Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence had been received from Councillor Richard Lewis with Councillor John Morgan substituting.

There were no declarations of interest.

RESOLVED: That the minutes of the meeting dated 17 November 2021 be agreed as an accurate record.

It was confirmed that all items were marked Part 1 and would be considered in public.

By way of introduction the Chairman emphasised that any comments from Members on this item should be kept within the Select Committee’s remit. Andy Goodwin, Interim Financial Planning Manager, was present for this item highlighting that it was his second appearance at the Select Committee following the mid-year budget update in July 2021. A brief overview of the 2022/23 budget proposals was delivered and a breakdown of the budget proposals for services within the remit of the Select Committee were outlined. With regard to inflation, £885k in cost pressures were projected against 2021/22 expenditure going into 2022/23, half of this related to workforce budgets, with the remainder coming from contracted expenditure and energy costs. Savings of £1,754k had been incorporated into the draft budget under the Select Committee’s remit including £200k of efficiency savings to be delivered from a review of Parking Services and £1,554k arising from a review of fees and charges within the Public Safety and Transport portfolio.

Clarifications were sought as to the substantial reduction in the 2022/23 budget proposals for a number of works programmes when compared to the 2021/22 budgets; namely the CCTV Programme, Highways Structural Works Programme and Road Safety Programme. Officers confirmed that this was primarily attributed to a significantly heightened spend in 2021/22 as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. Many Council services were subject to various restrictions and supply chain issues throughout the 2020/21 financial year and a catch up spend was required in 2021/22. It was also confirmed that the CCTV Programme budget had been spread evenly over a five year capital programme, the 2022/23 CCTV Programme budget was intended to maintain the Council’s CCTV infrastructure rather than to expand the offering.

The Committee commended officers on the well-constructed budget proposals despite the uncertainty posed by the Covid-19 pandemic and welcomed the proposed investment within highways, street lighting and the maintenance of the CCTV Programme. A query was raised regarding the increase of roughly £500k in the Transport for London (TfL) grant as it had been noted that TfL had been substantially affected financially by the Covid-19 pandemic. Officers confirmed that the Council was still awaiting news of the final TfL settlement and that this was unlikely to arrive ahead of finalising the 2022/23 budget in February. Depending on the final TfL settlement, Officers would prospectively be required to carry out a budget amendment.

Concerns were raised as to the savings projected to be delivered through increases in fees and charges. Officers confirmed that a yearly benchmarking exercise was carried out whereby fees and charges were reviewed in the context of neighbouring local authorities. Across neighbouring boroughs, per resident fees and charges averaged at £150, the proposed review of fees and charges for Hillingdon averaged out at £113 per resident.

The Committee also acknowledged that there may be broader implications for the Public Safety and Transport proposed budget related to discussions with the Department for Education regarding the Dedicated Schools Grant deficit. It was noted that this matter would be  ...  view the full minutes text for item 52.

The Chairman introduced the item highlighting that the Committee were required to piece together their final conclusions and findings from the Electric Vehicle Infrastructure review in the form of recommendations to Cabinet that could be included in the Select Committee’s final review report; a draft of which would come to the Committee’s following meeting in February 2022. A set of draft recommendations, broken down into short, medium, and long-term recommendations, were tabled for the Committee to comment upon.

Short-term draft recommendations included:

1)    That Cabinet seek to increase the transparency of information available on the Council’s website relating to EV charging infrastructure projects and installations to residents.

2)    That Cabinet seek to improve levels of engagement with residents through a mechanism to express their interest in local EV charging provision.

3)    That Cabinet note the objectives of the Council’s Strategic Climate Action Plan, with reference to sustainable transportation and the development of an EV charging action plan that will commit to increasing the availability of EV charge points across the Borough.

4)    That a report be prepared for the relevant Select Committee on an annual basis regarding the implementation of the new contract and EV Infrastructure across the Borough as it progresses.

Members were generally encouraged by the proposed short-term recommendations, specifically highlighting the emphasis on resident engagement, which had manifested as a key priority for the Committee throughout the review. The Select Committee were minded to amend recommendation 4 to include reference to monitoring the usage data of charge points and potentially having this information come back to the Committee.

Medium-term draft recommendations included:

5)    That Cabinet consider the merits of a more proactive enforcement effort to ensure developers make available suitable EV charging provision in their developments to fulfil their planning obligations.

6)    That Cabinet explore the viability of a policy to ensure equitable use of on-street residential charge points and incorporate EV considerations into the design of future Parking Management Schemes, in advance of any future decision on the feasibility of introducing on-street EV charging points.

7)    In support of the Strategic Climate Action Plan, that Cabinet endorses plans to replace all diesel-powered vehicles 3.5T and smaller within the Council’s fleet with Electric Vehicles before 2030.

The Committee sought to clarify the grouping of recommendations into short, medium, and long-term. It was noted that the timings were relatively vague but intended to offer room for the recommendations to be implemented when best appropriate; although it was highlighted that the Committee would seek to have the short-term recommendations implemented as soon as feasibly possible.

Longer-term draft recommendations included:

8)    That Cabinet concurs with the Committee’s findings that, whilst the Council is not responsible at this time for directly providing EV infrastructure or the necessary utilities that support it, with such a societal paradigm shift, the Council should play a leading ‘enabling’ role to ensure that the Borough is well prepared for the growing EV demand and the resultant technological, infrastructure and behavioural changes arising.

9)    That Cabinet considers  ...  view the full minutes text for item 53.

The Chairman briefly outlined the upcoming items in the Cabinet Forward Plan under the remit of the Select Committee. Members noted that a request was made to call-in Cabinet’s recent decision on the contract for the Council’s Parking Enforcement Service. The call-in attempt was however unsuccessful.

RESOLVED That the Committee noted the Forward Plan.

It was noted that a previously requested information item on e-scooters would unfortunately not come under the Committee’s remit as enforcement responsibility for the use of e-scooters was led by the police rather than the local authority.

RESOLVED That the Select Committee noted the items listed on the work programme.