Agenda a Chofnodion

Apologies for absence were received from County Borough Councillor J James (MS).

Derbyn datganiadau o fuddiannau personol gan Aelodau, yn unol â gofynion y Cod Ymddygiad.

Nodwch:

1. Mae gofyni Aelodau ddatgan rhif a phwnc yr agendwm mae eu buddiant yn ymwneud ag ef a mynegi natur y buddiant personol hwnnw;

a

2. Lle bo Aelodau'n ymneilltuo o'r cyfarfod o ganlyniad i ddatgelu buddiant sy'n rhagfarnu, rhaid iddyn nhw roi gwybod i'r Cadeirydd pan fyddan nhw'n gadael

In accordance with the Council’s Code of Conduct, the following declarations of personal interest were made:

Agenda item 5 - Green Waste Collections

Ø  County Borough Councillor J Barton ‘I am Chair of Litter-Free Beddau and Tynant and I am a Llantrisant Community Councillor.

Ø  County Borough Councillor S Bradwick ‘I am with an Allotment society who have purchased green bags from the Council.

Agenda item 6 – Library Strategy and Action Plan for 2022/25

Ø  County Borough Councillor J Barton ‘I am Chair of the Trustees of Beddau and Tynant Community Library’

Agenda item 7 – Current Biodiversity work in RCT

Ø  County Borough Councillor J Barton ‘I am one of the people who looks after Tynant Woods’

Agenda item 8 – Update on the control of Japanese Knotweed in Rhondda Cynon Taf.

County Borough Councillor S Bradwick ‘My postcode is in the report’

Derbyn cofnodion cyfarfod blaenorol y Pwyllgor Craffu – Cynnal Gwasanaethau Cyhoeddus, Cymunedau a Ffyniant a gafodd ei gynnal ar 18 Tachwedd 2021.

It was RESOLVED to approve the minutes of the 18^th November 2021 as an accurate reflection of the meeting subject to noting the apologies of Councillor Weaver, which had been given, for the meeting of the 18^th November 2021.

Matters Arising:

Councillor J Barton confirmed that she had received a response from Officers but felt going forward that there needed to be a Council wide Litter Strategy, not just about picking, but about prevention and enforcement.

The Chair sought clarification in relation to the former blue plaque at the Old Cinema, Pontypridd, in respect of a previous request. Democratic Officers to forward the response to Councillor J James.

Mae cyfleuster ymchwil craffu ar gael yn Uned Busnes y Cyngor i gynorthwyo Aelodau â'u cyfrifoldebau craffu a'u rolau'n Aelodau Etholedig. Mae ymchwil o'r fath yn cryfhau rhaglenni gwaith y Pwyllgorau er mwyn sicrhau bod pynciau sy'n seiliedig ar ganlyniadau yn cael eu nodi.

Os oes gyda chi unrhyw ymholiadau ynghylch gwaith ymchwil, e-bostiwch: Craffu@rctcbc.gov.uk

Members were informed of the Scrutiny Research facility that was available to utilise within the Council Business Unit and members could request to use the facility by emailing the Scrutiny mailbox.

Gwybodaeth mewn perthynas ag ymgynghoriadau perthnasol i'w hystyried gan y Pwyllgor.

Members were informed of the Consultations that may be of interest to them.

The Strategic Waste Officer presented the report to Members providing an update on green waste collections following the implementation of sack collections and the ‘RCT’s Got a Brand New Bag’ communications campaign. She acknowledged that RCT had some very strict recycling targets with a target of 70% set by Welsh Government (WG) and an internal target of 80%, both by 2024. The service was also assisting the Council to become a carbon neutral Council which included reducing the amount of single use plastic and by looking at the Council’s carbon footprint. The changes involved switching to reusable green waste sacks, which were free of charge to residents on registering their address against the collections which also allowed the Council to monitor who and how often customers were participating. There was also the opportunity for residents to buy extra sacks.

The Strategic Waste Officer updated Members on the communications campaign. Bringing Members up to date she confirmed there were nearly 36k registered customers with 76.5k sacks, with 97% of these registrations having been online. There was a very small take up of trade with 59, including for example florists, churches, etc. To date, 96% of registered customers had only ordered the 2 free sacks. The Strategic Waste Officer updated Members on both the positive and negative feedback and concerns, following the switchover and as a result, the spring communication had been amended in line with concerns raised. A number of issues that had occurred as a result of the change including some difficult to access properties, properties coming up as trade, allotment collections and missed collections, and the Strategic Waste Officer highlighted the solutions put in place.

