Full Council meeting: flooding, car parking machines and climate change panel

Thursday I had a second session at Cardiff University talking to their MSc architect students about 'green' politics and community groups in action - it was refreshing to talk to some of the students about their enthusiasm for addressing climate change and more. Anyhow arrived back just in time to catch the green councillors pre-Council meeting before Full Council.

Photos: School of Architecture, Cardiff University and below sandwiches at pre-Council meeting

Thursday was my first day back as an ordinary councillor rather than Leader of the Green group - Sarah Lunnon takes over and will make a great job of it as I've noted elsewhere in this blog. Hopefully it will allow me a little more time - especially as I've embarked on a few hours as a Community Mental Health Worker.

Anyhow much was discussed at Council and I can't possibly do it justice here - but here are a few items...

Flooding - a great first step

The Government has given £60,000 to Stroud to help with Flood Relief - this is different from the Glos Flood Relief Fund (which has only several days left for applications re damage, insurance premiums etc - apply now!). Sadly the debate became political as sometimes these things do - and don't always seem to be handled in the most positive way.

Labour councillors rightly argued that Stroud should match the funding and that many areas were missed out from the funds which concentrated on Painswick and Slad water courses. Indeed it would be great to see more funds in this area - however while most of the opposition (ie Labour, Green and Lib Dems) supported an amendment calling for such money it was opposed by the administration - although I think one Tory abstained.

The main motion on spending the money was however passed unanimously (see 28th Oct blog for details). As noted before I think it is a very positive step forward to developing preventative measures - it is also targeted at the areas worst hit - but as pointed out in the meeting some householders elsewhere are in equally dire straights - some still living in caravans etc.

Also as noted before Greens have called for an holistic approach - that means looking at the whole picture - the extra £60,000 would have helped but it is disappointing that this wasn't discussed before the meeting - it seemed to be presented at Full Council to gain maximum media coverage. Where was the discussion beforehand? Where was the debate? This doesn't seem to me the best way to do politics. I am not surprised that the administration voted against - however hope they are still open to looking at this issue....

To me Stroud District has taken lead in this area of flooding in a way quite unlike other councils - for that they should be applauded - but we do need to develop a more comprehensive approach to all watercourses. That is what Greens will be seeking. This is a great first step but we do need much more.

We need to address the fragility of our infrastructure to cope with the shifts in weather patterns. We also need this whole area looked at by the Government - it is a mess - we have organisations such as Severn Trent (one of at least four companies responsible for the sewage network in Gloucestershire), the Environment Agency (which has regions which are not co-terminous with the political regions) and other bodies responsible for key utilities that appear to have no desire to work holistically together to improve our failing infrastructure. There is also a complex and piecemeal pattern of legislation and outdated discretionary powers that are in themselves not providing the clarity and direction necessary to help create better long term solutions.

We also have what the County Councils Chief Exec has described as "an aging Victorian drainage system that is already under heavy strain and our drains and sewers are simply not designed for the type of rainfall the UK is now and in the future will experience."

Our streams, waterways and non-main rivers were the cause of some 75% of Gloucestershire flooding, but it is unrealistic to expect riparian owners to maintain and improve flood defences. For each urban stream there could easily be up to 200 landowners.

We urgently need organisations to work together - hence with the Ruscombe Brook our attempts to bring the together with the Memo of Cooperation - now signed by pretty well all organisations and agreed unanimously at Council on Thursday night. But it shouldn't be up to a little group to have to set up this - there should be a way that this happens so that we can tackle these issues together.

Anyhow another point of contention was that the list of flooded properties was not complete - a difficult task to do anyway - approx 200 properties were hit in the Stroud area - some slightly and some very seriously.

Nationally of course the figure of flooded properties was in 1000s - and even more with the floods now on the East coast - in fact even before the summer floods nationally 5000 properties were flooded by sewers - and 3.5bn litres of water is lost through leaks per day - this all should be a warning sign - of the 29 places where the government plans more houses (new 'growth points') flooding is a risk in 80% of cases, sewer capacity are an issue in 72% and breaches in water in 62%.

