Leisure, Environment and Community Committee - 15 March 2023

LEISURE, ENVIRONMENT AND COMMUNITY COMMITTEE

NOTICE AND AGENDA

For a meeting of the Leisure, Environment and Community Committee to be held on Wednesday 15 March 2023 at 7.30pm in the Penn Chamber, Three Rivers House, Northway, Rickmansworth, WD3 1RL

Members of the Leisure, Environment and Community Committee:-

Councillors:-

Chris Lloyd (Lead Member for Leisure)

Roger Seabourne (Lead Member Community Safety and Partnerships)

Rue Grewal

Stephen King

David Major

Chris Mitchell

Debbie Morris

Phil Williams (Lead Member Environmental Services, Climate Change and Sustainability)

Ciaran Reed

Jon Tankard

Anne Winter

Joanne Wagstaffe, Chief Executive

7 March 2023

Lead Member Responsibilities:

Leisure– Arts development and facilities, Leisure and Community Grants, Leisure Development and Facilities, Open Spaces, Play Areas and Play Development, Public Health Strategy, Sports Development and Facilities, Wellbeing, Woodlands.

Environmental Services, Climate Change & Sustainability Air pollution and Noise Pollution, Animal and Pest Control, Cemeteries and Crematorium; Refuse collection and recycling; Street Cleaning and litter bin emptying; Sustainability, Climate Change and Energy Efficiency.

Community Safety and Partnerships –

·       To review or scrutinise decisions made, or other action taken, in connection with the discharge by the responsible authorities of their crime and disorder functions (it is the Crime and Disorder Committee for the purposes of the Police and Justices Act 2006);

·       To make reports or recommendations to the Council with respect to the discharge of those functions;

·       The Committee will be able to co-opt members from the Responsible Authorities (the Community Safety Partnership) should it wish to when reviewing certain projects/decisions.

(We are required by law to have a scrutiny committee to carry out this function)

Disease Control, Food Inspection, Health and Safety, Health and social care, Licensing activities covered by the Licensing Acts, Licensing and Regulatory activities outside the Licensing Acts, Public Spaces Protection Orders, Unlawful Encampments.

The Council welcomes contributions from members of the public to aid discussions on agenda items at the Infrastructure, Housing and Economic Development Committee meetings. Details of the procedure are provided below:

For those wishing to speak:

Members of the public are entitled to register and identify which item(s) they wish to speak on from the published agenda for the meeting.  Those who wish to register to speak are asked to register on the night of the meeting from 7pm.

Please note that contributions are limited to one person speaking for and one against each item for not more than three minutes.

In the event of registering your interest to speak on an agenda item but not taking up that right because the item is deferred, you will be given the right to speak on that item at the next meeting of the Committee.

Those wishing to observe the meeting are requested to arrive on the night of the meeting from 7pm.

In accordance with The Openness of Local Government Bodies Regulations 2014 any matters considered under Part I business only of the meeting may be filmed, recorded, photographed, broadcast or reported via social media by any person.

Recording and reporting the Council’s meetings is subject to the law and it is the responsibility of those doing the recording and reporting to ensure compliance.  This will include the Human Rights Act, the Data Protection Legislation and the laws of libel and defamation.

The meeting will not be broadcast/livestreamed but an audio recording of the meeting will be made.

1.  APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE

2.  MINUTES

To confirm as a correct record the minutes of the Leisure, Environment and Community Committee meeting held on Wednesday 23 November 2022.

2022-11-23-lec-minutes

3.  ANY OTHER BUSINESS

Items of other business notified under Council Procedure Rule 30 to be announced, together with the special circumstances that justify their consideration as a matter of urgency. The Chair to rule on the admission of such items.

4.  DECLARATION OF INTERESTS

To receive any declarations of interest.

5.  BUDGET MONITORING – PERIOD 10

This report covers this Committees financial position over the medium term (2022 – 2025) as at Period 10 (end of January)

The Period 10 comprehensive Budget Management report has already been presented to the Policy & Resources Committee at its meeting on 13 March 2023 which sought approval to a change in the Council’s 2022 - 2025 medium-term financial plan

-05-23-03-15-lec-i-budget-management-report-period-10-05i-23-03-15-lec-i-budget-management-report-app1

COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS

6.  COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS SERVICE LEVEL AGREEMENT (SLA) EXTENSION

This report provides details of community based services, provided to vulnerable residents within the district under Service Level Agreements, for which the Council contributes funding.

The Committee is asked to approve the proposed extensions of the identified Service Level Agreements for a further 3 years together with the associated expenditure. The expenditure is accounted for within existing Community and Leisure budgets.

