To
agree the minutes of the previous meeting of the Communities,
Environment and Highways Select Committee as a true and accurate
record of proceedings.
1.The deadline for Member’s questions is 12.00pm
four working days before the meeting (Monday, 15 March
2021).
2.The deadline for public questions is seven days
before the meeting(Friday, 12 March
2021).
3.The deadline for petitions was 14 days before the
meeting, and no petitions have been received.
Due
to the COVID-19 pandemic, all questions and petitions received will
be responded to in writing and will be recorded within the minutes
of the meeting.
To
present to the Select Committee the ‘New Rail Strategy for
Surrey’.
To
seek the views and comments of the Select Committee on the strategy
so they may be communicated to and considered by the County
Council’s Cabinet when it considers the New Rail Strategy for
Surrey on 30 March 2021.
To
receive a commentary of the rail strategy from London
TravelWatch.
Daniel Philips,
Senior Transport Consultant - Arup
Tim Bellenger, Director - Policy and Investigation,
London Travelwatch
Key points raised during the discussion:
The report presented to the Select Committee was the updated
Railway Strategy (the ‘Strategy’) and it was to be
considered at Cabinet on 30 March 2021. The Strategy had a
supporting evidence base with a set of strategic aims and was part
of the wider, forthcoming Local Transport Plan 4 (LTP4). Rail was
an important aspect of Surrey’s infrastructure and would be
key in helping the county achieve transport decarbonisation.
Railways were largely out of the direct control of local
authorities thus the Council would focus on effective lobbying,
seeking investment, working with bus operators, and improving
connections and access to railway stations for
residents.
The Strategic Transport Group Manager stated that the Strategy
was developed in partnership with Arup and would be important in
helping the Council to articulate its strategies, policies,
priorities, ambitions and the supporting evidence basis to local
MPs, the government and rail industry to secure investment in
Surrey.
Members asked about the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic,
officers reported changed commuting patterns and a significant
decrease in public railway usage. Despite this, the Group Manager
stated that it was still an appropriate time to adopt a new
strategy so the Council could input and shape the future of the
rail industry. The Cabinet Member agreed that it was timely because
it was important that post-Covid-19 people returned to sustainable
modes of transport to meet decarbonisation and net carbon targets.
The Cabinet Member went on to say that, as part of LTP4, it was
vital that the railway strategy was integrated into the wider
transport and infrastructure plan as early as possible to support
the Council’s Climate Change Strategy (CCS). The Strategy was
also important in light of the government’s ‘levelling
up’ agenda; it provided an evidence base to lobby government
to keep investment around Surrey and the southeast.
The Chairman invited the Director - Policy and Investigation,
London Travelwatch(the statutory consumer watchdog that represented transport
users in and around London including Surrey) to comment on the
Strategy. The Director had made several suggestions in response to
Surrey’s new Railway Strategy regarding station
accessibility, community rail partnerships, and the extension of
smartcard technology. Passenger numbers fell during the pandemic so
improvements in the aforementioned areas were important in
attracting users (both new and old) to the network.
The Director stated that it was important that the Council
engaged in wider consultation with stakeholders and disabled
groups, for example Transport for All, in the finalising of the
strategy, and suggested that modest changes and smaller schemes
would make a considerable difference to people (for example,
tactile paving at all stations).
The Director added that joint research carried out by London
Travelwatch and Transport Focus showed
that, post-pandemic, many people who traditionally commuted to work
via train would be working ...
view the full minutes text for item 13/21
To provide the Select Committee
with an update on progress in relation to the Climate Change
Delivery Plan and the Land Management Framework, highlighting
ongoing implementation and success to date.
Natalie Bramhall, Cabinet
Member for Environment & Climate Change
Carolyn McKenzie, Director
– Environment
Key points raised during the
discussion:
The Cabinet Member
stated that the report was a summary of work that had taken place
to date on the Climate Change Delivery Plan (CCDP). The final CCDP
was to be published, with approval by Cabinet, in June 2021
following further development of the funding mechanisms and
businesses models needed to finance and monitor reduction
activities. Work on the Land Management Framework (LMF), summarised
in the report, was a key part of the CCDP linked to the climate
change adaptation agenda that would deliver multiple benefits. The
Council was positioning itself to capitalise on investment
opportunities that were likely to arise when the government’s
Environmental Bill was published. Officers were developing a set of
carbon reduction metrics which could be applied to programmes and
schemes in the CCDP, and in the meantime were working on
identifying immediate benefits such as Active Travel and
decarbonisation of the corporate estate. The CCDP was to be updated
and reviewed annually.
The Director –
Environment added that joint ownership of the CCDP was vital in
ensuring effective engagement and emphasised the scale of the
challenge which would only be overcome by the involvement of the
private sector, public sector and residents and communities. The
Council should take a clear leading role in enabling and inspiring
people to make changes.
