Committee Work Programme

Purpose of Report

To ask Members to consider, amend and add to the Committee’s work programme.

1. Remit of the Committee

The remit of the Area Constituency Committees is detailed in APPENDIX 1.

2. Work Programme Items

The intention is for the Committee to develop a work programme that:

· is owned by the Committee

· has items on it that are important locally but relevant at a strategic, county level

· evolves over time and is not static.

The Committee Chairman, Vice-Chairman and the Democratic Services Officer will keep the work programme up to date and determine which items need to be considered at a public committee meeting and which could be picked up elsewhere.

Alternative ways of dealing with issues that come to the Committee could include:

Referral to an officer at the Council for a response.
Referral to the Democratic Services Officer to conduct further research to ascertain whether it was appropriate for the committee to review.
Referral to Council Overview and Scrutiny.
Referral to the Chairman and Vice-Chairman to consider, outside of a formal committee meeting.
Referral to the appropriate Executive Member to consider.

Updates since previous meeting:

· Referral of Statements to Transport Economy, Environment and Enterprise Overview and Scrutiny Committee – See Attached (APPENDIX 2)

4. Update from Working Groups:

Any updates from the Chairs of the following working groups:

· Update from the Climate Working Group

· Update from the Voluntary Sector Working Group:

· Update on Harrogate Station Gateway Working Group

· Update from the H&K ACC River & Water Quality Working Group (name change)

The Group has met, and the following are updates to queries:

Update about Motion calling for support for a bathing water application for the river Nidd. A letter has been sent by by the Leader of the Council to the Secretary of State Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in support of the application. It is also understood that a decision on whether to designate this site is expected sometime in March as part of the annual national announcement of designated Bathing Waters (both coastal and freshwater) for the coming year.

Update about Motion regarding water quality for improvements in, health, wildlife, biodiversity and economy

o The motion regarding water quality for improvements in health, wildlife, biodiversity and the economy was considered by the Transport, Economy, Environment and Enterprise O&S Committee at its meeting on 19 October 2023 following its referral from Full Council. The debate and discussion on this lasted 2.5 hours and resulted in a series of recommendations that came back to the Full Council meeting on 15 November 2023. The amended motion was passed unanimously.

o As part of the amendments agreed at Full Council was for TEEE O&S to check on progress against the motion in six months. This has been programmed into the committee work programme for the 8 July 2024 meeting

o In the meantime, officers continue to meet regularly with relevant stakeholders on a number of matters concerning freshwater and bathing waters. It is hoped to bring this into a summit-style event as happened in Scarborough back in October around water quality in the South Bay

Invitation to the Planning Department to address EA’s comments at the November ACC meeting, in particular questions that NY Planning Authority should be submitting to water companies as consultees on planning applications.

o Consultations sent to Yorkshire Water have been amended to follow the outcome of the notice of motion at full council: “Ask all relevant water companies from this date onwards, in its planning consultation responses for major developments, to clarify which treatment works will be managing the sewage; confirm that these treatment works have the additional capacity to take waste from agreed developments and whether it has the information available to assess the impact on the number or duration of sewage discharges into local rivers or seas, and if it does have this information to share it (noting that this can only be requested not required).”

o A working group of the chair/vice chairs of the planning committees has recommended that planning representatives attend the various ACC’s – this is focussed on improving awareness of the call-in procedure for planning applications but can be spread to general questions. (Dates To be confirmed)

5. Informal Briefings

There are no informal briefings confirmed at present.

6. Work Programme/Future Items of Work

The Committee’s work programme is at APPENDIX 3.

Recommendation

Members are asked to consider, amend and add to the Committee’s work programme.

Democratic Services

North Yorkshire Council

Background documents: None