Agenda and draft minutes

To sign and confirm the minutes of the last meeting, held on 23^rd May 2018.

With the agreement of the committee members the Chairman signed the minutes of the last meeting held on 23 May 2018

It is recorded that Councillor Brian Rush who confirmed he had not been in attendance at the meeting on the 23 May 2018, noted he had questions about the minutes.  He was advised that as he was absent from the meeting on the 23^rd any query should be raised with officers on closure of the meeting.

To receive apologies for absence.

Apologies for absence were tabled from Councillors Alison Austin and Stephen Woodliffe.

Inspector A Morrice had also tabled his apologies, along with apologies from Mr Phil Drury Chief Executive.

To receive declarations of interests in respect of any item on the agenda.

Councillors Yvonne Stevens and Stephen Raven both declared they were trustees of the St. Leonards Hospital Trust referenced in item 3 of the agenda.  Councillor Yvonne Stevens further declared she was a member of the Small Grants Scheme.

(Inspector Andy Morrice will be in attendance to discuss any policing issues with Members.)

This item was cancelled in line with the apologies of Inspector Morrice.

(For noting – information provided by Paul Julian, Chief Finance Officer)

Members noted the report.  On questioning the income stream of BTAC a member was advised that it was solely from Council Tax with BTAC setting its own precept.  Upon further questioning as to an increase in income, the member was advised it would be subject to any increase in the precept agreed by the committee.  The Member further questioned the wards within BTAC requesting a map be provided identifying each ward.

(A report by Maddy Eyre, Local Communities Development Officer and BTAC Grant Administrator)

Presenting the report the Local Communities Development Officer and BTAC Grant Administrator advised that in line with the Committee’s Small Grant Scheme the report provided comments made by the Small Grants Working Group during its recent consideration of applications in the current round 1 of the year.

Members were advised that four applications had been received and considered by the working group which had resulted in two having been agreed as being eligible for committee determination. 

Providing an overview of each application, members were advised that the application from Lincolnshire Youth Mission had presented its evidence of need very well; the facility would be of benefit to BTAC and its significant need had been well identified for the young residents of BTAC.

The RoadHoG Youth Bus visited 5 schools, 3 of which were in the BTAC area:  St.Nicholas; Tower Road and Park Academy.

Addressing the second application in respect of St.Leonards Trust members were again assured that the application had also been presented well and had evidenced its need in a detailed manner, for residents of BTAC.   The application was for a bench to be located within the rear garden of the Almshouses on Willoughby Road which accommodated 10 gentlemen over the age of 60 who had lived within the area all their lives.  The bench would not only benefit the 10 residents but also their visitors all of whom had been identified as residents across all the BTAC area.  Members were advised it was a very brief and concise application.

Committee comments agreed that both of the applications had met the criteria for consideration and members recognised the need for the funding and the benefits for BTAC residents of supporting both applications.

(A report by Christian Allen, Head of Operations)

The Head of Environmental Operations presented the report confirming that a survey had been conducted by officers of street litter bins in the BTAC area and district as a whole identifying the wards, street and exact location of each bin.  The survey concluded that there were 375 bins located within the 8 BTAC wards amounting to 67% of the total number of litter bins provided across the borough.

The bins varied in design and colour with some having logos and some not leading to an incoherent street scene and that many of the bins were in a poor state of repair.  The decision was made to look for a supplier of new bins and three companies were selected to provide quotes.  Following consideration a company called Broxap were selected as the chosen supplier.

Criteria were established to identify which litter bins required replacement and the priority for doing so.  The criteria included the need to tackle cigarette litter that accumulated on top on bins, prominence in the street scene, the proximity to tourist destinations and areas of high footfall and the condition / repair of each bin.

It was proposed that 90 new litter bins were required:  82 of which would be used within the main town centre pedestrian thoroughfares in the town and 8 in key locations in Central Park.

On consideration of bin designs and the need to address cigarette waste, it was agreed that the Broxap Derby Standard Litter Bin 120 litre capacity with a self closing ashtray would be the best design for Boston.