The 100% CO2 target
reduction, against 2019 levels, by 2050 was a challenging target
and the government needed to make big policy shifts to help local
authorities meet these national targets. The Council’s
success would also depend on partner engagement and attracting
investment. There had been significant improvements and changes and
the Director stated that it was important not to undermine the
difference that smaller initiatives, such as the streetlighting
initiative, could make in meeting targets. The Director also added
that if the electrification of cars and transport proceeded, the
Council could meet its target by 2040.
A Member requested
further explanation of the Greener Futures Investment Multiplier
Framework. The Director explained that this was being developed as
the overarching Framework to draw in investment from numerous
organisations to one platform to fund a range of programmes. It was
also important to bring in the agendas and investment of other
applicable strategies and programmes, such as the Rail Strategy and
Local Transport Plan 4, to maximise outcomes and take forward the
Council’s climate change agenda and achieve multiple benefit
outcomes. For example, the River Thames Scheme flood defence
programme included the creation of new habitats, and considered
health, leisure and amenity purposes as well as carbon
sequestration and biodiversity.
The Council’s
relationship with Surrey Wildlife Trust and Surrey Nature
Partnership was important and Members wanted to see evidence of
this and the organisations’ involvement in the report and
referred to in Phase 2 of the Framework, particularly with regard
to planning considerations. The Director assured the Committee that
Surrey Wildlife Trust was involved with the ...
view the full minutes text for item 14/21
For the Select Committee to
receive an update on the following areas:
·Implementation of Phase 1 and Phase 2 of the changes
included within Our Plan
·The outcomes of the Covid-19 Inspection by
HMICFRS
·The continuing response to Covid-19 and Recovery
Plan
·SFRS Priorities
For the Select Committee to receive a summary of the activity of
the working group to monitor the implementation of the
‘Making Surrey Safer’ Plan and its
conclusions.
Denise Turner-Stewart, Cabinet
Member for Community Protection
Steve Owen-Hughes, Director
– Community Protection Group
Sarah Kershaw, Chief of
Staff
Key points raised during the
discussion:
The
witnesses were asked by the Select Committee to comment on the
industrial dispute with the Fire Brigades Union (FBU); this was
ongoing albeit some items were resolved. Regular meetings were held
with FBU representatives and every effort was being made to resolve
all issues raised. The FBU suspended their Action Short of Strike
in March 2020. The Chief Fire Officer stated Surrey Fire and Rescue
Service’s (SFRS) desire to have good industrial relations
with all unions, and it was encouraging more unions to recruit
members from SFRS for wider representation of the
workforce.
A Member
asked whether officers could provide trend data on SFRS’s
establishment data to show how it changed over the previous
five-year period. The Chief Fire Officer explained that the
workforce was divided into four categories: control staff, support
staff, wholetime firefighters, and on call firefighters, and the
Service was now 100% across all those areas apart from on call ,
which was 83.3% and subject to an ongoing recruitment drive. Prior
to 2019, there was no fixed establishment and from 2016-2018 SFRS
depended on overtime to provide the required staffing
levels.
The Chief
Fire Officer went onto say that there was an organisation
development department whose job it was to forecast the
Service’s leaver profile. This was being monitored and the
Service encouraged retiring frontline staff to transfer to other
service departments, such as fire safety, to retain experience
Establishment figures were now fixed, and the risk of relying on
overtime significantly reduced. In 2016, the Service was funded to
a headcount of 646 on call and wholetime firefighters but, having
undertaken data and risk analysis, the Service now knew that it
needed 595 firefighters.
SFRS was
still able to meet its statutory requirements during the Covid-19
pandemic despite deploying staff into different service areas.
Fulltime firefighters who delivered statutory response functions
were deployed less frequently than parttime and volunteer service fire fighters. Most
of the community resilience activities (i.e. prevention and
protection measures) were impacted by the pandemic. Face to face
Safe and Well visits to businesses and residents’ homes and
school visits ceased temporarily at the beginning of the pandemic
except for those safe and well visits for high risk vulnerable
persons which continued. The Youth Cadet Scheme was delayed until
September 2021 and community events and the Youth Engagement
Programmes were reduced or delayed. Community engagement and staff
engagement was also impacted by the pandemic and the Service
undertook a recovery review starting in June 2020 to understand all
areas impacted by the pandemic and develop a return to normal plan
for catch up in those areas.
The
Chairman asked whether some ways of working had fundamentally
changed due to Covid-19. The Chief Fire Officer responded that SFRS
had learned over the last year that there were effective ways of
doing things differently. Engagement with business ...
view the full minutes text for item 15/21
2.The Chairman and the proposer of the
alternative budget were satisfied with the scrutiny process of the
alternative budget proposal and thanked officers and Members for
their contributions.
For the Select Committee to review the
attached forward work programme and actions and recommendations
tracker, making suggestions for additions or amendments as
appropriate.