Agenda and minutes

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting held on 15 June 2021 be confirmed.

No declarations of interest were received.

Kate Bell, Climate Change Manager:

a.    presented the Councils Environmental Policy for comment prior to consideration by Executive.

b.    gave the background to the policy as detailed at paragraph 2 of the report.

c.    referred to paragraph 3 of the report, which outlined the purpose of an Environmental Policy and explained that the Policy set out goals for protecting and improving the environment. The Policy covered all of the Council’s activities and estate, including the ‘landlord’ responsibilities for property and Council homes.

d.    highlighted the achievements of the Council’s Environmental Policy during 2020/21, as detailed at paragraph 4 of the report.

e.    proposed some amendments to the Environmental Policy which included:

·         All Council committee reports would need to consider any environmental implications.

·         Environmental issues should be given preliminary consideration as part of the procurement of new Council contracts and when reviewing existing contracts to ensure that enough time was allowed to explore options, consider best practice elsewhere and to consult with the Climate Change Vision group.

f.     explained how the Policy would be implemented as detailed at paragraph 6 of the report.

g.    invited members questions and comments:

Question: Asked if there a plan in place to ensure that Council owned vehicles and sub- contractor vehicles would be made more environmentally friendly.

Response: A detailed report was currently being completed which looked at all aspects of the Council. This included looking at how Council owned diesel vehicles would be replaced with either electric or lower emission vehicles. Sub- Contractor vehicles were included in the amendment to the Environmental Policy and would be considered as part of the procurement of new Council contracts and when reviewing existing contracts.

Question: Asked if there was equipment placed around the City to monitor exhaust fume levels.

Response: Monitors were placed at Broadgate and Canwick Road, the emissions were high but they were now within the recommended levels due to the new bypass and the Covid-19 pandemic.

Question: Currently 43% of the City’s electricity was from a renewable source and asked if it would it be possible for 100% of the electricity to come from a renewable source in future.

Response: There would be a proposal put forward next year for 100% renewable energy supply.

Question: Asked what the Council was doing to encourage people to walk more, particularly for parents on the school run.

Response: The City Council worked closely with Lincolnshire County Council, this included attending the Active Travel Steering Group which looked at making provision to park further away from schools, submitting bids to the Active Travel Fund and looking at ways to make permanent cycle routes through the City to make cycling safer.

RESOLVED that the amendments to the Environmental Policy be supported and referred to Executive for consideration.

Pat Jukes Business Manager – Corporate Policy:

a.    presented a report to propose the introduction of a revised Corporate Consultation and Engagement Strategy to replace the 2019 edition.

b.    advised that the new five-year strategy was designed to support officers and members involved in the change of either a service or a policy, to understand when and where consultation was needed.

c.    referred to paragraph 4 of the report and highlighted the key points to note within the strategy.

d.    highlighted the three notable changes to the strategy:

1.    Understanding our customer’s needs was a key driver of One Council

2.    There should be clear reference to any consultation feedback received as part of the decision-making report.

3.    Elected Members could play a key role in reaching harder to reach groups in their communities

e.    invited members questions and comments:

Question: Asked how elected members could assist with reaching harder to reach communities?

Response:  The details of consultations would be included in the Councillor Briefing.  Councillors would be asked to encourage residents to complete the survey, it was preferred that the response be completed online, however, a paper copy could be provided if needed.

Question: Community Leadership Scrutiny Committee would be reviewing how the Council could include the voices of young people aged 14-21 and invited the Business Manager, Corporate Policy to attend a future Community Leadership Scrutiny Committee to discuss how this would be done.

Response: The Business Manager, Corporate Policy confirmed that she would be happy to attend a Community Leadership Scrutiny Committee. There had been difficulties previously with accessing the younger aged group and the Policy Team would be keen to be involved with this work.

Question: Referred to the Existing Corporate Consultation Vehicles and asked why the Police were not involved.

Response:  The Existing Corporate Consultation Vehicles referred to consultation methods that were owned by the City of Lincoln Council. The Police could be invited to be involved via external focus groups.

Question: Referred to Section 11 of the Children’s Act and asked if consultations would be sent to schools.

Response: The Service Manager would be expected to contact service users including schools, were appropriate. It was preferred that Service Managers contact the Policy Team for advice on consultations.

RESOLVED that the proposed Strategy be supported and referred to Executive for consideration.

