Agenda and minutes

It was noted that the minutes of the meeting held on 12 November 2013 would be considered at the meeting to be held on 21 January 2014.

The Chairman advised that a number of Members from the Committee had attended a site visit to Heathrow Airport on 29 November 2013. The visit had comprised a presentation on the airport’s approach to water conservation and a visit to Terminal 2 which was currently being developed. The major points from the visit were highlighted as follows:

• The airport had drilled three boreholes at a cost of £500,000 each. Two of these had not yielded any water and one had not yielded as much as had been hoped. Nonetheless, the supply from this borehole had been used effectively as a non-potable water supply at the airport and had reduced dependency on external suppliers.
• There had been a trend of declining water consumption over recent years which had been attributed, in part, to the redevelopment of Terminal 5 which was more sustainable than older terminals. The use of better, more efficient water consuming assets such as taps, urinals and toilets across the airport had also helped to reduce consumption.
• One of the most effective ways that the airport used to reduce leakages was through smart metering. Smart meters were those that provided hourly consumption data and fed this information into a software package. With this almost real-time data, it was much easier and quicker to locate and repair leaks. 
• Colleagues from the airport had advised that it was difficult and expensive to retrofit buildings to use grey water as this required an independent piping system to keep grey and mains water separate. To make grey water systems cost efficient, they needed to be considered from the very outset of a development.

Witnesses

To assist the Committee with this review James Rodger, Head of Planning, Green Spaces & Culture and Vicky Boorman, Flood & Water Management Specialist were present to provide evidence.

A summary of the evidence provided to the Committee is set out below:

Water and Planning

It was noted that there were a number of useful, non-local policies and guidelines on water available to the Council including the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) and the Mayor’s London Plan. These were comprehensive and useful documents that provided much of the guidance required on areas such as the retrofitting of buildings and on water use and supply. Consequently, witnesses did not think these policies needed to be duplicated and suggested, instead, that any gaps where these policies did not apply for Hillingdon be filled.

Although the Council had a wide range of its own local policies in place, it was noted that there was no single, comprehensive document in which they were brought together. However, such a document was currently being developed in the form of the Local Plan Part 2 which was currently being shaped to include more guidance on water conservation. The policies currently in use on water conservation, particularly policy EM1, required major developments (10 units or more) to consider the full water cycle including consideration of water consumption. However, the fact that this was limited to major applications meant  ...  view the full minutes text for item 35.

RESOLVED: That the Forward Plan be noted.

RESOLVED: That the Work Programme be noted.