injunctions is also difficult as these are served against named individuals and it can be hard to determine who is involved and to whom the injunction should be served, especially if aliases are being used.

     

    It was noted by the Committee that safe guarding was an important element of what the police did in relation to travellers. As so many of them have young children, preserving their welfare is an important goal. Recent national news stories had also underlined the importance of safeguarding all members of the community to protect vulnerable people of all ages.

     

    The Committee expressed concern that one way that has been suggested to combat this problem was to establish permanent sites for the travellers’ use. However, these would need to provide adequate facilities such as water and power and it was felt that these would be expensive to provide and maintain.

     

    On the subject of burglaries, the sergeant was asked if the reduced street lighting had made any difference to the rise in incidents. The sergeant reported that burglaries occur at any time and many times these happen during the day whilst people are out at work. Therefore, it was difficult to ascribe burglaries to the street-lighting patterns.

     

    The Committee noted the community engagement work that the police were undertaking especially the ‘Meet the Beat’ sessions that had been held around the borough. Councillors suggested that these should be publicised more robustly and that more notice should be given. Councillors would also welcome becoming more involved in the engagement work and would be happy to help with spreading information about these events.

     

    The Committee thanked the sergeant for her time and her report was noted.

158/16

FORWARD PLAN [FOR DECISION]

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    The Committee is asked to agree the following items for the Local Committee on 27 November 2017.

     

    ·         Update on the River Thames Scheme

    ·         Highways Update

    ·         Road Safety & Air Pollution

    ·         Surrey Fire & Rescue annual review 2016/17

     

     

     

    Decision:

    The Local Committee agreed that the following items should be included in the next agenda:

     

    ·         Update on the River Thames Scheme

    ·         Highways Update

    ·         Road Safety and Air Pollution

    ·         Surrey Fire & Rescue annual review 2016/17

    ·         Address from Surrey’s Cabinet Member for Highways, Colin Kemp

    Minutes:

    Due to the Committee having very full agendas for both this meeting and their next private session, Cllr Colin Kemp would be invited to address the November committee.

     

     

    The Local Committee agreed that the following items should be included in the next agenda:

     

    ·         Update on the River Thames Scheme

    ·         Highways Update

    ·         Road Safety and Air Pollution

    ·         Surrey Fire & Rescue annual review 2016/17

    ·         Address from Surrey’s Cabinet Member for Highways, Colin Kemp