Toby Forbes Turner, Planning Policy Manager:

a.    presented the Central Lincolnshire Local Plan (CLLP) Consultation Draft to brief Members and to note the formal response on behalf of the Council.

b.    advised that the next version of the CLLP had been produced for public consultation starting 30^th June to 24^th August. Once adopted the CLLP would replace the current Local Plan which was adopted in April 2017.

c.    explained that there were 83 policies contained within the Draft Plan with key policies including those relating to climate change, housing, biodiversity, retail and employment.

d.    further advised that following this round of consultation the Draft Plan would be subject to one further round of statutory consultation prior to being submitted to the Planning Inspectorate for public examinations which was estimated to take please in early 2022 with the plan hopefully adopted later in 2022.

e.    explained that the structure of the Consultation Draft Local Plan had changed from the current Local Plan and was now thematic for ease of reading and navigation by users.

f.     advised that the new draft Local Plan included a number of areas of substantial change from the plan adopted in 2017 and detailed the following key areas of change:

·         Housing Requirement

·         Settlement Hierarchy and site allocations

·         Retail Hierarchy

·         Climate Change

g.    highlighted the key policies of interest for Lincoln:

·         Affordable Housing including First Homes

·         Employment

·         Retail including Lincoln City Centre

·         Accessibility and Transport

·         Parking Standards

·         Historic Environment

·         Natural Environment / Biodiversity/ Trees

·         Sustainable Urban Extensions and Regeneration and Opportunity Areas in Lincoln

·         Lincoln Housing Allocations

·         Consultation Process

h.    explained that following the consultation, all comments would be scrutinised and considered and the plan would be amended where needed. It would then be brought back for the approval of the Central Lincolnshire Joint Planning Committee before it was subject to a further statutory stage of consultation prior to the plan being submitted to the Secretary of State for examination.

i.      invited members questions and comments:

Question: Referred to paragraph 4.27 of the report regarding Affordable Housing and asked if the lower cap of £140k applied to just the affordable housing element or all housing in relation to the Western Growth Corridor.

Response: The concerns for affordable housing was understood, however, the plan needed to be deliverable in Lincoln and would be consistent across the County.

Question: Referred to the Central Lincolnshire adopted plan and asked how many of the 37k planned houses had been built.

Response: There had been a lot of changes since the adoption of the plan in 2014, the figure could be circulated following the meeting.

Comment: Expressed concern that 78.6% of housing in Lincoln was in Council Tax bands A and B, therefore the Council Tax remuneration would be fairly low.

Response: This would be a large area of development and a compromise was needed.

Comment: Lincoln City had a small amount of land to build on compared to other district councils in Lincolnshire, such as North Kesteven and West  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.

Paula Burton, Safeguarding Officer:

a.    presented a report to inform Policy Scrutiny Committee with the current position with regards to Protecting Vulnerable People in Lincoln.

b.    referred to paragraph 2 of the report and gave an overview of the current situation in the following key areas:

·         Safeguarding Children and Adults

·         Team Around the Adult

·         Missing and Child Exploitation

·         Domestic Abuse

·         Modern Slavery

c.    advised that due to the resourcing pressures being experienced with the response to Covid-19, it was agreed that the Section 11 Audit would still be completed but there would be no peer moderation.

d.    referred to paragraph 4 of the report and updated on the Police Operations including Op Vigilance and Op Stabilise.

e.    gave an overview of the new Professional Supervision procedure which had been distributed to all managers of staff but was mainly aimed at being completed with the front-line staff.

f.     advised that the Protecting Vulnerable People Group had a Communications Plan that incorporated national, county and local campaigns to raise awareness of various areas of Protecting Vulnerable People.

g.    advised that the E-cins IT system would be implemented and used for safeguarding concerns to record vulnerable people and people of concern. It was proposed that the use of the system would be incorporated in the review that was due to take place of the Health and Safety Policy.

h.    invited members questions and comments.

Question: Referred to the new IT system and asked if there were any loop holes?

Response: The new E-Cins IT system would be used across agencies to provide a place where information could be shared and also to check if vulnerable people and people of concern were already known to agencies.

Question : Was there enough resources available?

Response: Any concerns regarding resources were always escalated to management.

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The Chair praised Officers and expressed his thanks and appreciation for their work. Paula Burton, Safeguarding Officer confirmed that she would forward the positive feedback to the Officers concerned.

RESOLVED that the update be noted.

The Democratic Services Officer:

a.    presented the report ‘Policy Scrutiny Work Programme 2021-22 and Executive Work Programme Update’.

b.    presented the Executive Work Programme August 2021 – July 2022.

c.    requested councillors to submit what items they wished to scrutinise from the Executive Work Programme and policies of interest.

d.    referred to the Modern Slavery Charter Review scheduled for November 2021 and asked if the members still required a report given the update that was provided at tonight’s meeting.

e.    invited members questions and comments.

The Committee agreed that they were satisfied with the update received on the Modern Slavery Charter and a further report was not necessary.

Members requested that a Post Implementation Review on the changes to the Public Conveniences be scheduled into the work programme one year following implementation.

RESOLVED that:

1.    the work Policy Scrutiny work programme be noted with the following amendments:

                      i.        The Modern Day Slavery Charter review be removed from the Work Programme.

                    ii.        A Post Implementation Review of the Public Conveniences be scheduled into the work programme at the appropriate time.

2.    the Executive work programme be noted.

None.