In the interest of transparency Councillor Dodds disclosed an interest relating to Fly Tipping in the Bradford District, item 8 (Minute 27), as her son was a Neighbourhood Warden for Bradford Council.

During the course of the meeting, Councillor Kamran Hussain disclosed an interest relating to Update on the Review of the Housing Strategy and the Homelessness & Rough Sleeping Strategy (Minute 25) as he was a private landlord.

ACTION: City Solicitor

Recommended –

That the minutes of the meetings held on 16 April and 9 July 2019 be signed as correct records (previously circulated).

(Asad Shah – 01274 432280)

Resolved –

That the minutes of the meetings held on 16 April and 9 July 2019 be signed as correct records.

(Access to Information Procedure Rules – Part 3B of the Constitution)

Reports and background papers for agenda items may be inspected by contacting the person shown after each agenda item.  Certain reports and background papers may be restricted. 

Any request to remove the restriction on a report or background paper should be made to the relevant Strategic Director or Assistant Director whose name is shown on the front page of the report. 

If that request is refused, there is a right of appeal to this meeting. 

Please contact the officer shown below in advance of the meeting if you wish to appeal. 

(Asad Shah - 01274 432280)

There were no appeals submitted by the public to review decisions to restrict documents.

Any referrals that have been made to this Committee up to and including the date of publication of this agenda will be reported at the meeting.

There were no referrals to the Committee.

The current Housing and Homelessness Strategy, A Place to Call Home, 2014-2019, is undergoing review with a shift towards producing two separate strategies.

The report of the Strategic Director, Place (Document “M”) provides an update on progress and sets out consultation outcomes.

Recommended –

It is recommended that Member views are taken into account in the drafting of the 2 strategies.

Yusuf Karolia - 01274 434362

Sarah Holmes – 01274 432591

The current Housing and Homelessness Strategy, A Place to Call Home, 2014-2019, was undergoing a review with a shift towards producing two separate strategies.

The report of the Strategic Director, Place (Document “M”) provided an update on progress and set out consultation outcomes.

The Head of Service, Housing Access and the Access to Housing Manager were both in attendance, and with the invitation of the Chair, introduced the report to the Committee.

Following introduction, a question and answer session ensued:

·         How were housing issues being resolved and provided for the most vulnerable in society?

o   In order to resolve differing issues, services would be merging into one service delivery project into a more community accessible level. The service was working with single status service users including vulnerable young;

·         What options were available to a Councillor in advising a homeless person who had no money or a place to live?

o   The service had an emergency contact point where a team was accessible to assist homeless people in emergencies. Contact details for a emergency hostel service were available on the Council’s website. Following initial contact by a homeless person, an assessment would be made over the phone/face to face then through circumstances, a specific need would be progressed for the individual;

·         What was being undertaken to maintain the current housing stock?

o   The council was focused on regenerating all poor housing stock and to improve the quality and energy efficiency of our existing housing stock, particularly in the private sector, and effectively manage the neighbourhood environment including open spaces.

During the discussion, the following points were stated:

·         The rough sleeper initiative had been very engaging with excellent responses;

·         In relation to the  listed buildings review, there was an ongoing issue of people living in such buildings and more should be actioned on changing restrictions for listed buildings; and,

o   In response to comment, the status of listed buildings was protected by the Industrial Heritage Buildings policy and was difficult to undertake the task of amending. Equally Bradford had one of the poorest communities and a significant amount of buildings and land was in need of development.

·         The work of the housing team was praiseworthy due to the significant difference it had made to the homeless.

Resolved –

(1)       As part of the consultation exercise, officers liaise with the          Regeneration and Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee      to arrange an informal session with Members to discuss the Housing, Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategies.

(2)       That the final Housing, Homelessness and Rough Sleeping        Strategies be presented to the Regeneration and Environment      Overview and Scrutiny Committee at the November meeting.

ACTION: Strategic Director, Place

Following previous reports to the Regeneration and Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee and subsequent to the meeting of the 3^rd July 2018, this report of the Strategic Director, Place (Document “N”) provides Members with an update on progress made to date at Sedbergh Sports and Leisure Centre, and sets out the future direction of the Sports Facilities Investment Plan.

Recommended –

That the Regeneration and Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee consider and comment upon the progress made on the development of the new sports facility at Sedbergh.

Phil Barker – 01274 432616

Following previous reports to the Regeneration and Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee and subsequent to the meeting of the 3^rd July 2018, this report of the Strategic Director, Place (Document “N”) provided Members with an update on progress made to date at Sedbergh Sports and Leisure Centre, and set out the future direction of the Sports Facilities Investment Plan.

The report introduction commenced with a PowerPoint presentation, which highlighted the stages in the history of the £28 million development of the two new facilities in Bradford for Sedbergh and Squire Lane.

