Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Peter Kemp.

To confirm that all items marked Part 1 will be considered in public and that any items marked Part 2 will be considered in private

RESOLVED: That all items of business be considered in public.

The Chairman welcomed those present to the meeting and thanked them for giving up their time to attend.

MITIE

Mr James Drakeford, Senior Account Manager at MITIE Technical Facilities Management, advised that the company employed more than 72,000 people across 88 different service lines.  The services offered by MITIE included cleaning, maintenance and decoration and were delivered through subsidiary companies which were overseen by an overarching company. 

In Hillingdon, MITIE was currently based in the Civic Centre, and employed more than 150 staff to deliver services to 227 sites across the Borough, with very little being sub contracted.  Mr Drakeford would provide the Democratic Services Manager with a list of the sites serviced in Hillingdon for circulation to the Committee Members.

Although the services delivered by MITIE included maintenance / repair, cleaning and catering, each client was able to determine which services it required and how flexible these needed to be (a sort of “pick and mix” approach).  Members were advised that MITIE undertook a significant amount of work in nurseries in the Borough, for example, providing meals for the children.   

Affinity Water Limited

Mr Paul Mooney advised that Affinity Water, which provided the fresh water supply in Hillingdon, was currently undertaking significant work in the Borough in the vicinity of Breakspear Road, Ruislip and Swakeleys Road, Ickenham.  In addition, the company had been ice pigging which was a process whereby an ice slurry was pumped into a pipe and forced along inside in order to remove sediment and other unwanted deposits.  The majority of this work was being undertaken at night to reduce the impact that it had on traffic management. 

Mr Mooney stated that a number of smaller mains renewal schemes were being undertaken in the Northwood area.  Affinity also had work underway in Hayes and Yeading.  Effort was being made to mitigate the impact that this work was having on local traffic.  

Members were advised that there were a number of ways in which water mains could be renewed which included:

• Pipe bursting – a small pit would be excavated at each end of the pipe that was being replaced, and a small section of the old pipe would be broken out.  A steel rod would be pushed into the old main and then the rod would be used to pull a cutting tool back through the pipe.  The cutting tool would break up the old pipe, and at the same time a new plastic pipe would be pulled into place in the gap left by the old pipe.
• Directional drilling – involved drilling a pilot hole with a precision-guided drilling rig, then pulling the new pipe back through the hole.  However, not all ground conditions were suitable and not all pipe materials could be used.  Only two small pits were required, one at each end of the section of pipe that was being replaced.  Because of the number of services in the ground that could be damaged by the drilling, this was not  ...  view the full minutes text for item 34.

Consideration was given to the Committee’s Work Programme.  Members were advised that the Anti Social Behaviour (ASB) Working Group had held two witness sessions, met with a victim of cross border ASB and had visited the CCTV control room.  It was noted that the draft final report would be considered at the Working Group’s next meeting on 21 January 2014.  It was anticipated that the report would then be considered by this Committee at its meeting on 18 February 2014 and Cabinet on 20 March 2014.

With regard to the Stigma review, it was noted that there had been a slight delay and the final report would be presented to Cabinet at its meeting on 23 January 2014.  

It was agreed that the meeting programmed for 18 March 2014 be rescheduled to start at 5pm.  

RESOLVED:  That:

1. the meeting programmed for 18 March 2014 be rescheduled to start at 5pm; and
2. the Work Programme, as amended, be noted.

RESOLVED:  That the minutes of the meeting held on 19 November 2013 be agreed as a correct record.