Agenda and minutes

Venue: Council Chamber - Town Hall - Maidenhead

Contact: Tanya Leftwich  01628 796345

Items
No. Item

95.

Apologies for Absence

To receive any apologies for absence.

Minutes:

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Coppinger and Werner.

96.

Declarations of Interest pdf icon PDF 217 KB

To receive declarations of interests from Members of the Panel in respect of any item to be considered at the meeting.

Minutes:

None.

97.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 99 KB

To note the Part I minutes of the previous meeting.

Minutes:

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: That The Part I minutes of the meeting held on the 3 July 2017 were agreed as a correct record.

98.

Open Forum

Opening remarks by the Chairman on the Panel’s role.

Minutes:

Mr Martin Fry informed Members that the Switch to Save link had been circulated to Parishes. And he thanked the Council for the project on the refitting of the school and for the support. He will forward the report to the local MP.

 

The Chairman stated she had an update on waste cages on refuse lorries for bags of textiles had been fitted to all vehicles and had been in use since late August 2017; that had led to an increase in textile recycling.

 

The Chairman updated the Panel with regards to residents not been checked for identification prior to using the refuse centres; signage was being installed to help with that. She added that the Council had objected to the Bagshot site closure as Ascot residents used that facility. The objection had been noted.

99.

town hall Building management System (BMS) Upgrage

To receive a presentation.

Minutes:

Paul Slais from Aztec stated that BMS was a management system, a computer system which ran various aspects of buildings intelligently managed. The old format was a closed door protocol which meant every manufacturer’s system did not connect to any other systems. Now, it was an open protocol system which was being used. Aztec’s system was not written into any protocol which meant it could be used in conjunction with various systems. It was a language that could communicate with other systems.

 

At present, various protocol systems were used on various floors of the Town Hall. The plan was to remove the Honeywell controls and replace them with ones that communicated with other systems and then upgrade the other systems.

 

The chillers and boilers were operating separately which were not talking to each other so a system could be cooling an area while the boilers were heating that area up at the same time. The new system would save energy by streamlining systems and having them talking to each other. That would also save money.

 

Progress to date had included the boiler house being programmed, the chiller room being programmed and the ground floor had been converted and networked. Paul Slais added that the Desborough suite should be completed by the end of the week and the only thing left to do would be to get the front end progressed.

 

Michael Potter, Energy Manager stated the new protocols meant that everything could be linked up and if a new system needed to be added, it could be. David Scott, Head of Communities and Highways said it would be good to know if the new systems improved the fuel figures . it was good to hear the project was almost at the results end of the programme. Paul Slais offered to bring results to the next panel that he could show on his laptop. David Scott said he would like to see the base line data sets and projections on figures of improvement.

100.

update on Pool Cars and Electric Vehicle Charging Points pdf icon PDF 290 KB

To consider the above report.

Minutes:

David Scott, Head of Communities and Highways explained to Members that this was a follow up report due to earlier interest in using more efficient vehicles. There were four recommendations focused around procurement of up to 10 hybrid and electric vehicles. Further analysis was being carried out to ensure the correct, most efficient number of cars were procured.

 

The Employment panel would be looking at the pool car use policy to try and increase staff usage of the cars. The whole fleet would not be able to be electric only as Social Workers required the cars for longer journeys, therefore, the fleet would need to be a mix of hybrid and electric.

 

David Scott explained to the Panel that the Borough was looking at starting a pilot car scheme where the public could use the fleet during evenings and weekends. He was also looking at the number of car rights linked to properties, and a car club scheme could help to reduce the number of cars in the Town Centre.

 

The final recommendation was regarding charging points and looked at final locations and applying for grant funding for installation. There were a number of options for charging points, access and availability and parking provision issues. There were limitations to parking in Windsor and Ascot. David Scott confirmed the team were looking to building flexible, longer term solutions into the contract with the lease company due to the rapidly changing market situations.

 

David Scott confirmed the Borough was using the same company that supplied the last fleet of cars because when the Council originally went with them, they did not offer an electric fleet, but now they did. By using them again, it would minimise any early termination fees of contract. Councillor Sharp stated he did not like the original contract and did not see the point of sticking with that company as they could only supply one type of vehicle. He added he would not vote to have the contract with that company; two years ago, the Council was stuck with a company that did not supply what the Borough wanted and now, the Borough was sticking with them again. David Scott responded he was happy to take the feedback away regarding carrying out a rival market study and see if there was further potential to not staying with Alpha City to supply the fleet.

 

Councillor Sharp said he was very in favour of electric cars, but until electric charging points were installed, the Borough should stick with the current vehicles on lease. He added that everything in the current contract was very restrictive and the vehicles were not that good and the new contract would mean the Council would have more vehicles that were not good enough.

 

Martin Fry stated that Hurley Village were planning on installing electric vehicle charging points. David Scott stated they could contact him and he could help them with putting the Parish Council in touch with a company that installs the charging points. He  ...  view the full minutes text for item 100.

101.

energy Reduction Manager update pdf icon PDF 246 KB

To consider the above report.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Panel considered the report that provided an update on the progress being made to deliver the Council’s energy and water reduction strategy. It provided a breakdown of the Council’s energy savings, information on a Southampton City Council white label scheme, an update on the Town Hall building management system and LED lighting phase 2 projects and an update on the Energy Switch to Save Scheme.  A recommendation was made that the Council signs a letter of support for Southampton City Council’s white label scheme.

 

The Panel were informed that Appendix A provided a breakdown of energy savings that had been achieved.  The table shows savings have been made at a wide range of buildings. The savings made at Hines Meadow Car Park eclipse the savings made at any other site but there are some great savings being made across the portfolio. Overall the energy savings and feed in tariff income for the Town Hall solar panels provide the second largest site saving followed by lighting works carried out at Stafferton Way Car Park under the RE:FIT contract.

 

The Panel went on to consider the update on the Southampton White Label Scheme which if accepted would  offer a set of local tariffs to the residents and businesses across the southern region. Southampton City Council are leading on the procurement process to find a suitable energy supply partner to deliver the Scheme across the southern region.  The principal aims of this municipal energy project were to help to alleviate fuel poverty and to help people who do not normally switch supplier to switch to a more favourable tariff.  A fuel poor household is defined as one which needs to spend more than 10% of its income on all fuel use when the home is heated to an adequate standard of warmth.  If approved it was proposed to send a letter of support for the scheme.

 

During discussion on this item concern was raised that the information screens in libraries were not working as these provided valuable information on schemes.  It was noted that this was targeted at vulnerable residents and concern was raised that when an individual switched energy supplier their previous supplier may harass them; it would be recommended that information on residents rights could be produced.  The Panel supported the recommendation to send a letter of interest to Southampton.

 

The Panel also noted the phase 2 LED lighting scheme and the Energy Switch to Save Scheme as detailed within the report.

 

 

Resolved unanimously that: the Panel:

 

·         notes the report and the progress made on the proposed work plan.

 

·         approves signing a letter of support for Southampton City Council’s energy white label scheme.

  

 

 

 

 

102.

Date of Future Meetings

The dates of future meetings are as follows (7.30pm start):

 

21 November 2017

30 January 2018

8 March 2018

10 May 2018

Minutes:

The Panel noted the future meeting dates and approved a new start time of 7pm.