Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence was received from Councillor Tiwari.

Members will be asked to declare any pecuniary, non-pecuniary and any other interests in respect of items on the agenda.

Councillor Hardwick declared in relation to item 7 (Annual Report of the Cabinet Member for Planning and a Sustainable Camden) that she subscribed to the borough’s Garden Waste scheme.

Councillor Kirk declared for transparency in relation to the same item 7 that he held shares in Power Up North London.

Webcasting of the Meeting

The Chair to announce the following: “In addition to the rights by law that the public and press have to record and film public meetings, I would like to remind everyone present that this meeting will be broadcast live by the Council to the Internet and can be viewed on our website for six months after the meeting.  After that time, webcasts are archived and can be made available on DVD upon request.

If you are seated in the room it is likely that the Council’s cameras will capture your image and you are deemed to be consenting to being filmed and to the use of those images and sound recordings for webcasting and/or training purposes.”

Any other announcements

The Chair announced that the meeting was broadcast live by the Council to the Internet and could be viewed on the website for six months after the meeting.  After that time, webcasts were archived and could be made available on DVD upon request. Those who were seated in the room or participated via Teams were deemed to have consented to their contributions being recorded and broadcast and to the use of those sound recordings and images for webcasting and/or training purposes.

Requests to speak at the Committee on a matter within its terms of reference must be made in writing to the clerk named on the front of this agenda by 5pm two working days before the meeting.

There were none.

To approve and sign the minutes of the meetings held on 11 November 2024 and 9 December 2024.

RESOLVED –

THAT the minutes of the meetings held on 11th November and 9^th December 2024 be signed as an accurate record.

There was none.

Report of the Cabinet Member for Planning and a Sustainable Camden.

The Cabinet Member for Planning and a Sustainable Camden is providing the Culture and Environment Scrutiny Committee with his annual report for discussion.

Consideration was given to the annual report of the Cabinet Member for Planning and a Sustainable Camden.

Members made the following comments:

• For future annual reports of the Cabinet Member for Planning and a Sustainable Camden it would be useful to have an analysis of Council owned properties that could and could not be upgraded and information about the money required to upgrade them to government target EPC ratings.

Action By: Cabinet Member for Planning and a Sustainable Camden

·       The figure of 6,000 properties being used as short term lets or Air B&B in the borough, which was about 8% of the Council’s housing stock was a huge figure. It appeared that the scale of the Council’s enforcement action against such a huge challenge was unimpressive. It also seemed that enforcement action could be self-funding.

·       The report was welcomed and it was pleasing to see that in areas such as Goldhurst Terrace in South Hampstead, greening projects such as sustainable urban drainage appeared to be addressing the historic flooding problems in the area.

·       It was good to see the trends for tree planting in the borough going up year on year.

·       The Cabinet Member was congratulated on a comprehensive report noting that the Council efforts on climate change and air quality were very visionary and were supported.

In response to questions, Councillor Adam Harrison (Cabinet Member for a Sustainable Camden, Richard Bradbury (Director of Environment and Sustainability) and Oliver Jones (Director of Recreation) made the following points:

• With regards to a full list of Council owned properties and their energy performance certificate (EPC) ratings in comparison to government targets, this information was available and used to focus the Council’s priority investments and would be circulated to the Committee.

Action By: Director of Environment and Sustainability

• The planned energy efficiency improvements (paragraph 2.32, page 50 of the agenda) timescales in locations such as Mayford and Spedan Close would be clarified.

Action By: Cabinet Member for Planning and a Sustainable Camden

• With regards to the retrofit funding model and energy efficiency savings, this related to the Council creating a mechanism that raised finance for energy efficiency or power production like solar rays. The marginal gains from energy efficiency and renewable energy were used for the benefit of residents.

• The seed money used was a blend of Council and external money.

• In terms of self-funding of enforcement action against short term lets or Air B&B in the borough, planning enforcement was a non-statutory function. This function was required to be funded from elsewhere, so the Council always  welcomed opportunities to receive funding from various sources.

• The difficulty for local authorities in enforcement in this area was the deregulation act which required proof that a property had been let out for 90 days within a calendar year.

• Although the Council was taking enforcement action against some properties in the borough, the threshold for conviction was high and it was difficult to see where the self-funding would come from.

• The Council had lobbied  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

Report of the Director of Public Safety.

This report outlines the Council’s approach towards tackling ‘environmental crime’ which supports the strategic aim of a safe and clean Camden. The report refers to the creation of the new multi-disciplinary Community Safety Enforcement service which has been designed to underpin the enhanced Council approach towards tackling on-street anti-social behaviour and environmental crime.