In conclusion members were advised that following discussions with both the Leader and Portfolio Holder, an amendment to the recommendations needed to be tabled to allow the report to be taken forward to Cabinet who would have final approval over the expenditure. The Leader and Portfolio Holder both felt that as the Council were responsible for emptying, cleaning and maintaining street litter bins in the town that the Boston Logo needed to appear on the bins alongside the BTAC logo.  As such, option ii)b within the report was withdrawn, leaving only agreement being sought to option ii)a with both the BTAC Logo and the Council Logo on alternate sides of the litter bin.

At this point in the proceedings members left the committee table to look at an example model of Broxap Derby Standard litter bin in an adjoining room where some queries were tabled but not noted.

On returning to the committee table members comments and questions included:

Officer response is noted in italics where given

Members queried the need for the use of Logo’s and the importance of them citing damage would occur and the logo’s could be torn off and damaged. They further questioned the cost of the logo’s and replacement logos and queried how many additional bins could be purchased if the logos were not used at all.  The design of the logo was also referenced with a member suggesting that both the BTAC and BBC logos  ...  view the full minutes text for item 16.

(A report by Phil Perry, Head of Place and Space)

The Head of Place presented the report to the committee advising members in respect of the activity of the newly created Town Centre Maintenance Team, since the last report to BTAC at its meeting on the 28 February 2018. 

The officers had nearly completed their training programme with the exception of training on weed control and going forward it would be necessary for BTAC to make some ongoing budget provision for training:  a budget allocation of £500 per year was considered adequate to keep the core training programme moving forward with ongoing training needs. 

Furthermore, to enable the team to fulfil their maintenance role additional equipment had been purchased, the most significant investments being new power tools and a tool safe, all of which had been financed from existing BTAC budgets in agreement by the budget holder.  Branded uniforms had also been purchased to identify the operatives from the Council’s own operatives.

The team were looking to identify additional requirements which if possible, would be financed from existing budgets, however for the 2019 / 2020 financial year and beyond, it was recommended that a dedicated £2000 be set aside for PPE and consumables for ongoing day to day work.

Appendix A provided a work programme which included a number of seasonal items including events, street painting and weed spraying, along with all year round activity and the support of community events including the Big Boston Clean-up and Boston in Bloom.   A summary of key activity was provided in paragraph 4.2 giving members’ detailed information and the photographic evidence on member’s placement’s provided sight of difference made to various areas with before and after proof of the activity.

As part of the wider staffing review, responsibility for the supervision of the team recently transferred to the Environment Supervisor Post which was Jenny Moore:  it was a split post sitting within both the Environmental Operations Service and the Partnerships and Sustainability Services. 

A generic email had been developed btac.enquiries@boston.gov.uk to allow all BTAC ward members to send in information on any work / issue they wanted addressing in their own ward area.  The team which was now fully operational had been  pleasantly surprised by a large number of positive comments from members of the public with one business man phoning the Council direct to praise one of the operatives. 

Prior to moving to deliberation, the Chairman noted an email she had received from a member of the public, which commended the operatives who had installed the granite slabs between the memorial plaques.  It stated ‘that when he had enquired as to what the operatives were doing, they had been both very polite in answering him along with completing a very tidy job’.  Suggestion had also been made for use of the slabs which would be considered in another forum. The Chairman voiced her own personal thanks to the operatives for the significant difference their work had made at Gassy Pad.

Member comments and questions included:

Any response by an officer is noted  ...  view the full minutes text for item 17.

(The Committee’s work programme for the current year for discussion and/or updating.)

The chairman sought any amendments to the work programme.  It was recognised that the standing report noted in the previous item would be incorporated onto the work programme.

Referencing the discussion in respect of the re-location and re-siting of the litter bins the Head of Environmental Operations advised that whilst he would be reporting back in 12 months time, he had already thought the issue of re-siting of BTAC bins needed greater consideration.  A report would be tabled to a future meeting of the committee to provide options on how members may wish to move forward in deciding how agree the re-location / re-siting of existing litter bins which were scheduled for replacements, within the BTAC area.

The Head of Place noted a report scheduled for the July meeting for the BTAC Assets / Tour of Open Spaces and confirmed that it would be two reports:  one for the open spaces and one for assets.