Agenda and minutes

1.1  Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Fajana-Thomas and Stops.

1.2  Apologies for lateness were received from Councillors Kennedy and Potter.

2.1  There were no declarations of interest.

3.1  The previous minutes of the meetings held on 18 February 2016, 25 May 2016 and 8 June 2016 were approved as a correct record of the meeting.

MATTERS ARISING

3.2  Annual report of the Community Safety Team and Noise Nuisance – Minutes of the meeting held on 18 February 2016 

Councillor Hanson referred to paragraph 4.10 of the minutes of the previous meeting and requested an update in respect of the register of construction waivers.

3.3  Corporate Committee Report Template - Minutes of the meeting held on 18 February 2016 

  With regard to paragraph 5.10, Councillor Sharman indicated that the report template should reflect the requirements of the Corporate Committee.  It was agreed that the Chair in conjunction with Councillor Sharman and relevant officers would review the report template.

4.1  Aleyne Fontenelle, Head of Projects and Regulatory Services introduced the report on the Food Law Enforcement Service Plan (FLESP). The plan sets out the inspection programme for the Borough’s food premises for 2016/17 and as of 1 April 2016 has 1024 food hygiene and 1157 food standards interventions due.The performance of the Food Safety Service was measured against its fulfilment of the Plan and the percentage of broadly compliant premises within the Borough.   Ms Fontenelle highlighted that 84% of premises were broadly compliant, an increase from the previous year and training had been delivered to new businesses with further training to raise awareness of food safety.  The Business Compliance Consultancy Service would provide additional services beyond the statutory service to local businesses.  Ms Fontenelle summarised the areas for development and improvement over the next two years including ICT, partnership work and joined up interventions.

4.2  Councillor Hanson commented on Hackney Service Centre’s (HSC) food rating score and asked how Hackney Council compared with other London boroughs in respect of premises broadly compliant with food hygiene.  Ms Fontenelle stated that HSC had in fact received a three star rating for food hygiene and that Hackney Council was part of North-East Sector London Food Liaison Group and regularly engaged in benchmarking exercises with other boroughs. Ms Fontenelle stated that Hackney ranked within the upper quartile of authorities enforcing food safety andthe Food Standards Agency findings of the Local Authority Enforcement Monitoring System (LAEMS) report would be incorporated within next year’s report.

ACTION: Ms Fontenelle willcirculate the LAEMS report to Members when it becomes available and also incorporate the findings into the next report to be submitted at a future meeting.

4.3  Councillor Sharman asked about the risks to the Council of the premises that were non-compliant with food safety; how the Council planned to meet the service challenges following a 17% rise in the number of food businesses in the Borough; whether the operational issues that had prevented phase 3 of the Tackling Food Fraud Project had been resolved; and setting clear targets and achievements to develop the service.

4.4  Ms Fontenellestated that 14% of premises that were identified as non-compliant with food safety had failed the structure component of the assessment. To improve compliance rates in future the Council would be monitoring the three areas of hygiene, structure and food management in order to identify and target support to businesses.  The Council was also promoting the Food and Hygiene Rating system to improve compliance and working with businesses through a range of interventions to raise awareness and bring about behavioural change. Enforcement action was available against those businesses that persistently failed to comply.

4.5  With regard to the demand on the service due to an increase infood businesses in the borough, the service’s approach had been to focus on higher risk premises and conduct partial inspections on broadly compliant category C premises.  However, the service would be moving towards a cross cutting  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

5.1  Natalie Broughton, Strategic Policy Manager, introduced the report on the Local Plan Authority Monitoring Report (AMR) for 2015.   Ms Broughton summarised the key findings of the AMR including the key challenges in relation to Housing, Employment, Retail and Town Centres, Communities, Culture, Education and Health, Transport, Open spaces Environment and Climate Change, Heritage and Design and Planning Performance.

5.2  Councillor Kennedy requested that paragraph 8.26 at page 139 of the report be amended to further clarify whether the new school sites were temporary sites and whether the proposed school completion in 2017 was realistic as a feasibility study had yet to be undertaken.  Ms Broughton indicated that she would seek clarification regarding the sites and completion date and also proposed to delete part of the paragraph.

5.3  Councillor Sharman welcomed the references to the new local plan (LP33) and asked for additional references to be made in the document.  Councillor Sharman also asked what measures would be taken to ensure the Council aimed to achieve its objectively assessed need for 60%  of new housing to be social rented; how the Council’s new Local Plan intended to protect employment floor space; consider alternative funding to meet the infrastructure needs of the borough in addition to the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL); with a total of 4.4m entries/exits at stations in 2015, whether the Council had any strategies in place to address future pressures on transport; and limiting construction of tall buildings in the borough.

5.4  Ms Broughton responded to the points as follows:

·  Housing: The need to provide 60% of new housing as social housing is based on strategic housing market assessments (2015) as part of the evidence base for the new local plan.  This amount represents the ideal level of affordable housing regardless of national and regional planning policy, which balance affordable housing against viability and other concerns, and this information would form a key part of the affordable housing target set out in the new local plan.  Mr Tong indicated that further information on how the target would achieved was available at paragraph 5.1 at page 102 of the report.

·  Employment: With regard to the challenges in loss of employment floorspace, Ms Broughton advised the strategic policy team was currently undertaking an Employment Land Study (ELS) to determine the supply and demand for new floorspace and key trends and will play a key role in employment policies in the Local Plan.  Mr Tong highlighted that a large number of planning permissions had been approved for B1 Class (Office), especially in the Shoreditch area, and when these applications were implemented there would be a significant increase office floor space. 

·  Communities, Culture, Education and Health:  Ms Broughton stated that the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) had been incorporated in to the Local Plan. While there was currently a shortfall in CIL funding, as more developments commenced more funding would be collected which would reduce the shortfall. 

·  Transport:  It was reported that Transport Officers were examining the provision of transport and addressing the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

6.1  The Chair introduced the work programme 2016/17 of the Corporate Committee.

RESOLVED to approve the work programme of the Corporate Committee for the Municipal Year 2016/17 as set out in Appendix 1.

7.1  There was no other urgent business.