Agenda and minutes

County Councillors Taylor, Higginson, Guppy, Easson and Dymock.

None.

The minutes of the Committee were confirmed and signed by the Chairman.

Trevor Harris, who attended the meeting held on the 28^th June 2017 attended the meeting to receive an update on the issue of HGV vehicles driving through local villages.

Unfortunately no highways officers were available to attend the meeting and Mr Harris will be provided with an update via email.

The Committee were joined by members of a local action group S.T.O.P. who sought the committee’s support in opposing a proposed waste treatment works at Portskewett Industrial Estate.

The members of the group gave the committee a background to the issue and advised that the air quality review by Air Quality Consultants was tasked to analyse information provided to support the controversial application by Bristol-based firm DPS Solutions, this report identified major issues.

The company intends to build two chimneys at Severn Bridge Industrial Estate which could process 20,000 tonnes of non-metal car parts per year, however the review found that the assessment did not specify procedures that would be in place in varying states of operation.

Various findings of the report were discussed including;

No allowance for start-up, shutdown or abnormal operating conditions has been provided.

Facilities such as this one, are required to include generators to provide emergency power and are also used to provide the initial power during the facility start-up process.

Emissions released from generators have the potential to impact upon air quality in the local area, even when only operated for short periods, and should be assessed.

It also found that it failed to disclose all relevant pollutants and an odour assessment, or take into account off-site emissions from vehicles visiting the site.

County Councillor A. Davies spoke of his personal experience of managing a plant that had emission issues and that there had to be very close control over what was emitted, like dioxins and had grave doubts about how much experience DPS have.

Environmental Health Officer Paul White advised that he had rejected two permit applications by DPS due to a lack of and contradicting – information and that the applicants have until November 3^rd 2017 to remedy.

Building control Manager Philip Thomas advised that planning application, could take several more months to resolve has attracted nearly 250 objections to date.

County Councillor P. Fox spoke of his support for the residents in opposing this proposed development and asked for an update at the next Severnside Committee meeting.

A statement was provided by Cath Fallon, Head of Economy and Innovation in respect of the current position on Area Grant allocation.

In response to an information request by Cllr Evans regarding the Area Committee Grants I wish to provide the following statement.

Further to a review of Community Governance in March 2017 Council agreed to pilot a review of Area Committees in Bryn y Cwm. To guide the delivery of the pilot a number of parameters were set which were subsequently agreed at the Bryn y Cwm Area Forum on the 12th July 2017 namely:

 To take forward the agreement to disband the Programme Board and the Community Forum, with the Area Committee to be retained as the sole structure;

 To act as the Area Cluster representative forum for the Bryn y Cwm Area thus reducing any potential for duplication;

 To extend an invitation to include a single representative from each of the Town and Community Councils in the proposed pilot area with each representative having voting rights during the pilot. Also an open invitation to be extended to other Area Committees during the pilot phase.

The pilot will take place over a twelve month period starting in September 2017 after which its success will be measured using the following proposed indicators:

 No. of issues raised by the public appearing as an agenda item and the resulting outcomes;

 No. of recommendations reported to the Authority by a County Councillor on behalf of the Committee; and

 No. of representatives attending regularly from other Area Committees.

In addition, the Bryn Y Cwm Area Committee agreed to take part in a review exercise during the twelve month period. The exercise will include a consultation in relation to the strategic coordination of Area Committee Grant funding, to be distributed equally amongst the five Cluster Areas.

It is proposed that funding will be allocated on an annual basis, subject to evidence of how it addresses local needs and priorities, maximises opportunities and impact e.g. use as match funding and attributes to the county’s wellbeing objectives.

Further to the pilot on the 9th October 2017 Cabinet approved the restructuring of the Whole Place and Partnerships team to create a newly focussed Community Development and Partnerships Team.

Therefore given the Bryn y Cwm pilot and the recent restructure approval, all Area Committee Grants will be suspended, pending the development of new criteria in line with the associated outcomes.

A further statement will be provided once the findings of the pilot have been reviewed.

The Committee received an update from Aaron Reeks regarding recent Caldicot Town Team activities including;

·         Events

·         Retail Units

·         Seating in the town

·         Painting

·         Forward action plans

Members of the Committee welcomed the hard work of the Town Team and County Councillor A. Davies welcomed the appointment of a Project Manager as a positive move and stressed the importance of market research taking place so that we can best understand what would attract businesses to the town.

County Councillor Easson has received thank you letters from group who have benefited from the area grants.

The thank you letters were acknowledged by the Committee.