To receive any apologies for absence.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Coppinger.

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

None.

To approve the Part I minutes of the meeting of the previous meeting.

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: That the Part I minutes of the meeting held on the 18 September 2017 be approved subject to the following amendment:

That Mr Martin Fry be added to the record of attendance.

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

The Chairman welcomed members of the public, one in particular that had requested to speak on the issue of plastic waste, and the overuse of plastic bottles polluting the oceans. As the Royal Borough was placed alongside the Thames which flowed into the sea, it was a good place to start trying to reduce the reliance on single use plastics which were often washed down stream and into the sea.

By Jason Crozier (Clarkson Alliance)

Kevin Mist, Communities Project Lead, introduced the item and stated the design team had been working together for 12 months and a planning application had been submitted. The application was waiting to go to Panel. The Communities Project Lead and his team had been working with Wates Construction under a framework agreement and they were benefiting from practical advice from other organisations that had built other leisure centres. He hoped the presentation would answer a lot of questions and reassure residents of the good quality of the project.

The main points of the presentation were as follows:

Ø  Sustainability objectives:

o   To achieve a 75% reduction on utility costs over the current Magnet Centre

o   To provide a future facility which enabled amendments and modifications to the fabric as technology and use advanced

o   To follow an approach that offers the best value to the council and local rate payer with a life cycle costing approach to Capital and Operational Expenditure

o   To provide a life cycle of at least 35 years.

Ø  Site Location:

o   The site was located in the Green Belt within Braywick Park

o   The team had looked at the path of the sun to get the most use of daylight to keep energy costs reduced.

o   The location to be used was a former landfill site with interesting trees.

Ø  Site Strategy:

o   Pedestrians had priorities in certain places

o   A holistic approach had been adopted

o   As part of the design, making elements work as hard as possible and making sure the scheme answered a brief on programme

o   Will be an extraordinary facility that was connected with the nature reserve and interconnected with a cycle path.

Ø  Sustainable Travel:

o   Within walking distance to the Town Centre

o   Connected to the Green Way Cycle Path

o   Shuttle Bust to Town Centre

o   Increase in bus provision

o   6 nr electric vehicle charge points with the ability for more to be added at a later date

o   Cycling stands to be provided

Ø  Sustainable Drainage:

o   Rainwater harvesting provision for grey water and irrigation

o   Sustainable Urban Drainage (SUDS) were to be used to ensure all surface water attenuates through the site.

o   Attenuation ponds and swale

Ø  Ecology and Planting

o   Centre had been designed with careful consideration to the sites sensitive location

o   The development would enhance the ecological value through retention of high value trees and improved planting

o   Cemetary boundary to be reinforced creating a primary bat corridor

o   The central avenue would make the centre a hub for the park.

Ø  Floor Plan:

o   There was to be a wet side and a dry side of the building as well as a street like area

o   There would be three elements that formed the construction

o   The building would feel generous in space and open within.

Ø  Sun and Daylight:

o   The Planning application included PV provision

o   The winter garden skylight gave a parkland outside in feeling

o  ...  view the full minutes text for item 107.

By Paul Slais and Simon Garrard (Aztec Control Services).

Simon from Aztec Controls gave a brief update on how the Town Hall BMS was progressing. The main points of his update included:

Ø  The project was started by replacing various BMS control panels with Trend IQ4 type controls.

Ø  The new system would be able to speak to any system in almost any language.

Ø  The panels could be timed to start and stop to monitor energy metering.

Ø  Monitoring could take place from any PC within the RBWM network.

Ø  The timer and temperatures could be adjusted.

Ø  The system showed what the pumps were doing and would also show up any faults.

Ø  The system calculated positions of valves, so the building was not always heated to the maximum which save on energy and costs.

Ø  Temperatures in different zones could be customised.

Ø  Time scheduling was easily set and the system could schedule special events. Each zone could be individually programmed so that the whole building did not have to be running.

Ø  The system would work based on outside temperature so it would heat to the correct temperature.

Simon confirmed that it was possible to set a one-time event for each area within the Town Hall as well as having the usual settings in place. The settings could be customised to individual needs to work for evening meetings when just one room needed to be heated. It would also be possible to add other buildings such as the Guildhall to the system and that would work across the Ethernet. He added that door entry systems, alarm systems and vending machines could be added as the system used so many languages, it could convert them all into one language so systems could communicate with each other.

Councillor Yong enquired to find out if there could be an educational section in the new leisure centre which showed how the system worked as children would be fascinated with the technology. Simon responded that there could be a large dashboard screen in a public area which showed all the savings and how much energy had been made through the solar panels.

Councillor Sharp asked if the system would know if someone had moved from one room to the other and if there were any overwrite options for the settings. Simon confirmed that the new system took over the existing system so it would not really be able to do that. The system was split into four zones but there were no drawings that showed how mechanically the system was mapped out. In warmer weather, he would switch all but one zone off to map the system and would then be able to work out how the system could manage. Councillor Sharp suggested installing an override switch which would help to move zones as it was not always possible to programme in advance. Simon confirmed it was possible to do that. Temperatures were easily set by clicking on the floor map and then clicking on the individual temperature for the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 108.

By the Energy Reduction Manager (Michael Potter).

The Energy Manager gave a brief update to the Panel. The main key points were:

Ø  The Energy Managers focus for 2018 was on the Energy & Water Strategy

Ø  The four topics within the strategy were listed in paragraph 11.2 on page 15 of the agenda pack

Ø  Page 19 of the agenda pack showed a break-down of topics into actions which formed the backbone of the Strategy

Ø  All work should fall within the actions of the Strategy.

The Chairman requested more information on the business scope supporting role. The Energy Manager confirmed that it included offering the Energy Switch to Save Scheme to businesses or offering energy efficiency advice.

The Chairman said she liked the site targets. The Energy Manager confirmed the work carried out to finish metering every premises the Borough had, had been completed. Councillor Sharp stated he wanted to see how well the Council was doing in terms of energy efficiency at every meeting. The Chairman requested up to date figures on the Council’s solar panels be displayed on the screens in libraries. Councillor Sharp commented the screens should be linked with the new BMS system and should show real time figures. That would give residents an incentive to reduce energy at home. The Council should lead by example/ the Chairman stated the displays should be moved from reception to the library as the reception area of the Town Hall did not receive many visitors since most Council services had moved over to Maidenhead Library. The Energy Manager confirmed the solar panels were not linked to the BMS yet but, he could look at arranging that in the near future. Councillor Sharp stated the new BMS should be publicised as the Energy Manager had done a very good job.

v  Action – The Energy Manager to provide a monthly update on energy efficiency of Council buildings at every meeting.

The Energy Manager gave Members a brief update on the BMS and explained that the system was up and running and he was now working through a snagging list. The BMS had picked up faults which were being fixed. Further projects had been identified through BMS such as work on the chiller and upgrading the pumps. He was looking at putting sub metering onto the BMS for monitoring purposes. He added that the LED lighting project had been completed within the Town Hall.

Councillor Sharp stated every time the Borough changed a street light over to LED, that should reduce the electric bill. Therefore, he wanted to know how much the electricity bill had been reduced by; he added that residents should be able to see the reduction. The Energy Manager confirmed that residents could see the energy consumption online each day.

The Energy Manager gave a brief update on the Energy Switch to Save Scheme next and explained that he had received the highest number of registrants overall and switchers expected to save up to £9,000 per year collectively. An estimated £20,000 had been saved  ...  view the full minutes text for item 109.

The dates of future meetings are as follows:

8 March 2018

10 May 2018

The Panel noted the next meeting of the Sustainability Panel was due to be held on 8 March 2018.