Venue: Multi-Location Meeting - Gloucester Room, Guildhall / MS Teams. View directions
Contact: Liz Jordan 01792 637314
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Disclosure of Personal and Prejudicial Interests Minutes: No interests were declared. |
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Prohibition of Whipped Votes and Declaration of Party Whips Minutes: No declarations were made. |
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Minutes of Previous Meeting(s) PDF 310 KB To receive the minutes of the previous meeting(s) and agree as an accurate record. Additional documents:
Minutes: The Panel agreed the minutes of the meeting on 15 March 2022 as an accurate record of the meeting. Matters Arising: Minute 78 – On Action 2, Panel queried if the Councillor training had been set up. Informed online e-learning training programme had been developed and would go live after report goes to Cabinet in December 2022.
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Public Question Time Questions must be submitted in writing, no later than noon on the working day prior to the meeting. Questions must relate to items on the agenda. Questions will be dealt with in a 10-minute period. Minutes: No questions were received. |
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Role of the Climate Change and Nature Scrutiny Performance Panel PDF 183 KB Additional documents: Minutes: Members discussed the role of the Panel. |
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Water Quality and Water Management PDF 149 KB Invited to attend: Cllr David Hopkins, Cabinet Member for
Corporate Service and Performance Carol Morgan, Interim Head of Housing and
Public Health Tom Price, Team Leader Pollution Control and Private Sector Housing Hamish Osborn and Sarah Bennett, Natural
Resources Wales Additional documents: Minutes: David Hopkins,
Cabinet Member for Corporate Service and Performance, relevant officers and
representatives of Natural Resources Wales attended to brief the Panel and
answer questions. Discussion Points: · Panel queried if there had been any major
incidents locally with sewerage getting into the sea after storms. Informed by
NRW there are storm overflows around the coast and near rivers designed to
spill excess water, which gets into the sewerage system during heavy rainfall,
into the environment to stop homes getting flooded. There are storm overflows in Swansea. On our most valuable stretches of coast,
overflows only spill in extreme conditions.
· Panel queried who is responsible for sewerage
discharge into the sea. Informed NRW
responsible for discharges into controlled waters ie rivers, most lakes and sea. NRW works with Council on public health
impacts of some of the discharges, but NRW has primary responsibility for
responding to pollution incidents. Welsh
Water have a responsibility to stay within permit limits and will be informed
if any issues relating to their assets and NRW will follow up enforcement of
this if needed. · Panel queried how effectively agricultural
pesticide runoff is monitored in Swansea.
Heard from NRW that main problem due to agriculture throughout Wales is
runoff with regard to slurry and nutrients. Agriculture is not biggest issue in Swansea
regarding water quality but it is monitored and if
necessary followed up. · Panel queried if Caswell is one of the
trouble sites with regards to discharge into the sea, how many trouble sites we
have and how we compare to similar authorities.
Heard from NRW there are emergency overflows rather than storm overflows
at both Caswell and Langland. There have
been some problems with flooding in the system particularly at Caswell which
has led to overflow alerts being triggered in the past. Volumes discharged at both beaches are very
small. · Panel wanted to know if infrastructure
improvements are planned or needed in the area. Informed by NRW they would
always be looking for infrastructure in Swansea to be investigated and improved
if need be. It is the emergency discharges they want to ensure only function as
emergency discharges and not storm discharges.
· Panel queried how we are going to future
proof the sewerage/drainage system.
Heard from NRW likely to get more intense storms in future which will
put pressure on any drainage system.
Welsh Water are taking this into account in their forward planning. · Panel asked NRW’s views on septic tanks in
urban areas. Heard NRW would rather not
see them in urban areas, would rather they be connected to main drains. · Panel queried the involvement NRW has with building
sites regarding silt. Informed that
building sites should not result in silt pollution in rivers. NRW needs to work better in future with
planning and developers. They would like
to see much better phasing of building sites and developers working in a
cleaner way. · Panel mentioned that SUDS regulations are now
in place and asked if this helped at all. NRW felt it is a significant step
forward but there are limits to what any legislation can do. NRW want to get better at preventing
pollution from building activities. · Panel asked about private drinking water
supplies and how often risk assessments and monitoring is carried out. Heard that for private drinking supplies,
there is an annual check from the Council if it is a commercial or shared
supply and a 5-yearly check if it is a single supply. Officers confident they are on top of this
and everything within the area is captured. |
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Overview of Climate Change and Nature in Swansea PDF 170 KB Invited to attend: Councillor Andrea Lewis, Cabinet Member – Service
Transformation Councillor David Hopkins, Cabinet Member – Corporate
Service and Performance Councillor Andrew Stevens, Cabinet Member – Environment
and Infrastructure Geoff Bacon, Head of Property Services Rachel Lewis, Directorate Project Manager Paul Meller, Natural Environment Manager Deborah Hill, Nature Conservation Team Leader Jane Richmond, Project Manager, Strategic Climate Change Additional documents:
Minutes: Cabinet Members Andrea Lewis and David Hopkins together with relevant officers attended to brief the Panel and answer questions. Discussion Points: · Panel asked about mini hydro power across Swansea
and wanted to know if the Department had done an audit of potential sites
across Swansea, if the Council could potentially take advantage of these
stations and if there is anywhere we can put them. Panel informed the Council is working with
neighbouring authorities on development of regional energy development
plan. Heard it deals with how we can
‘green the grid’, more towards 2050 target than 2030 target but the Authority,
funded by Welsh Government, will be generating a local energy development plan,
feeding into the wider region. Officers will give an update at the Panel
meeting in January 2023 when they have more idea of timescales. · Panel aware it will be extremely difficult to
achieve Net Zero by 2030 and queried if confident the Council will even achieve
it. Officers confirmed it will be incredibly difficult and the Council is being
led and advised by Welsh Government as it is a whole Wales approach. · Panel queried what is meant by ‘Fairer
Parking’, mentioned on page 36 of the report.
Officers will provide response following the meeting. Actions: · Update on Local Energy Plan to be included in
‘Climate Change Update’ item at next Panel meeting in January 2023. · Panel to be informed what is meant by ‘Fairer
Parking’. |
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Draft Work Programme 2022-23 PDF 192 KB Minutes: The Panel agreed the Work Programme for 2022-23. |
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Letter to Cabinet Member (9 November 2022 meeting) PDF 119 KB |