The Strategic Waste Officer highlighted that staff were coping well, even though they had not completed a full season, and highlighted the intelligence which could be used going forward to ensure collections were as efficient as possible. She provided Members with some numbers, in terms of resources and highlighted that the Taf area was very top heavy and so a close eye would be kept on resources to ensure that collections did not run behind.  In addition, the tonnage and participation would be monitored carefully, and it was hoped that the mass delivery of green sacks had already been done, although again, this would be monitored closely.

The Strategic Waste Officer finished by explaining that communications would be stepped up over the next couple of weeks with a press release going out on the 1^st and 15^th March which would highlight the return to weekly green waste collections, an increase in social media for the first 2 weeks of Easter in addition to using the information sticker.

The Chair thanked Officers for the report and, following the update, Members were provided with the opportunity to ask questions.

A Member stated that the report was very comprehensive and stated it would be interesting, with regard to demand, to see what happened after Easter, when a lot more people would be gardening. In  ...  view the full Cofnodion text for item 13.

The Service Director – Community Services began by stating this was an opportunity for Members to review the draft strategy and associated Action Plan. This was the third strategy, and it was proposed it covered the next 3 years. It was particularly notable that it had come at the end of the pandemic, which had a major impact on residents and on the library service and section 4 of the report outlined some of the impact covid had on the library service and the adaptations that were made to continue to deliver support to residents during the national and local lockdowns and through the period of restrictions. She noted that Library staff were transferred during the national lockdown to support residents in other ways and whilst all of that was positive, it was a huge challenge for the service itself and it had an impact on what was delivered under the last strategy.

The Service Director – Community Services explained that Appendix 1 showed what was achieved against the key priorities, with a lot being very positive. The positive impact was 110% increase in digital downloads, and a huge increase in whose who used that service. Also, a key development, at this time was the merging of the One4All service with the Library Service which provided opportunities to enhance the provision of advice and information available to residents.  In terms of the draft library strategy, at Appendix 2, the Service Director - Community Services explained they had tried to keep it as accessible as possible, to enable people to get a feel for what the service was trying to do. Three key priorities had been identified to inform and shape future provision which would include the ability to deliver more blended approaches. The Service Director - Community Services stated that Members’ opinions were valued, and she asked for their opinion in terms of anything they would like to see amended or added. In terms of the Outcomes and Impacts, the Library Service is guided by the universal library outcomes that were identified in the sixth quality framework.

Appendix 3 detailed the action plan which identified how the Service hoped to meet the priorities and achieve the outcomes and impacts. In terms of finance, the Service was core funded but external funding had been drawn down, particularly for new projects which had enabled the Service to enhance the offer to Customers. The Service Director – Community Services concluded by saying there had been significant developments during the period and there had been progress against some key aspects of the previous action plan for 2019 - 2021, but the reduction in footfall because of the pandemic, had been significant and it was recognised it would be a challenge to draw people back in.  The other challenge going forward during the transitionary period, was meeting the needs of all customers, whether they were looking for more digital services or face to face services.

The Chair thanked the  ...  view the full Cofnodion text for item 14.

The Ecologist explained that the purpose of the report was to give a bit more structure to some of the biodiversity work being done, that was presented to the previous meeting. He hoped that the message from the report was that a lot of the work was cross departmental. The Ecologist acknowledged that RCT was a place of outstanding biodiversity, with the four main priorities being trying to protect what was there, to manage the habitats, raise awareness, and recording what was there. He noted that RCT was a place rich in biodiversity, where people can find rare and interesting species and habitats, even including species new to science.

The Ecologist then took Members through some of the key areas of work, giving a flavour of the direction of work including the planning process, and how ecology is considered in that very important function. This led on to the new Local Development Plan (LDP) which considered Sites of Importance for Nature Conservation (SINC) and working on the new LDP, including a new ecological policy. There was a big piece of work around planning which led to ecological mitigation needed for sites, working alongside the legal department on things such as S106 agreements. Another piece of work was the Local Nature Plan, which was a whole community plan trying to pull together what was known about RCT and the biodiversity, to provide evidence based and feedback from the community to build up what was important and why it was important.

