Agenda and minutes

The Council welcomes engagement from members of the public. To speak at this meeting please register no later than 24 hours prior to the date of the meeting via democracy@southkesteven.gov.uk

Mr Bell – question to the Committee, in relation to the Animal Licensing Policy:

Where a Council is exercising a function of licensing, having clear policies in place which guide the decision-making process is an important contribution to transparency and openness, and ultimately fairness for those persons seeking to obtain a licence for the animal related activities covered by this policy.

The policy states, “Animal Licensing is controlled in accordance with legislation” and the policy goes on to list the applicable legislation under paragraph 1.2.

The policy, at paragraph 5.4, says:

“… the Licensing Authority will take into account whether the person proposed to be the operator of the activity can demonstrate that they have (inter alia): No relevant convictions.”

But does not elaborate further on what “relevant convictions” are.

At 6.1 the policy says:

“The Regulations have the aims of maintaining and improving animal welfare standards. However, there are other safeguarding considerations arising from licensable activities, in particular around the protection of children and vulnerable persons and the Licensing Authority must consider these in light of the Children Act 2004 and the Care Act 2004.”

My concern is that a policy related to the grant of a licence related to animal welfare (which is the thrust of the legislation referred to in paragraph 1.2) is using the licensing regime for other purposes, namely to implement safeguarding for children and vulnerable persons (which have their own legislation and protection and enforcement regimes).

The regulations refer to “fit and proper persons” but this is not further defined.

However, the Secretary of State’s guidance issued under regulation 14 does address this:

“The inspector must consider whether the conduct displayed by the applicant indicates that they are a fit and proper person to carry out the licensable activity and meet their licence conditions.”

Section 7 addresses relevance of convictions.

This is where I disagree fundamentally with the policy document. The convictions listed here are not mentioned in the legislation which empowers the Council to issue licences related to animal welfare.

There could be many people with experience of the Criminal Justice System who seek to work with animals in one way or another. Their criminal history does not automatically make them more likely than anyone else to mistreat animals and, in assessing the likelihood of harm to animals from any such persons, I doubt that there is little empirical evidence upon which any conclusion could be reached.

As regards harm to children and vulnerable adults, any individual who is considered a risk to such groups will have been released with licence conditions which the parole board consider maintains the safety of the public and any at risk groups. I would counsel against asking Local Licensing Officers to second guess those who are better placed to address such risks.

Requiring a report within 5 days to the Council of the matters listed in 7.5 appears to be overreach by the Council of its powers and in any event is so widely drawn as to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 45.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Charmaine Morgan, Bridget Ley, Gloria Johnson and Patsy Ellis.

Councillor Tim Harrison substituted for Councillor Bridget Ley.

Councillor Richard Dixon Warren substituted for Councillor Gloria Johnson

Members are asked to disclose any interests in matters for consideration at the meeting.

There were none.

The minutes of the meeting held on 12 December 2023 were proposed, seconded and AGREED as a correct record.

To consider actions agreed at the meeting held on 12 December 2023.

All actions were complete.

The Leader of the Council informed the Committee that there had been high water levels recently and one property within the District was flooded. The family were already in temporary accommodation following Storm Henk.

The Leader of the Council had attended the Welland Internal Drainage Board where Members received a presentation on recent flooding events.

The Monitoring Officer confirmed that a date was being arranged for a Joint Meeting of the Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee and Rural and Communities Overview and Scrutiny Committee to discuss the response to Storm Henk.

The Cabinet Member for Environment and Waste noted that one of the biggest issues at present was that the current dike and drainage system was filled with water which should be within Environment Agency’s waterways. There were 8 current breaches in South Kesteven, which was putting significant additional pressures on the ability to drain the water away.

The Cabinet Member for Environment and Waste thanked Officers and members of the public for cooperating with the Twin Stream Recycling roll-out, which had been successful. Reassurance was provided that the Council were exploring ways in which the Council were exploring an outcome of sack collections.

This report proposes a new Animal Licensing Policy for approval by this Committee, following the 4-week consultation with the public, local businesses, partner agencies and other organisations.

The Licensing Manager presented the report.

