Agenda and minutes

To elect a Chair for the 2023/24 Municipal Year.

Peter Dennis nominated Chris Johnson to be elected Chair for the 2023/24 municipal year. This was seconded by David Cornish.

RESOLVED That Chris Johnson be elected Chair for the 2023/24 municipal year.

To appoint a Vice Chair for the 2023/24 Municipal Year.

David Cornish nominated Peter Dennis to be appointed Vice-Chair for the 2023/24 municipal year. This was seconded by Al Neal.

RESOLVED That Peter Dennis be appointed Vice Chair for the 2023/24 municipal year.

To receive any apologies for absence.

An apology for absence was submitted from Councillor Laura Blumenthal.

To confirm the Minutes of the meeting held on 6 March 2023.

The Minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 6 March 2023 were confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

To receive any declarations of interest.

There were no declarations of interest.

To answer any public questions

A period of 30 minutes will be allowed for members of the public to ask questions submitted under notice.

The Council welcomes questions from members of the public about the work of this committee.

Subject to meeting certain timescales, questions can relate to general issues concerned with the work of the Committee or an item which is on the Agenda for this meeting.  For full details of the procedure for submitting questions please contact the Democratic Services Section on the numbers given below or go to www.wokingham.gov.uk/publicquestions

There were no public questions.

To answer any member questions.

There were no Member questions.

To receive the annual update on Flood Risk Management within the Borough.

The Committee considered a report, set out in agenda pages 13 to 18, which provided an update on the works in relation to the Council’s flood risk management responsibilities over the past 12 months.

The report outlined a number of actions that had been undertaken, including CCTV condition surveys, repair works to the highway drainage system, delivery of capital drainage schemes, revenue drainage maintenance works, smart drainage trials and funding applications to reduce the surface water flood risks.

Ian Shenton (Executive Member for Environment, Sport and Leisure), Boniface Ngu (Flood Risk & Drainage Manager) and Andy Glencross (Head of Environmental Services) attended the meeting to answer Member queries.

During the ensuing discussion, Members raised the following points and queries:

·         Could Members be informed when successful works were completed? Officer response – Members were informed of works prior to each set of works starting. Follow-up emails could also be sent, and this would be looked at going forwards;

·         It was noted that CCTV condition surveys had been undertaken on Barkham Road, whilst a capital project had been completed on Barkham Ride;

·         It was noted that funding was available for the Church Lane project;

·         Given the impact of climate change on the potential for flooding, were we recalibrating how we accounted for climate change, specifically when assessing planning applications, in particular where sites were located near tributaries such as the Emm Brook or Barkham Brook? Officer response – Officers insisted on a 40 percent accommodation for climate change when attenuation basins were designed. For example, if a basin of 10m would be sufficient today, officers would insist that it be built to 14m;

·         Which manholes and drain covers were contained on the ArcGIS system? Officer response – This could be confusing, as when residents saw a manhole they usually assumed it was the responsibility of Wokingham Borough Council (WBC). Most surface water drainage sewers were operated by Thames Water, whilst some were managed by WBC. When a resident reported an issue to WBC, officers checked mapping software to confirm the owner, and directed the resident to Thames Water where it was found to be their responsibility;

·         Was it possible to have all manholes mapped on WBC’s ArcGIS system? Officer response – Whilst WBC’s assets were mapped on the ArcGIS system, assets from other owners such as Thames Water were not mapped. The issue was that whilst other assets could be mapped in theory, updates may not be regular and become out of date as WBC would be relying on third party data sources. As such, other assets were not mapped, and officers manually checked manhole covers and forwarded issues to Thames Water if necessary;

·         How many reports were received per year in relation to manhole covers? Officer response – A written answer would be provided on this matter;

·         It was noted that officers would look into an issue raised in relation to water flowing intermittently near the Lower Earley peripheral road, towards the Black Boy Roundabout;

·         What was the relationship between WBC and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

To consider a report on the “Combatting Drugs Partnership”.

The Committee considered a report, set out in agenda pages 19 to 26, which outlined detail in relation to the Combatting Drugs Partnership.

