Agenda and draft minutes

To receive any apologies for absence.

Apologies were noted from Councillors Tim Groves, Rupert Kyrle and Sarah Pankhurst. The Chairman welcomed Councillors Mark Cooper and Malcolm Wade, as the Liberal Democrat Substitute Members and Councillor Malcolm Wallace, as the Substitute Member for the Independent Group.

All Members who believe they have a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest in any matter to be considered at the meeting must declare that interest and, having regard to Part 3 Paragraph 1.5 of the County Council's Members’ Code of Conduct, leave the meeting while the matter is discussed, save for exercising any right to speak in accordance with Paragraph 1.6 of the Code.  Furthermore all Members with a Personal Interest in a matter being considered at the meeting should consider, having regard to Part 5, Paragraph 4 of the Code, whether such interest should be declared, and having regard to Part 5, Paragraph 5 of the Code, consider whether it is appropriate to leave the meeting while the matter is discussed, save for exercising any right to speak in accordance with the Code.

Members were mindful that where they believed they had a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest in any matter considered at the meeting they must declare that interest at the time of the relevant debate and, having regard to the circumstances described in Part 3, Paragraph 1.5 of the County Council's Members' Code of Conduct, leave the meeting while the matter was discussed, save for exercising any right to speak in accordance with Paragraph 1.6 of the Code. Furthermore Members were mindful that where they believed they had a Personal Interest in a matter being considered at the meeting they considered whether such interest should be declared, and having regard to Part 5, Paragraph 5 of the Code, considered whether it was appropriate to leave the meeting whilst the matter was discussed, save for exercising any right to speak in accordance with the Code.

No declarations were made.

To receive any deputations notified under Standing Order 12.

The Select Committee received a deputation form David Payne, along with primary school pupils, Harry, Sophia and Jackson who spoke on item 5a of the agenda, School Crossing Patrols.

The Committee also welcomed Councillor Jackie Porter, who spoke as a local Member on item 5a of the agenda, School Crossing Patrols.

To receive any announcements the Chairman may wish to make.

The Chairman noted the report of the working group, which was received at a previous meeting. Councillor Jackie Branson, Chairman of the working group, was invited to make comment on behalf of the working group. Members heard that a significant amount of time had been spent considering the feedback received through the public consultation on the items before brought forward for scrutiny and the meeting. It was further heard that the working group observed that personal security and traffic safety, not only crime statistics, should be considered in reviewing the street lighting proposals and suggested  that, whilst the social value of School Crossing Patrols was well recognised, wider work to provide safe routes to school should also be taken into account by the Select Committee.

To pre-scrutinise the following SP25 savings proposals going to Cabinet:

-       School Crossing Patrols (Appendix 4 for Cabinet)

-       Street Lighting (Appendix 6 for Cabinet)

The Committee received a report from the Director of Universal Services (item 5 in the minute book), providing the Draft Report to Cabinet and proposals prepared by Officers.

The two streams were considered separately at the meeting and can be found under items 5a (School Crossing Patrols) and 5b (Street Lighting) in the minute book.

The School Crossing Patrols proposals and Equality Impact Assessment.

The Committee considered the Cabinet appendix on School Crossing Patrols (item 5a in the minute book), which was summarised by the Director of Universal Services.

In response to Members questions it was heard that:

• The Council made significant effort to fill vacancies for School Crossing Patrol, however the roles were challenging to recruit for due to the times of operation, requiring applicants to be available in both the morning and the afternoon, and the nature of the role being term time only.
• The proposals would generate revenue savings, with the investment in permanent road safety measures to be funded from the capital budget.
• Members questioned the value of the savings, being relatively small, however it was noted that School Crossing Patrols were not a statutory service, and therefore with the current budget challenges it was required that the provision be considered.
• In additional to the provision of School Crossing Patrols, the County Council engaged with schools to enhance road safety awareness and Hampshire’s current School Crossing Patrol provision was larger than other local authorities.
• Along with the calculation set by national standards applied criteria, other measures used in considering the safety of a road crossing included visibility of the crossing and road and path width to apply a weighted rating.
• If the proposals were agreed, a business case for each site would be developed which would look at the most appropriate alternative measures, considering cost efficiency and safety measures for each site would be agreed before the removal of a School Crossing Patrol service.
• The cost of potential redundancies was included within the business case.
• The 15 sites identified within the report had already been assessed, with the further five to be assessed using the national standard PV2 criteria for safe school routes.
• Work to identify the cost of implementing alternative safe crossing arrangements across the county was not yet undertaken, as officers would await the decision of cabinet on the proposed recommendations before undertaking this significant piece of work.
• The impact from traffic from planned new housing developments was part of the considerations when discussing requirements with developers and sites could be resurveyed upon request, should residents identify significant change in road usage.
• Road safety assessments were undertaken using existing resources within the directorate, with the use of contractors only when demand required it.

Members raised concern about the potential capital investment required against a relatively small amount of revenue saving, and that the savings the proposals would generate would be insufficient to balance out the risk to road safety for children.

Councillor Rod Cooper proposed an amendment to the recommendations, to replace those proposed in the officer’s report, which was seconded by Councillor Stephen Parker:

That the Select Committee only supports the following recommendation made by officers to the Cabinet, set out on page 3:

1. To note the outcome of the 2024 Future Services Consultation in relation to the proposals on the future of the School Crossing Patrol service.

And that the Select Committee further recommends that:

2. That  ...  view the full minutes text for item 71.

The Street Lighting proposals and Equality Impact Assessment.

The Committee considered the Cabinet appendix on Street Lighting (item 5b in the minute book), which was summarised by the Director of Universal Services.

In response to Members questions it was heard that:

·         Dimming lighting and updating existing lighting to LED bulbs would reduce energy consumption and costs.

·         Officers were always considering the use of innovation to reduce costs, including consideration of how renewable energy could be used in the future to deliver environmental and cost saving benefits.

·         Porting energy produced through energy recovery facilities, which currently goes direct to grid, would require further technical consultation and additional capital investment.

·         The Council’s current lighting system was very sophisticated and was unable to control output by reducing draw, but would be unable to assess local lighting conditions at any particular time in a specific location.

·         The proposed recommendations were formulated with consideration to public feedback received through the most recent and previous public consultations.

Councillor Kim Taylor proposed an amendment to the recommendations, to include an additional recommendation to those proposed in the officer’s report, which was seconded by Councillor Wayne Irish:

6. Future requests to vary street lighting in individual areas should have sympathetic regards to factors such as the nature of the built environment, personal safety and security, and travel safety and not just specific crime or road accident statistics.

A vote was held on the proposed additional recommendation, which was agreed.

A vote was held on the substantive recommendations, including the additional recommendation, which were agreed.

RESOLVED:

That the Select Committee support the following recommendations to Cabinet:

That Cabinet approves the following recommendations:

1.    Notes the outcome of the 2024 Future Services Consultation in relation to the proposals on future Street lighting operations.

2.    That on residential streets where streetlights are already switched off between 1am and 4am, this period is extended by two hours per night so that lights are switched off from midnight until 05:00, excluding the night of 24 December into 25 December, and the night of 31 December into 1 January, when the lights would remain on all night.

3.    To approve the approach for the removal of up to £0.5 million budget provision for street lighting energy as detailed in this report and based on the results of the consultation.

4.    To reduce lighting levels in residential streets as follows:

·         23:30 to midnight and 05:00 to 05:30 – Lighting levels would be reduced by changing dimming from 65% to 80%.

5.    To reduce lighting levels on the classified (A, B and C Class) road network as follows:

·         Between dusk and 23:30 – Lighting levels would be reduced by changing dimming from 30% to 45%.

·         23:30 to 05:30 – There would be no change and lighting levels would remain at 50%.

·         05:30 to dawn – Lighting levels would be reduced by changing dimming from 25% to 40%.

And that the Select Committee further recommends that:

6.    Future requests to vary street lighting in individual areas should have sympathetic regards to factors such as the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 72.