The policy covered the licensable activity of Animal Welfare. It set out the principles the Council would use when dealing with animal related licensing matters.  Currently, the Council issued animal welfare licences in accordance with the Regulations but does not have a policy providing a framework to support this.

There was no statutory requirement for a local authority to adopt an Animal Welfare Policy. However, the adoption of an Animal Welfare Policy (“the draft new policy”) would provide clarity to the public, partner agencies and applicants. 

The purpose of animal licensing was to protect animals engaged in a  licensable activity to ensure their health and wellbeing.  It also provided protection for the public and those using the licensed facility, within the terms of the relevant Acts and legislative Guidance.  A policy provides a framework for Officers and Members to enable consistent decision making and transparency.

The draft new policy was provided at Appendix 1. There were no proposed amendments following the consultation. The consultation report was attached in Appendix 2.  There were no further updates to the draft new policy proposed.

Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee had endorsed the policy for public consultation on 3 October 2023.

Attached in Appendix 3 were all the comments submitted as part of the Consultation and responses to the comments. 53 consultation responses were received.

Following public speaking on this item, it was suggested that the following amendment be made:

·       Addition to 7.3 – ‘Each case would be considered on its own merits’.

Some Members had agreed with the public speaker statement and felt as if the Committee were overstepping their remit.

The Licensing Manager clarified that the suggestion would allow the team to investigate, prior to the granting of a licence. Licence holders only required to hold a basic DBS check, not an enhanced DBS check.

The important of DBS was discussed.

It was clarified that the Authority would be licensing the individual to attend the specified establishment rather than licensing the establishment itself.

The Cabinet Member for Environment and Waste requested the written statement from the public speaker to provide Cabinet with the issues to review.

The Monitoring Officer informed the Committee that there was no critical element of time constraint for the policy to be implemented and therefore could be deferred.

It was proposed, seconded, and AGREED to defer the item and for it to come back to the Committee, at a later date.

To provide an overview of the Annual Air Quality Status Report (ASR 2023) for awareness and noting.

To update the Committee on the Clean Air Lincolnshire, which is a county wide project.

The Head of Service – Public Protection presented the report which provided the Committee with an overview of the Annual Air Quality Status Report (ASR 2023) for awareness and noting and to update the Committee on the Clean Air Lincolnshire, which is a county wide project.

Under the Environment Act 1995, which was amended by the 2021 Environment Act and the associated Local Air Quality Management Framework. Local authorities had a duty to review and assess air quality against National Air Quality Standards. Local air quality in South Kesteven was managed via an extensive diffusion tube monitoring network compromising fifty-eight passive NO₂ diffusion tubes at thirty-five separate locations (some have triplicate/duplicate tubes at one location). The diffusion tube network is used to monitor NO₂ concentrations across the District, the tubes are located within Grantham and Stamford.

The ASR 2023, as reported in Appendix 1 of the repot identified the specific locations of the diffusion tubes on a map. 

Local authorities were required to produce an ASR report on an annual basis that covered the previous calendar year.

The report identifies that there were no exceedances of the air quality objectives at any of the passive monitoring sites.

Overall, the general trend showed that concentrations of NO₂ were decreasing, with all sites being below both the hourly and annual objective levels. However, there had been a slight increase observed in the concentrations at some sites from 2021 to 2022, as traffic levels within the area are starting to return to pre-pandemic levels.

The ASR identified that there were no recorded exceedances of the hourly mean objective for NO₂ when using the annual mean as a proxy for the hourly mean. Exceedances of this objective had not been predicted for the past 5 years.

The Clean Air Lincolnshire Project was a county-wide project that South Kesteven District Council were apart of. The project was funded by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and was led by Lincolnshire County Council.

The aim of the project was to raise public awareness of the issue of clean air for health, the environment and to provide actionable steps to improve local air quality and reduce health conditions related to air pollution.

A key aim of the project was to work in partnership with identified secondary schools within the County. For South Kesteven, Kings School in Grantham was participating in the project, which was also located within the Grantham Air Quality Management Area.

One Member queried whether any other schools had become involved within the monitoring of the air quality project.

Clarification was sought around the term ‘non-automatic site’.

It was noted that Appendix B highlighted a drop in figures in the month of December and why this was the case.

