Agenda and minutes

Councillor Brian Crowe declared a Personnel Interest in Cabinet Agenda Item 7 – Older People’s Plan – Progress Update 2010-2011 as a member of his family was a user of Assistive Technology / Telecare.   He remained in the room and took part in discussions on the item.

Agreed as an accurate record.

[In relation to Minute No. 5 – Consideration of any Call-ins of Decisions Made at the Cabinet Meeting on 26 May 2011 – Cabinet Agenda Item 14 – Authority to Apply to Government for Consent for Change of Use from Green Belt Land, Members asked for further clarification on the officer response].

To confirm that the items of business marked Part I will be considered in public and that the items marked Part II will be considered in private.

It was agreed that all items of business were considered in public.

To hear the Call-In of any decision made at the Cabinet meeting prior to this meeting or made by Cabinet Members, other Council Committees or a delegated officer and published within five working days of this meeting.

Members should bring their Cabinet agenda to the meeting.

Members should consider any other decisions published in the five working days before this meeting.

The purpose of this meeting is to decide whether to refer back any decision to the decision maker.

A general observation was made by Members that the Policy Overview Committees (POCs) had not had an opportunity to comment on a number of Cabinet reports because the Council’s meeting schedule meant that the Cabinet agenda was published after the POCs had met.   

The Democratic Services Manager explained that Policy Overview Committees had the opportunity to request information on Cabinet items which were detailed on the Cabinet Forward Plan.

Members asked that their concerns on this be noted.        

Members gave consideration to the Cabinet reports of 16 June 2011 and after careful consideration Members decided not to call-in any decision made by the Cabinet at their meeting.

However further information was requested on the following items:

Cabinet Agenda Item 5 - Sustain, Renew and Prosper - Hillingdon' Approach to Regeneration 2011-2016 

Members asked:

(1)  Why was consideration not given to pressing Transport for London (TfL) for an extension of the Metropolitan Line at Uxbridge to Heathrow?

(2) Why was consideration not given to lobbying the Mayor for London for his support for improving the north-south bus routes?

[Subsequent to the meeting, officers provided the following response:

“(1) Hillingdon, along with other authorities in west London continues to engage pro-actively with TfL on a range of medium and longer-term aspirations to improve the various rail networks within the area, and whilst many options may have theoretical attractions and in particular travel and general commuting benefits for many of our residents, there also needs to be a recognition of the need for a firm business case which would support the considerable investment needed by TfL for many of these schemes, and the need to mitigate any adverse environmental impacts.

A rail link between Uxbridge and Heathrow is a positive aspiration, but given that it would go through residential areas it would involve large scale compulsory purchase and or significant tunnelling.  This would require very high levels of investment, and funding to the level required is unlikely to be available for the foreseeable future. Given that the Government is presently committed to delivering Crossrail and HS2 over the next two decades it is unlikely that there would be Central government support for the initiative.   In addition, the Mayor's Outer London Commission report dated June 2010 stated that taking account of the likely shortage of funding for new infrastructure available in the short-term, that there should be an emphasis placed on making the current system operate more effectively rather than on new big transport projects which are not feasible.  The extension of the Metropolitan Line would be a major new project. 

The beauty of the Central Line extension from West Ruislip to Uxbridge is that the land already exists and therefore, it is a more realistic aspiration at this time.  It would be comparatively easier in engineering terms and consequently cheaper financially and this istherefore why the Council is lobbying TfL.  The extension is also supported by many of our Uxbridge town centre partners.

(2) The Council has lobbied strongly in relation to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.