The report provides an overview of the remit of the Community Safety Enforcement service and an indication of the activity delivered since its inception earlier this year

Consideration was given to the report of the Director of Public Safety.

In response to questions, Patrick Coulson (Head of Community Safety), Toby Daynes (Community Safety Enforcement Manager) and Councillor Adam Harrison (the Cabinet Member for Planning and a Sustainable Camden made the following points:

• With regards to walking a fine balance between removing rubbish and being compassionate with not removing homeless peoples’ possessions, it was within the remit of the Enforcement Team to carry out support work and provide support to rough sleepers.

• The work of the team was very much tied together and where it came to spaces that were impacted by waste that may be associated to rough sleepers and rough sleeping encampments, Council officers were sensitive and did not conduct enforcement in these cases.

• The Council had a good relationship in the Bloomsbury area with the Business Improvement Districts, local businesses and the landowners to ensure that where there were issues around cleansing these were picked up as quickly as possible to avoid using enforcement measures.

• In terms of the three top hot spots for commercial waste and fly tipping across Camden, it was mainly the town centre areas and Bloomsbury ward which had the highest level of waste issues.

• Tottenham Court Road was the hot spot for individual littering offences and issuing of fixed penalty notices.

• All businesses were required to have a commercial waste contract to dispose of waste.

• It was difficult to determine the number of businesses in the borough that did not have a commercial waste contract as the information was not owned by the Council and there were numerous providers that businesses went to for commercial waste contracts.

• Officers estimated that about 30% of businesses did not have a commercial waste contract in the borough.

• In terms of whether the public could be informed about persistent commercial waste offenders, it would depend on whether the prosecution was successful. If it were then it would be in the public domain; however, if it were an ongoing prosecution legal advice would need to be sought.

• Officers agreed to provide members with a report updating them on enforcement activity across all wards in the borough.

Action By:  Head of Community Safety / Community Safety Enforcement Manager

• The Cabinet Member for Planning and a Sustainable Camden highlighted the issues with a minority of businesses that did not have a waste contract but had a big impact on the street, by cheating the system putting out their waste knowing that it would be collected. Noting that these were the businesses that needed to be challenged.

• The Council did not have the resources or legal capacity to check all the businesses in the borough for commercial waste contracts at the same time, however a proactive plan had been devised to check this over a 10-year cycle.

• There were lots of businesses in the borough that were not aware they needed a commercial waste contract and only when enforcement action was taken did they become aware.

• The process  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

Report of the Director of Economy, Regeneration and Investment.

This report summarises the vision and ambitions for the Culture Service, reflects on the development and delivery of the 2024 Cultural Programme and sets out the key priorities for the 2025 Cultural Programme for the communities of Camden.

The Culture Service has been created to reposition the council’s unique role as connectors and enablers of culture between cultural organisations, communities, and neighbourhoods to realise opportunities, animate the public realm and uncover Camden creatives and the everyday creativity of Camden people.

Consideration was given to the report of the Director of Economy, Regeneration and Investment.

Members made the following comments:

• It was really good to see South Asian Heritage month incorporated into the Culture Programme and watching it grow within the borough had been really interesting. There was a lot of interest and members were keen to see how residents could get involved.
• Delighted to see the filming piece around the generator project that Film Fixer were doing. Proposals had been put forward on how they could reduce the diesel generators around this.
• The Queen Elizabeth Park site used by Black Pride was no longer available and they were now looking for a site for August 2025, it would be an opportunity for the Camden Culture Team if they could find a site for the group given the way Camden was able to rescue the Queer British Museum.
• Recently there appeared to be less consultation with residents in some areas of the borough and in some instances, they felt that events had taken over. Could the Council ensure that there was good consultation with residents on staging events in their areas.
• There were a few venues in Hampstead Town such as Henderson Court and the church where it would be good to work with Camden’s Culture Team to organise some events in the area.

In response to questions, Zerritha Brown (Head of Culture) and Councillor Sabrina Francis (Cabinet Member for Jobs, Young People and Culture) made the following points:

• With regards to Camden support for UK Aids Memorial, the Council was in dialogue with them while waiting for them to get planning consent for the site. Once the site was confirmed the Council would open up conversation around community engagement and involvement of the wider community.

• In relation to Pride, the LGBTQ+ History Month was happening next month, the Council teamed up with organisations such as Queer Britain and UK Aid Memorial to create awareness and do a series of talks at the event. Although nobody from UK Aids Memorial was available this year it was hoped this could be picked up with them next year.