ACTION: For the Head of Service – Public Protection to provide background information on why there was a drop in figures in the month of December (Appendix B).

The Head of Service – Public Protection confirmed that no other  ...  view the full minutes text for item 52.

To provide an overview of the Air Quality Action Plan (AQAP) for awareness and noting.

The Head of Service – Public Protection presented the report. The purpose of the report was to provide an overview of the Air Quality Action Plan (AQAP) for awareness and noting.

The local air quality management regime was introduced by the Environment Act 1995. The Council’s duties under the Environment Act 1995 were to review and assess air quality against National Air Quality Standards.  When a pollutant fails to comply with an objective and there is relevant public exposure, an Air Quality Management Area (AQMA) must be declared and an Air Quality Action Plan (AQAP) prepared, detailing measures which will be implemented to improve air quality in the designated area.

South Kesteven District Council declared an AQMA in 2013 encompassing the main roads in the town centre of Grantham. The main pollutant of concern was Nitrogen Dioxide (NO₂), which was largely attributable to road transport emissions, with cars being the dominant source within the AQMA.

Councillor Charmaine Morgan submitted the following statement:

‘'When an EIA - Air Quality Assessment was completed to support the Southern Quadrant Development Masterplan it highlighted poor Air Quality existing on a number of roads in Grantham South. In particular, where the A52 meets the routes from Grantham to the A1. 

At the time I requested an extension of the monitoring of air quality by SKDC to include Grantham South but this did not occur. As a result the current measurements exclude the area affected being those roads leading up to and including: 

Gainsborough Corner A52

Springfield Road 

Bridge End Road A52

Somerby Hill A52

South Parade

Spitalgate

I am formerly requesting that the Action Plan for SKDC Air Quality includes extending measurements in Grantham to include these roads and taking mitigating action as appropriate.’

One Member queried the cost of an air monitoring system.

The Head of Service – Public Protection did not have the figures available. The determination of the data from the monitoring was also included within costs.

ACTION: For the Head of Service – Public Protection to provide costs of monitoring and data of an air monitoring system.

One Member noted the promotion on the use of clean and alternative fuels where possible, the Council would work to improve emissions from its own vehicle fleet by increasing the number of greener low emissions vehicles using alternative fuels.

It was queried whether the Council were exploring the types of vehicles used for refuse collection.

The Cabinet Member for Environment and Waste confirmed that as part of the contracts supplied by the Council. It was ensured all fleet vehicles were no older than seven years old to ensure a rolling basis of renewal.

Unfortunately, given the 350 square mile of rural nature of South Kesteven, the technology was currently not available at this stage.

ACTION: For the Cabinet Member for Environment and Waste to provide further information on the fuel mix of the Council’s fleet vehicles.

It was noted that the resurfacing of footpaths in the North of Grantham should be  ...  view the full minutes text for item 53.

To provide a further update on the implementation timescales of the Environment Act 2021, in respect of:

·         Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) for packaging,

·         Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) for drinks containers,

·         New requirements on local authorities to implement greater Consistency in Household Recycling, now ‘Simpler Recycling’ (including, separate collections of waste materials, establishing separate weekly food waste collections and providing free fortnightly garden waste collections).

The Cabinet Member for Environment and Waste presented the report.

As previously reported to this Committee, the Government’s Resources and Waste Strategy was published in 2018, which identified several new policies that would have a significant impact on local authorities in relation to their waste and street cleansing duties. These included three interrelated key projects:

·     Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) for packaging,

·     Deposit Return Scheme (DRS)for drinks containers, and

·     Simpler Recycling - New requirements on Local Authorities (LA’s) to implement greaterconsistency in household recycling (including separate collections of waste materials, separate weekly food waste collections and providing free fortnightly garden waste collections)

On the 28^th July 2023 DEFRA wrote to all Council’s advising that the Extended Producer Responsibility for packaging payments would be deferred from October 2024 to October 2025. The aim of this policy was to ensure producers of packaging pay for the cost of recycling their products.

In terms of the wider Resource & Waste reforms, the delivery of the Deposit Return Scheme for cans and plastic bottles to be taken back to retailers, is to proceed to current timescales and be introduced from October 2025.