The Ecologist continued that the fourth area the report talked about was council land management e.g., local nature reserves, large key countryside sites and living landscape sites and the fifth area was the living landscape project which was being piloted in the next couple of years, with 23 sites over 29 wards and was an attempt to have a network of managed sites, close to communities and have real biodiversity hot spots, linking communities. He noted that real progress had been made on the living landscape project over the last few months and more work would be done over the summer and going forward. This was a big area of work, and it was hoped it would become a demonstration project. The sixth area was the grass management e.g., conversation grazing, cut and collect and wild verges work and was a good example of cross departmental work. The Ecologist noted the ‘Let’s talk RCT – Wildflowers’ website, with an appeal for people to put sites forward for wildflower management. The seventh piece of work, that had taken a lot of focus, was the climate change resilience work and looking at how natural solutions could deliver biodiversity and carbon storage and natural flood management e.g., manage habitats better, restoring peatbogs and having natural tree regeneration, identified as a way of increasing tree cover, as it didn’t count currently.

The Ecologist ended his report by nothing that the eighth area of work was community engagement, as there was a real thirst from the  ...  view the full Cofnodion text for item 15.

The Countryside Manager provided Members with a presentation on the control of Japanese Knotweed in Rhondda Cynon Taf. The Countryside Manager noted that all Members would have heard of Japanese Knotweed or had experience, probably a negative one and provided some background. He noted that Japanese Knotweed affecting properties was mostly quite rare, although he recognised it was a problem. It was important to understand why the plant was so prevalent in the UK and why it did so well, as in its natural environment it didn’t pose the problem that was seen here, mainly because it didn’t have any natural, predators, pests or fungi, so there was nothing to keep it in check. It was very widespread in the UK, including Wales and RCT, in particular. In terms of legislation, this underpinned the responsibility of the Council, and the Countryside Manager took Members through the 3 pieces of relevant legislation that were important, which were the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, Environmental Protection Act 1990 and the Anti-Social Behaviour Crime and Policing Act 2014.

The Countryside Manager then went on to explain about the history of treatment of Japanese Knotweed in RCT, noting that herbicide treatment was the most effective and timing of the treatment the most important thing. The problem was, this wasn’t an exact science, and a number of things had a huge bearing on how successful the treatment was, which often meant sites needed to be treated a number of times.  The Countryside Manager then talked about how things had changed, in terms of treatment as a result of Bank and Mortgage Company’s becoming risk adverse because of the lack of information and scaremongering, related to Japanese Knotweed. As a result, the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) had produced a guidance paper, which talked about the 7m rule, which had resulted in a huge number of complaints about Japanese Knotweed to the Council.

The Countryside Manager then went on to provide Members with information on how the council dealt with Knotweed complaints on Council land, noting that there were currently 408 sites on the annual treatment programme. In terms of future improvements, the Countryside Manager explained the worrying trend, which had been identified, in terms of legal claims and complaints regarding Knotweed and it had been identified that an Invasive Species Officer was needed, with that role recently being appointed to, which would give more time to dedicate and try and mitigate against legal claims. It was hoped with a dedicated Officer, that there would be a move to some proactive work, improvement to the web advice and reporting system whilst providing more training with staff from other departments. The Countryside Manager ended his presentation by providing Members with a list of useful statistics.

The Chair thanked the Officer for the presentation, following which Members were provided with the opportunity to ask questions.

A Member thanked the Officer for the presentation and sought clarification of treatment, by the Council, on private land, and if that  ...  view the full Cofnodion text for item 16.

Myfyrio ar y cyfarfod a'r camau gweithredu i'w dwyn ymlaen.

The Chair noted that he had been Chair of the Committee for the past 5 years, Vice-Chair for 5 years previously, and felt this was the best Committee. The Chair appreciated the work, efforts and contributions from every Member of the Committee and wished all Members the best for the future and hoped to see many back in the chamber in May.

Trafod unrhyw faterion sydd, yn ôl doethineb y Cadeirydd, yn faterion brys yng ngoleuni amgylchiadau arbennig.

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