Agenda and minutes

Resolved:-  That the minutes of the previous meeting held on 6^th November, 2006, be received as a correct record.

- Tracy Holmes to give verbal report

Tracy Holmes, Director of Corporate Communications and Marketing, gave a verbal presentation on Crystal Mark as follows:-

-              ‘Crystal Mark’ showed that an organisation was committed to plain English for public information;

-              Following the pilot in Licensing, feedback from a survey sent to hackney carriage and taxi licence applicants had been very positive, commenting on how useful the forms would be across the Council;

-              Corporate membership, which enabled the Council to use the Crystal Mark logo, was £6,000 per annum plus VAT.  This included training for 20 people.  There was still the cost of having documents edited by the Plain English Campaign;

-              It would cost £2,000 plus VAT for a single Directorate in the first year and £1,000 plus VAT thereon.  Training for 1 person was provided.

Discussion ensued on the initiative with the following points highlighted:-

o                   The Plain English Campaign would give an estimate of how much it would cost to edit a document;

o                   A document with legal implications would take longer and they had access to legal advice to ensure the meaning of the document was not diluted;

o                   To make the best use of the training, all documents that it was felt would benefit from the initiative would have to be passed by those that had been trained;

o                   Each Directorate could identify 10 of its most common letters that would benefit from Crystal Mark;

o                   There would be budget implications for the editing of documents.

Resolved:-  (1)  That the report be noted.

(2)  That a discussion take place at the Service Directors’ meeting to ascertain if any other Council Directorate had piloted the initiative.

(3)  That a report be submitted to Cabinet seeking approval to corporate membership of Crystal Mark.

Stephen Moralee, Development Control Officer, presented a report on the implications for the Planning Service from the above Policy Statement.  This set out the Government’s policies for renewable energy which planning authorities should have regard to when preparing local development documents and when taking planning decisions.

The Government’s target was that by 2010 the country should be generating 10% of its electricity from renewable sources with the aspiration that this should increase to 20% by 2020.  Current estimates of production were around 3%.  The Statement and Companion Guide were intended to encourage the appropriate development of further renewable energy schemes throughout England which would include schemes in urban as well as rural areas, ranging from domestic to commercial scale.  The planning system could only deliver sufficient additional renewable energy schemes to meet the shortfall if positive planning policies were in place.

Discussion ensued on the report with the following points highlighted:-

-              There was no Policy currently.  The Regional Spatial Strategy set out the London/Merton style strategy;

-              A joint report should be compiled with Neighbourhoods and Adult Services on what energy saving work was already taking place, grants available etc;

-              Currently there were insufficient houses being built to meet the target;

-              The Sustainable Development Action Group should consider this issue.

Resolved:-  (1)  That the report be noted.

(2)  That the Development Control Officer and the Home Energy Advice Team compile a joint report to the next meeting including an overview of the existing situation.

(3)  That Councillor Hussain, Chair of the Sustainable Development Action Group, be invited to the next meeting for this item.

Stephen Moralee, Development Control Officer, presented a paper on Secured by Design which was an initiative fully backed by the Association of Chief Police Officers and the Home Office.  It was aimed at the development industry to actively encourage it to adopt important guidelines to upgrade the security of new buildings against crime and fire safety. 

Officers in Development Control encouraged a developer, prior to submitting a planning application, to discuss their proposal(s) with the Police Design Out Crime Officer.

Discussion ensued on Pathfinder projects.  Transform South Yorkshire’s criteria, which developers had to meet, included energy saving and secured by design. 

Resolved:-  That the report be noted.

Action plans be submitted to a future meeting, including timescales, for:-

(i)         the intention to develop an affordable housing interim planning statement in readiness for the LDF

(ii)        the intention to develop an Affordable Housing Communication Strategy

(iii)       the intention to develop a Neighbourhoods Asset Management Strategy be noted.

Progress report on the Enviro-Crime Strategy (May, 2007)

Role of Member Champions

Recycling – Bin Collections

Resolved:-  That at the next meeting consideration be given to:-

Progress report on Affordable Housing Interim Planning Statement and Renewable Energy

Future of this Group and the Recycling Group

Transfer of Waste Management.

- to be agreed

Resolved:-  That a further meeting be held on Monday, 26^th March, 2007, at 10.00 a.m.