Weekly food waste collections were required to take place from all households by 31^st March 2026 (unless a transitional arrangement is agreed). DEFRA were gathering further evidence on caddy liners via statutory guidance consultation. The financial implications, alongside indicative transitional capital funding from DEFRA, of this change can be found in Section 4 of this report.

Furthermore, DEFRA had confirmed that the Council would not be required to provide free garden waste collections, and would be offered as an additional service.

On the 9^th January 2024, DEFRA wrote to Chief Executive’s to outline the proposed levels of funding for the transitional capital costs. South Kesteven District Council had been offered £1.37m to cover nine additional food waste collections and food waste caddies for every household.

DEFRA were yet to release information on the level of funding for resource transitional costs.

It was highlighted that the information from DEFRA outlined the need for the development of the new depot, as it was at its full capacity.

It was queried whether the Council were looking to procure vehicles with other Local Authorities as a joint service to buy the vehicles in bulk for possible savings.

One Member raised concern that the new depot and the additional vehicles on the road would not be producing more carbon than saving with the scheme.

The Leader of the Council clarified that authorities usually purchased vehicles through framework or consortium meaning a standard price for other local authorities.

It was emphasised that the scheme would not mean an additional 240l bin for constituents to find storage space for. The scheme would mean constituents would be situated with a small waste caddy that would be collected weekly.

It was confirmed that on the 30^th May 2023, Cabinet approved the Lincolnshire Framework for purchase of refuse collection vehicles.

One Member queried whether can and bottle banks  ...  view the full minutes text for item 54.

This report provides preliminary exploratory information for a domestic kerbside mobile phone recycling collection service.

The Cabinet Member for Environment and Waste presented the report and the purpose of the report was to provide preliminary exploratory information for a domestic kerbside mobile phone recycling collection service.

Mobile phones typically would last around two years in today’s market, with the latest models relegating older devices into cupboards, drawers or being discarded into the waste stream. When electrical items with batteries are discarded into the waste stream, it can increase the risk of waste combusting and there have been increasing occurrences of this happening across the country in recent years.

Currently, Local Authorities were not required to collect mobile phones from households. DEFRA consultation (Environment Act 2021) on the separate collection of recyclables did not propose to introduce this item. Furthermore, under the WEEE Regulations, both producers and retailers of mobile phones had a legal obligation to offer a take back service on mobile phones.

South Kesteven District Council were unaware of other authorities who participated in this type of recycling and the introduction of a scheme would invariably have operational and financial implications, such as,

·       Possible disposal barriers

·       Theft of the mobile phones prior to collection (data not being wiped on the mobile phone)

·       Lack of demand from residents as they have alternatives methods of disposal.

·       Customisation of the refuse freighters.

·       Increased collections by staff

A query was raised on the collection of batteries and when the scheme was due to commence.

The Lead Officer had put in various requests for permissions and the Council were working with Government. It was hoped that the scheme would be in place by June 2024, assuming safety and collection certificates were completed.

Concern was raised over the safety of waste operatives when collecting the phones due to the value of them.

North-West Leicestershire District Council collected batteries and mobile phones together and had been since 2019. They had collected 15 tonnes of batteries and 100kg of mobile phones, which had been recycled. It had costed them around £400 to set up the service.

Members discussed more profitable ways in which people could recycle their phones.

Concern was raised on a GDPR issue when disposing of an old phone.

One Member suggested that a scheme on the safe disposal and recycling of vape devices be explored.

The Government were exploring new legislation to tackle how vapes were to be displayed, packaged, coloured in efforts to reduce their appeal to young adults.

The Cabinet Member for Environment and Waste would seek legal advice of the possibility of batteries and vapes being collected together.

The Committee were reassured that permissions were being explored for the collection of batteries and the scheme was legally compliant with legislation.

ACTION: The Cabinet Member for Environment and Waste to provide a timeframe in which permissions for battery collection would be completed.

That the Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee:

1.    Note the contents of the report and consider whether there is a valid business case to introduce a kerbside mobile phone recycling collection service.

2.    For  ...  view the full minutes text for item 55.

To consider the Committee’s Work Programme for 2023-24.

The Committee noted the Work Programme 2023-24.

There were none.

The Chairman closed the meeting at 12:16pm.