• Queer Britain as a rainbow network who were exploring how the Council could get more involved in terms of more engagement and more programming in relation to trans pride, black pride and the other smaller pride events. The conversation between Queer Britain and the Council was ongoing.

• London Pride Family Zone in St Giles Gardens was an always an important event and activity which the Council continued to be involved in. Even though they were no longer in the borough, the Council continued to programme activity in St Giles Square for Pride.

• Camden’s Culture Programme had a lot of events to fit in over a 12-month period, so it was a challenge to find the right balance of how much could be done while working with partners in the year.

• With regards to Community Festival Grants, the Council does a light touch evaluation in terms  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.

Report of the Director of Environment and Sustainability.

This report sets out the principles of a trial Pilot which the Council will be conducting in Goodge Street, in partnership with Royal National Institute of the Blind (RNIB), The Fitzrovia Partnership and other stakeholders to address the removal of Advertising Boards and de-clutter the street.

Consideration was given to the report of the Director of Environment and Sustainability.

In response to questions, Tracey Hogan (Streetworks Authorisation and Compliance Manager) made the following points:

• There were a number of issues highlighted during the walk about of the borough streets with the blind resident. Apart from furniture such as tables and chairs causing obstructions for disabled residents, there were issues with pathways, structures and a whole host of other things preventing easy access for disabled residents.

• These issues had been reported to the various Council teams with responsibility for the various areas to look into.

• A further invite had been sent to the blind resident for a further visit in the area to review access issues. Officers agreed to update members on feedback received from the resident.

Action By: Streetworks Authorisation and Compliance Manager

·       The walk about visit with the blind resident highlighted a lot of things the borough delivered but residents were not aware of, as the information was communicated to the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) rather than directly to the register of officially impaired or blind individuals.

·       The Council’s Adult Social Care team held this data which residents in the borough were signed up to. As well as incorporating this information into the trial pilot project, the various Council Teams were now looking to use this information to communicate directly with residents in a format they preferred.

·       The Council was also working with the RNIB to improve data capture and deliver to customers and residents information in a way that could be understood.

·       The reason the trial project was being conducted in Goodge Street rather than Hampstead was because of the support and engagement of the Business Investment Districts (BIDs) in this area. There was no BID in Hampstead to help with the trial.

·       It was a process of re-educating and working with businesses to make them understand that the highways were needed for everybody and the forms of advertising they were using were ineffective.

·       The primary focus of the trial was to bring businesses on board and use innovation to bring about change through education. The aim was to make it work for residents, users of the service and the business community which would make the streets easily accessible.

·       It was hoped that the learning and information collated from the trial with the engagement of RNIB and businesses would show what worked and what did not.

Members commented that it was an interesting piece of work and would like to see the outcome of the trial and asked for a report back from officers in the next year or so.

.

Officers were thanked for the report and attending the meeting.

RESOLVED –

THAT the report be noted.

Report of the Director of Environment and Sustainability.

This report provides an update to work across the Council contributing to a circular economy and follows up July 2024's report to the Culture and Environment Scrutiny Committee, which responded to the Committee’s Circular Economy Panel report. 

A special scrutiny panel was established by the Culture and Environment Scrutiny Committee (C&E) to investigate the ‘application of the circular economy in the work of Camden Council and support for the principles of circularity in the public and private sectors in the Borough’.  This report provides a further update on the continuing work of the Council in this area of work.

Consideration was given to the report of the Director of Environment and Sustainability.

In response to questions, Richard Bradbury (Director of Environment and Sustainability) made the following points:

The Council was always open to looking at new opportunities to work with the University district on any issue. A fundamental problem with reuse was storage an example being the Furniture project in Kings Cross some years ago, which had to move to a different area because of rents. However, the Council would work with the World Living Project and partner boroughs to take forward opportunities with University districts.

In terms of Council departments thinking about its waste streams, repair and reuse, as part of the Council’s procurement work depending on what was being purchased, the messaging about reuse and repair was factored into the procurement process.

Resolved

That the report be noted.

Report of the Executive Director Supporting Communities.

This paper provides an update on the work programme for the Committee for the 2024/25 municipal year and tracks actions from previous meetings.

Consideration was given to the report of the Executive Director Supporting Communities.

Members discussed the work programme deciding to prioritise reports for 24^th February meeting agreeing that the following reports should be considered in February:

• Annual report of the Cabinet Member for New Homes and Community Investment
• Thames Water Update
• Lime Bike/Scooters -Update

The other items either to be considered at an additional meeting or later in the year. – The Committee would decide whether an additional meeting would be scheduled this municipal year.

Subject to these changes it was,

Resolved:

That the report be noted

There was none.