The Committee is asked to approve the continuation of support for the Community Support Service and Domestic Abuse Caseworker Service, the expenditure for which is accounted for within existing Community and Leisure budgets

The Committee is asked to approve the proposed expenditure and extension of the existing Service Level Agreement with Citizens Advice Service Three Rivers (CASTR).

-06-23-03-15-lec-i-sla-report

7.  ENVIRONMENTAL FORUM TERMS OF REFERENCE

This report presents to a draft revised Terms of Reference (ToR) for the Environmental Forum for comment and approval.

-07i-23-03-15-lec-i-tor-env-forum-report-07ii-23-03-15-lec-i-appendix-1-tor-env-forum-07iii-23-03-15-lec-i-app2-draft-tor-env-forum-2023

8.  DRAFT CLIMATE EMERGENCY AND SUSTAINABILITY STRATEGY

The Climate Emergency and Sustainability Strategy was adopted by committee March 10 2021 and by Full Council 25 May 2021. This was followed up by an Action Plan which was agreed at LEC 13 October 2021 and has been reviewed at LEC bi-annually since.

The purpose of this report is to present an update to the Climate Emergency and Sustainability Strategy with the draft strategy detailed at Appendix 1.

The revised Strategy has been prepared with consideration to the bespoke reports commissioned, consultation with all relevant officers, reflection on progress to date, and an understanding of how urgent the climate emergency is for residents of Three Rivers, and to ensure Three Rivers complies with the Climate Change Act (revised 2019) target for the UK achieving net zero by 2050.

The draft strategy has been prepared as a sequel to the

current strategy

and

supplementary document

to the strategy.

The Council has commissioned and received two critical reports, namely the

APSE Route to Zero (Council and District)

report (Appendix 2) on how the Council’s strategy should address the climate emergency.

The Council’s emissions from April 2018 to March 2022

are shown at Appendix 3, and the District baseline emissions are included in Appendix 2. This data informed our understanding of the scale and scope of the decarbonisation challenge for both the Council and the District.

Climate change is a core pillar of the Council’s new Corporate Framework.  Through this strategy the Council will consider the climate emergency and sustainability in all its decisions, steering council operations towards net-zero by 2030. It demonstrates strong leadership to inspire and influence the District to achieve net-zero by 2045 and acknowledges that mitigation alone is no longer sufficient to combat climate change; climate adaptation is now also critical to the future of our District.

-08-23-03-15-lec-i-climate-emergency-and-sustainability-strategy-report

-08i-23-03-15-lec-i-app1-climate-emergency-and-sustainability-strategy-2023-26-08ii-23-03-15-lec-i-app2-route-to-zero-district-baseline-emissions-08iii-23-03-15-lec-i-app3-energy-trdc-carbon-baseline-emission-2021-22-08iv-23-03-15-lec-i-app4-climate-change-short-eqia-08v-23-03-15-lec-i-app5-cce-strategy-climate-and-sustainabilityimpact-assesment

LEISURE

9.  THREE RIVERS NATURE RECOVERY STRATEGY

The purpose of this report is to summarise the content and implications of the Three Rivers Nature Recovery Strategy, and recommend that the final version of the Strategy is adopted by Three Rivers District Council.

Appendix A details the Three Rivers Nature Recovery Strategy.

-09-23-03-15-lec-i-three-rivers-nature-recovery-strategy-report-09i-appendix-a-three-rivers-nature-recovery-strategy-march-2023-09ii-appendix-d-climate-and-sustainabilityimpact-assesment

10.  BIODIVERSITY OPPORTUNITIES AUDIT, ALTERNATIVE GRASSLAND MANAGEMENT AND TREE STRATEGY UPDATE

The purpose of this report is to provide an update on the progress of the Biodiversity Opportunities Audit (BOA), the Alternative Grassland Management (AGM) initiative adopted in March 2022, and the Tree Strategy adopted in January 2022 and to make recommendations for future years.

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11.  WORK PROGRAMME

To review and make necessary changes to the Committee’s work programme

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12.  OTHER BUSINESS agreed under item 3

13.  EXCLUSION OF PRESS AND PUBLIC

If the Committee wishes to consider the remaining item in private, it will be appropriate for a resolution to be passed in the following terms:-

“that under Section 100A of the Local Government Act 1972 the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the following item(s) of business on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined under Paragraphs 1 to7  of Part I of Schedule 12A to the Act. It has been decided by the Council that in all the circumstances, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.”

(Note:  If other confidential business is approved under item 3, it will also be necessary to specify the class of exempt or confidential information in the additional items.)

1.  OTHER BUSINESS – if approved under item 3 above

General Enquiries: Please contact the Committee Team at committeeteam@threerivers.gov.uk