To receive any apologies for absence.

Apologies were received from Councillor Lynda Yong (Councillor Ed Wilson attended as sub).

Apologies were also received from Martin Fry (MRF&A / City University).

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

None received.

The Chairman informed everyone present that the meeting was being recorded and that the audio would be made available on the RBWM website.

To note the Part I minutes of the meeting of the Panel held on Monday 14 March 2016.

The Part I minutes of the meeting held on Monday 14 March 2016 were agreed as a correct record subject to Councillor Marion Mills being added to the attendance list.

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

Nothing raised.

A verbal update by Alistair Scott (Designs for Lighting Ltd) & the Contract and Commissioning Lead (David Thompson), RBWM.

The Chairman explained that at the last meeting it had been suggested that Designs for Lighting Ltd be invited to attend to explain the Central Management System.  The Chairman welcomed Alistair Scott (Designs for Lighting Ltd) and the Contract and Commissioning Lead (David Thompson) to the meeting and invited them to address the Panel.

The presentation covered the following areas:

o   Project Update.

o   Central management System.

o   Installation & Commissioning.

o   Feature: Full Monitoring and Control.

o   Light Output.

o   Future.

The following points in response to the presentation were noted:     

Ø  That it had been agreed at April Cabinet to re-tender for four separate packages; luminaires, CMS, installation and maintenance and that the tenders were expected back by the 15 June 2016 for presentation to Cabinet in July. 

Ø  It was hoped that the entire upgrade programme would be completed by February 2018.

Ø  That it was looking at a reduction of around 70% in electricity consumption .

Ø  That it was planned to change c14,000 street lights to LED.

Ø  The Contract and Commissioning Lead explained that he planned to liaise with the Parish Councils to update them on the project of which they are aware and address any issues, concerns and priorities.

Ø  That heritage lights would not be changed but retro-fitted whereby the internal lighting devices would be changed as opposed to the complete lantern and  then  tested to ensure correct lighting levels were being achieved.

Ø  That LEDs worked better in cold weather.

Ø  That the LED lights would use mains voltage.

Ø  That some areas in the UK were already using car charging points on lamp posts.

Ø  The use of CMS and its network could be developed in the future  to include for additional functionality such as traffic monitoring, car parking and air quality monitoring, smart metering etc as part of the ‘smart city’ initiatives   

Ø  That if the Council was spending £626k at the moment on lighting the system would equate to £420k savings, in addition to savings in maintenance costs. 

Ø  Once installed the system allowed for significant savings in maintenance by reducing the amount of night scouting, the number of lamp changes and from significant reliability improvements in the lanterns. 

Ø  That the cost of the project was looking to be reduced by approximately 30% with an overall budget reduction of c £2million.

The Chairman thanked Alistair Scott (Designs for Lighting Ltd) and the Contract and Commissioning Lead (David Thompson) for addressing the Panel.

By the Waste Strategy Manager (Naomi Markham), RBWM.

The Chairman welcomed the Waste Strategy Manager, Naomi Markham, to the meeting and invited her to present to the Panel.  The Waste Strategy Manager referred Members to pages 11-14 of the agenda and explained that the report provided an update on food waste collections in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead. Members were informed that the report set out the results of the food waste recycling campaign that had run from September to November 2015 and outlined future plans for further promotion of food waste recycling.       

                        The Waste Strategy Manager informed the Panel that she had been delighted to see the volume of food waste collected in January (a 44% increase from the same month in 2015) had been maintained throughout March.

In the ensuing discussion, the following points were noted:    

·           That food waste bags were now available to residents from all Royal Borough libraries, the receptions in the Town Hall in Maidenhead and York House in Windsor.   

·           The Waste Strategy Manager explained that she wanted to maintain the momentum and was now looking at harder to reach areas that did not recycle as much as they could.

·           That flats where bins were not labelled up well in bin stores were being looked into as part of a rolling campaign and targeted as necessary. It was noted that the target was to achieve 95% recycling. 

·           That a trial would be taking place in June with regard to the annual supply of food waste bags.  It was noted that Veolia had stated that they would charge the Council extra to deliver the food waste bags as it was a lost efficiency for them.  The Waste Strategy Manager agreed to ask how much Veolia would charge to deliver the food waste bags to residents in the Royal Borough.

·           That the annual savings could reach £60k.  It was noted that a grant had been received from DCLG of £100k of which £45k had been spent to date.

·           That it would not be possible for the food waste bags to be delivered with the ATRB newsletter as the newsletter was now delivered by Royal Mail. 

The Chairman thanked the Waste Strategy Manager for her update and requested that updates be provided to future meetings on a regular basis, although attendance at every meeting was felt not to be essential.

By the Energy Reduction Manager (Michael Potter), RBWM.

