To include updates on:
- Waste Services Contract
- Public Conveniences Review and Consultation
- Submission of Local Plan
Minutes:
The Chief Executive provided an update on key points of relevance to Tonbridge and Malling. The headline messages included:
Waste Services Contract:
A new contractor Urbaser had been appointed and an introductory leaflet would be sent to all residents in the next couple of weeks. The new contract would start on 1 March and up until the end of September would mirror the current service arrangements. However, from 30 September new service arrangements would be rolled out across the whole borough and would include the new opt-in garden waste scheme.
Residents could apply for the garden waste service from 7 May and early bird discounts would be offered to those who signed up by 3 August. Parish councils were encouraged to promote this initiative.
A detailed update on the new Waste Services Contract, including a marketing plan, would be reported to the Street Scene and Environment Services Advisory Board on 11 February 2019
Finally there was still time to arrange a meeting with the Waste Contract Officer (Alison Sollis) and parish councils were asked to contact her direct if they were interested.
Public Conveniences:
Following a review of the Borough Council’s facilities by the Overview and Scrutiny Committee on 18 October 2018 a number of recommendations would be considered by the Cabinet on 14 February 2019. These included the potential transfer of public conveniences in parished areas to the local parish council and the Director of Street Scene, Leisure and Technical Services would be contacting those parishes affected to discuss this further.
It was intended that any transfers would take place in March 2020 which gave sufficient time for arrangements to be put in place.
The Chairman thanked the Parish Councils that had responded to the consultation and these representations had been given careful consideration by the Overview and Scrutiny Committee.
Local Plan:
This had been submitted to the Planning Inspectorate on 23 January 2019. It was anticipated that a Planning Inspector would be appointed within the next few weeks, who would then consider the submitted documents and set out the next steps in the process. A Programme Officer had been appointed to assist with the Local Plan Examination process and further information regarding the next stages would be published on the website as soon as it was available.
All representations received during the Regulation 19 Consultation in November 2018 would be published as soon as was practically possible on the Borough Council’s website. It was noted that this would take time to complete as personal information would have to be removed in accordance with General Data Protection Regulations. However, it was estimated that this would not be complete before the end of March 2019.
In response to a question raised by the Kent Association of Local Councils, the Chief Executive advised that whilst the Local Plan had been submitted it had limited weight in planning terms until it had been approved by the Secretary of State. All current planning applications had to consider current planning policies. However, the Chairman reiterated that the Borough Council’s objectively assessed need had been met in terms of the Local Plan submission.