Canal Regeneration - Stroud takes on £2m liability

Stroud accepting this liability is a risk to Council tax payers - a real and serious risk even though it has been described as 'nominal' - but if the Council had not worked so hard to achieve this then the whole canal project was in serious jeopardy - indeed British Waterways were set to pull out and with them most likely most of the other funding....this £60million project has it's faults and I still have very serious concerns about a number of elements - how much affordable housing will be on the site, what about biodiversity, the route itself etc - indeed I have talked of these before on this blog....in fact Martin Whiteside asked several questions at Council trying to get assurances re affordable housing.

Councils often don't take enough risks in my view - they are overly conservative and don't get many potential wins - why for example are we so cautious over the amount of renewable energy we ask of new developers, why so cautious re how much affordable housing - others are braver - there are reasons and I have touched on them before - but here at least the Council is being brave.

The liability was accepted unanimously by all at Full Council - that doesn't mean we will not be scrutinising all elements - indeed the Brimscombe Area Action Plan is now out for consultation (only 6 weeks) - look at it on the Council website here.

Climate Change Panel report

We had a report presented to us from this Panel - background and membership of the panel - The Climate Change Panel was set up by Stroud District Council during the summer of 2007. The purpose of the panel is two fold:

· To act as an independent advisory panel to the Council and Local Strategic Partnership (LSP);
· To provide non-elected member external scrutiny of Council policy and performance in relation to climate change;

The panel consists of 9 local and national experts in matters relating to climate change including matters such as energy, construction, urban and rural planning and land management. The panel also includes several representatives of the Youth Council. It is appointed for 2 years initially with a view to hold one full day annual meeting at a time where its deliberations can be most effectively fed into the councils’ annual corporate cycle. It is expected that there will be communications with and between the panel members throughout the year.

So what did they have to say - well there was lots of good stuff - the report will be on the webcast - here is what they said in their conclusion: "Stroud District Council through its Environment Strategy and its wide range of measures relating to climate change is in an excellent position to take some fundamental steps to move further towards a position where the District is carbon neutral. A number of suggestions have been made by the panel which could have a major impact on reducing the district’s CO2 emissions. In particular the cumulative impact of the planning measures proposed and the proposal for a 50% renewables target and associated installations are worth highlighting. For further CO2 reductions to succeed it is also clear that much work is still needed to encourage wider participation in the climate change agenda from residents, schools and businesses in the district. These are matters which will be included in future deliberations of the panel."

This Panel is very exciting and has great potential - again full marks to the Council on this - Martin Whiteside asked if the panel could not meet more often - no immediate answer to that but there will be a response to the various recommendations to Cabinet in January. I intend to write with a few areas that I think have not been covered sufficiently - not surprising given they only had a day - one issue was more re saving energy in existing housing stock - one idea I keep trying to push is Kirklees Councils free insulation to 40,000 homes! If they can do it so can we.....anyhow more of this issue another time....

Question time - new car parking machines

The procedure is not as simple as some people might expect - they were aimed at making it easier for parking time to be remotely extended using a mobile telephone. This has been requested by traders and others including Greens - but Greens wanted a pay on exit system - this is not the greatest way to do it - anyhow I wont repeat here the arguments - the Council have admitted problems and apologised for not giving enough support when the machines were introduced - also some free parking measures have been made on Weds up to Christmas - however while machines are back to simple operation they are set to come back again with all the print in your number plate letters stuff...

Green councillor Gwen Belcher raised a question at Council about how these machines had been chosen and the implementation planned (or rather not planned!) - another councillor asked about costs - all that is on the webcast - with the answers - certainly the introduction was a complete mess - Gwen - who walks everywhere - has described to me how she was 'harangued Face to Face with people and by phone about My Council.....approached by influential Members of Stroud Chamber of Trade' who claimed takings where done by 20% - however it was half term and takings are sometimes down anyway - nevertheless poor show.

On a lighter note Gwen was at the same time rattling tins for C.A.B and did very well as she had queues of people wanting to talk to her about the car parking saga and they couldn't possible walk away with out giving!

Other issues

Cllr Marjoram had a question re Huntsgrove asking why it had been 'called in' - still no reason given either by Government or David Drew - so officers have to plan for every eventuality - like going to court and not knowing what you have been charged with - and of course this all costs the Council money - taxpayers money.

Gypsies, Treasury Management and the new statement of community involvement- all discussed before on this blog.