Agenda and minutes

Venue: Via Microsoft Teams

Items
No. Item

1.

Chairs Announcements

Minutes:

The Chair thanked all those who had helped and provided their support in the recent flooding incident in the Skewen ward within the County Borough

2.

Minutes of Previous Meeting pdf icon PDF 78 KB

·        22 July 2020

·        20 November 2020

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The minutes of the following meetings were approved:

·       22 July 2020

·       20 November 2020

 

3.

Neath Port Talbot's Electric Vehicle Infrastructure, Implementation Plans and an Overview of the Wider Strategy for Public Charging in the County Borough pdf icon PDF 2 MB

Minutes:

The Committee was presented with Neath Port Talbot’s Electric Vehicle Infrastructure, which also contained the implementation plans and an overview of the wider strategy for public charging in the County Borough.

A discussion took place in relation to the capacity of the heavy fleet vehicles. Officers stated that in terms of heavy transport, the low carbon future was uncertain, however hydrogen vehicles and/or battery electric vehicles were a potential possibility; this part of the market was still evolving. It was noted that the industry had currently been focusing on battery electrical vehicles, which was now available in cars and light vans, with larger vans and vehicles also becoming readily available. Members were informed that recently there were a few electric refuse collection vehicles on the market and the Council had started to trial the vehicle within the County Borough for the past three days; the vehicle had successfully completed a full shift, and when it was returned to the yard it had 17% capacity left in it. It was added that these vehicles had about 1 tonne of batteries in them. Officers mentioned that they were currently looking at options to de-carbonise the Councils fleet in line with Government targets.

With the expanding numbers of the electric vehicles, Members asked why the Council was not considering the rapid chargers instead of the 7kW chargers. It was explained that most vehicles were returned in the afternoon and were in the yard overnight, so there wasn’t a need for them to be rapidly charged; Officers had also monitored the usage of the vehicles and most of the vans were travelling around 110/115 miles, with very few exceeding that distance. It was noted that when the vehicles returned in the afternoon, they had adequate time to charge; the non-rapid chargers were better on the longevity of the batteries, whereas the rapid chargers would degrade the batteries quicker. Officers stated that currently, charging over a longer period would be of no issue; however, noted that there will be rapid chargers available (50kW rapid charger) which would charge vehicles up to 80% of their capacity within around 30 minutes, however this would not be used as a standard charging mechanism for the fleet vehicles due to the reasons highlighted.

Given the area that Neath Port Talbot County Borough covers, it was asked if the Council will be working with its strategic partners such as Tai Tarian, the Police and the Fire Service to ensure that the maximum amount of points would be obtained within the County Borough. It was noted that the Councils regional colleagues were in the process, as part of the City Deal project, of commissioning consultants to help with the strategic plan; in doing so, they would be working with the university and will need to consult with other public service providers, such as the Police and Fire Service, to ensure that they were part of that agenda. It was added that the Police and Fire service would probably need an infrastructure  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

4.

Consultation on Streetscene and Engineering 2021/22 Budget Proposals pdf icon PDF 122 KB

Minutes:

An overview was received on the Streetcare and Engineering and Transport draft budget proposals 2021/2022, as detailed in the circulated report.

Members were informed that there were no proposed cuts in budgets for the Streetcare or Transport and Engineering divisions in 2021/22.

The report captured that there was a budget pressure of £400k on Waste Services; Officers provided detail on the particular pressures which included:

·        A reduction in the Sustainable Waste Grant of £1million across Wales; this reduction had been ongoing for the last few years, and based on Neath Port Talbot Councils share of the money, there was a pressure of £45k in respect of this cut;

·        The need to retender the management contract for the Household Waste and Recycling Centres; the contract had been in place for some time, and the costs will be increasing above inflation in terms of ‘catching up’, following fixed increases over the life of the contract, along with increased costs associated with maximising recycling and composting. The report detailed that £250k had been allocated in this regard;

·        There was a further general shortfall in the waste management budget arising from a lasting national reduction in incomes for most recyclate materials to which £105K had been allocated.

 

In regards to Highways and Streetcare, it was noted that a budget pressure of £350K was identified which made allowances for the following:

·        Trade waste income had been affected by the outbreak of Covid-19 and whilst a lot of the reduction was going to be temporary and will bounce back in due course, some overall decrease was likely to be permanent; it was expected, as a minimum, that the normal inflationary uplift on the trade waste income budget will be unachievable resulting in a pressure, therefore £13k had been allocated for this;

·        The provision of recycling services and participation had expanded and there had been a growing demand for ongoing additional household recycling equipment and associated deliveries; £36K was allocated to resource additional deliveries, which included an additional member of staff and an extra van to make those deliveries;

·        The revenue works budgets for road and footway pavement maintenance needed increasing for ad-hoc and general repairs, in which £88k had been allocated; an inflationary increase was built into the budget which would cover resources such as staffing, however extra budget was needed for certain materials as the prices of these materials increase significantly more than the inflationary increase;

·        Road marking renewal budget needed increasing to facilitate a five-yearly renewal programme, following a detailed analysis on the assets; if the Council wanted to facilitate this programme across the County Borough then the budget needed to be enhanced by £30k to accommodate that;

·        Officers identified that there were some large countryside structures, old viaducts for example, which were not adopted by highways and had previously fallen outside of the regular periodic inspection regime; this needed to be corrected, therefore £20k had been allocated for this;

·        There was a need for an additional drainage minor works gang to help  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

5.

Forward Work Programme 2020/21 pdf icon PDF 68 KB

Minutes:

The Streetscene and Engineering Scrutiny Forward Work Programme 2020/21 was noted.