A question and answer session ensued –

·         An update on Squire Lane was requested.

o   At last discussion of the Squire Lane project was last reported to committee that the Council had been approached be Well North Enterprises WNE and advised that the site could involve further aspirations as opposed to only having a sports facility. Therefore to progress the development of a sports facility on the site, the appointment of the design team had been put on hold, as the Council then began working alongside WNE in order to develop wider plans for the site. The aim was to explore opportunities to co-locate additional services onto the site, to provide a more holistic health, wellbeing community and enterprise centre on the site and, to ultimately provide a far greater spread of facilities for the local population;

·         Would WNE bring additional funding for the sports facility?

o   The company had a history of assisting in finding suitable opportunities to serve to wider communities. WNE would take a proportion of the project for investors as the Council was in need of methods of locating sources of funding for other sports sites; and,

·         Could the Sedbergh Sports and Leisure Centre project be perceived as being an excessively enormous size and complex in terms of its facility?

o   Not at all as there were plans of other services to be provided from within the facility. There were ongoing conversations with the NHS, in regards to relocating some vital services from the hospital into the new facility.

During the discussion the following points were covered –

The proposed project was an enormous facility that would benefit many communities. Some car park space would be an added value to the facility and the community but it was paramount that more space not be allocated for further car park usage as it was the Council’s goal to encourage people to use public transport.

Resolved –

(1)       That officers be thanked for the work undertaken on the Sedbergh       Sports and Leisure Centre and Sports Facilities Investment Plan.

(2)       That proposals relating to the development of the Squire Lane   project be presented to this Committee in 6 months time or sooner, if any significant developments are made.

Strategic Director, Place

The report of the Strategic Director, Place (Document “O”) provides an update from the Environmental Enforcement Team with regards flytipping including information of new structural arrangements, strategies to deal with flytipping and information on numbers of notices and prosecutions in 2018/19.  The report also provides an update on the numbers of flytips reported to the council, the tonnage of fly tips and analysis of relevant waste data.

Recommended –

That the update on fly tipping and enforcement actions to address the problem are considered.

Amjad Ishaq – 01274 431066

The report of the Strategic Director, Place (Document “O”) provided an update from the Environmental Enforcement Team with regards to flytipping including information of new structural arrangements, strategies to deal with flytipping and information on numbers of notices and prosecutions in 2018/19.  The report also provided an update on the numbers of flytips reported to the Council, the tonnage of fly tips and analysis of relevant waste data.

The Shipley Area Co-ordinator, theEnvironmental Services & Enforcement Manager and the Systems and Information Officer were present and with the invitation of the Chair, gave a joint presentation of the report.

A question and answer session ensued –

·         Flytipping was a huge problem in the district and following expressing concerns to Environmental Services with discussions of community led solutions, it was disappointing to find a lack of information on previous discussions. Therefore a brief synopsis of any work that had been undertaken as discussed would be appreciated?

o   The service did not have a experienced officer to assist in environment community behaviour changes and therefore a new position, a ‘Behavioural Change Officer’ had been created and advertised. The post would be filled in the near future to assist in changing the behaviour and attitude of communities towards positive cleaner environmental advantages. Furthermore recruitment exercises had been undertaken to recruit volunteers to participate in community led solutions but this of course was not a final problem solver;

·         There were continuous issues around the area of collection points of waste and due to negative attitudes of people, many individuals were leaving contaminated household waste on the pavement. The bins were also full of contaminated household waste. What was the cause of overfull waste collection points?

o   Many Wards were non operational and lacked efficiency in terms of operational coverage of environment cleansing but there was a need for significant funding in order to tackle all environmental issues on an operational level. However the matter of collection points had been discussed between officers and there were plans to take an operational review of collection points for future environmental needs;

·         There were many businesses that were clearing waste disposal outside of their business premises but what was being done in regards to a select number of businesses that were not participating in a cleaner environment?

o   In order to address concerns, the service required witnesses to identify perpetrators who dropped litter but witnesses were conscious of their own safety issues;

·         What was the process of meeting the request of a Member wishing to have a camera installed in their respective Ward at a flytipping hotspot area?

o   The Council had active cameras and costs entailed an electric line feed and a link to a television monitor. The request for a CCTV could be made through a Ward Officer;

·         An explanation of the recycling process for Bradford was sought?

o   The Portfolio Holder, Healthy People and Places responded that officers present were not employees of the waste recycling department however a video of Bradford’s recycling  ...  view the full minutes text for item 27.

The report of the Chair of the Regeneration & Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee (Document “P”) includes the Regeneration and Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee work programme for 2019/20.

Recommended –

(1)       That members consider and comment on the areas of work        included in the work programme.

(2)       That members consider any detailed scrutiny reviews that they             may wish to conduct.

Mustansir Butt – 01274 432574

Resolved –

That the Work programme 2019-20 be agreed and continues to be regularly reviewed during the year.

ACTION: Overview Scrutiny Lead