The report stated that the strategy was now at the implementation stage, and would need to be progressed with key partners such as Thames Valley Police, Probation, and Health organisations. It had been agreed that Community Safety Partnerships were best placed to take the implementation of local deliver going forwards, as such partnerships would have well-established frameworks for partnership delivery in place. Local agreements for the delivery and governance arrangements were due to be finalised at the next meeting of the Community Safety Partnership in June 2023.

Ian Shenton (Executive Member for Environment, Sport and Leisure) and Narinder Brar (Community Safety Manager) attended the meeting to answer Member queries.

During the ensuing discussion, Members raised the following points and queries:

·         It was noted that the large number of reports in relation to Earley Fields was due to drugs being found at the Loddon Valley police station when suspects were searched;

·         It was noted that the reported figures represented reported incidents, rather that convictions or arrests;

·         Were there any other opportunities to receive this data, as many of the recorded incidents would include a large portion of Reading which was served by Loddon Valley. Officer response – Officers had asked whether data could be provided from the police, anonymised, and filtered for the Borough, however this was a resourcing issue at present;

·         Had there been any noticeable issues raised by adults in treatment as a result of pharmacy closures? Officer response – Not at present, as many treatment options were still in situ whilst others had been moved to other spaces;

·         What could be done to better advertise treatment services within the Borough, and was there an indication of the success rate of treatments? Officer response – Relapse data and data in relation to people who had successfully stayed in treatment for 6 months or 12 months was recorded and reported nationally, which gave a good indication of success rates. Datasets specific to Wokingham could be provided to the Committee. There were plans in place to raise the awareness and access opportunities to treatment, There was still a level of stigma with regards to accessing help, and there were a large percentage of people who were functioning on a day to day basis who had addiction issues. Whilst it could be very hard to reach out to such people, access to online resources and treatments provided opportunities for people to access self help and signposting to other organisations;

·         It was proposed that the Committee have oversight of the delivery group, which could be reported at a future meeting of the Committee;

·         It was noted that the previous report had highlighted a significant spike in reports around the Christmas period. This was lifted from a police operation, and emphasised that there were particular periods of the year where people were more likely to be drawn towards taking drugs, or  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.

To appoint Members to the Active Travel Task and Finish Group for the 2023/24 Municipal Year.

The Committee considered a report, set out in agenda pages 27 to 32, which set out the recommendation to appoint five Members to the Active Travel Task and Finish Group for the 2023/24 municipal year.

It was requested that Officers include information on the status of the £600k of funding given for the LCWIP at the next 6-monthly meeting of the Group.

Members requested that information be provided as to whether the Government had a preference as to our suggested schemes, in addition to an update on the proposed Woodley cycle scheme. It was agreed that these updates could be circulated via email.

RESOLVED That Alistair Neal, Peter Dennis, Charles Margetts, Pauline Jorgensen and Marie Louise-Weighill be appointed to the Active Travel Task and Finish Group for the 2023/24 municipal year.

To consider the Committee’s work programme for the 2023/24 municipal year.

The Committee considered their work programme for the remainder of the 2023/24 municipal year, set out in agenda pages 33 to 36.

RESOLVED That:

1)      Callum Wernham be thanked for attending the meeting;

2)      Officers arrange a conversation between the Chair and the S151 officer, to ascertain the appropriate meeting for the Committee to consider an update on the status of WBC’s earmarked reserves;

3)      The Arts and Culture Strategy update aim to be scheduled this municipal year;

4)      Officers liaise with Highways officers and the Chair to schedule relevant reports to be considered at the September meeting of the Committee, for example in relation to car parking, KPIs of the service and volume of requests and highways maintenance;

5)      Officers seek to arrange an update on the progress of the Local Plan Update in October 2023;

6)      Officers liaise with the Chair with regards to arranging a report on the Planning process at WBC, including how development management, strategic planning and enforcement officers operated within the Borough;

7)      Officers seek to re-arrange the work programme into sections split by topics, for example highways issues or community issues;

8)      Officers explore the possibility to invite representatives of housing management companies to the Committee, to ensure fees were fair and proportional.