The Energy Reduction Manager referred Members to pages 15-26 of the agenda and explained that the report provided an update and gave the Panel an overview of the progress being made to deliver the Panel’s energy reduction strategy. 

The key areas covered were noted as follows:

• Town Hall Solar Panels
• Water Baseline
• Integrated Performance Management Report (IPMR) – energy target
• Energy Switching Campaign
• Building LED lighting project
• Work planned over the next period

It was noted that the Council was currently working towards a four year Sustainability Strategy running from April 2014 to March 2018 and that the strategy focused on six workstreams including: Sustainability, Energy, Water, Waste, Transport and Renewable Generation.  Members were informed that the strategy had three key targets over the four year period which were:

1.    Reduce energy in the Council building estate by 15% in 2017/18 compared to a 2013/2014 baseline.

2.    Reduce water usage in the Council’s corporate office buildings by 3% in 2017/18 compared to a 2013/2014 baseline.

3.    Recycling rates increased to 55% in 2017/18.

Each year an action plan is drawn up to enable the Council to meet these targets as well as other goals presented in the strategy documents. This update provides a progress report for the energy workstream.

In the ensuing discussion, the following points were noted:  

Ø  That the solar panels had generated energy savings and a feed in tariff income of just over £13.5k in the year following their installation.  It was noted that an article would be going out in the Around the Royal Borough newsletter about the Town Hall Solar Panels.  It was suggested that Parish newsletters also be looked into as a way of low cost advertising. 

Ø  It was suggested that RBWM officers could help spread the word about the solar panels success.

Ø  That in total the water baseline showed that the Council used almost 44,000m3 (44 million litres) of water a year which equated to roughly the equivalent of 22 Olympic-size swimming pools worth of water. It was noted that the 3% reduction target for 2017/18 would be 1308 m3 based upon this baseline which was the equivalent to removing the water consumption of Maidenhead Road Allotments from the portfolio or just over half an Olympic swimming pool’s worth of water.  Members were informed that the issue with urinal control in the toilets at River Street Car Park, a well used toilet block, had been fixed but that further work still needed to be done.  It was noted that this toilet block was top of the list to be investigated.

Ø  It was noted that the payback periods for waterless urinals at River Street Car Park and the Coach Park toilets would be provided to the Panel at the next meeting. 

That work planned over the next period included:

o   Ensuring the LED lighting project snagging was fully completed.

o   Agreeing the contracts for the Energy Switching Campaign.

UNANIMOUSLY AGREED; The Panel noted the progress made and commented on  ...  view the full minutes text for item 31.

Councillor Ed Wilson raised the subject of Bigbelly bins which were solar powered bins located all around the city.  It was noted that the bins had a solar panel on top and two sensors inside the bin one to say when the rubbish needs compacting and one to text the waste team to say the bin almost needs emptying.  Councillor Ed Wilson explained that these bins could take a greater volume of rubbish and would not overflow, which would save the cleaning costs associated to overflowing bins. It was noted that if installed in the Royal Borough the Council would be provided with knowledge as to when bins were full and needed emptying on which days and could therefore mould collection days around the data. 

Members were informed that Councillor Ed Wilson had met with Bigbelly bins and believed these bins should be trialled in the Royal Borough, particularly central Windsor on Friday and Saturday nights.  It was noted that Councillor Ed Wilson had spoken to the Lead Member to see if a trail was possible and had also canvassed the idea and wanted feedback from Maidenhead and Ascot residents.  Councillor Ed Wilson asked the Panel if they would like to see a Bigbelly bin trialled in the Town Hall.  It was noted that the bin could be advertised on and screwed into the ground which would mean it could be moved from ceremonial areas as and when needed.

It was noted that a Bigbelly recycling bin could be placed next to a regular bin to see if it encouraged recycling.  It was suggested that a receptacle for ash from cigarettes and cigars could also be attached to the Bigbelly bins to encourage users to be more safety conscious. 

The Panel was informed that the Bigbelly bins cost approximately £900 each which was approximately 9-10 times more expensive then regular bins but that he felt the technology needed to be seen in action.  The Chairman stated that he believed the reporting mechanism would be beneficial to the Council.  The Head of Governance, Partnerships, Performance & Policy, David Scott, informed the Panel that he would be happy to take this update back to the Streetcare Team to find out what options they were progressing with.  The Vice-Chairman requested a full cost / benefit analysis first and the Chairman agreed to speak to the Lead Member to see if they were happy to trial the Bigbelly bins in the Royal Borough. 

The Energy Reduction Manager informed the Panel that a Streetcare Officer would be attending the next meeting.  The Chairman requested that the Streetcare Officer bring along a Bigbelly bin and he for one would like to see one.   

The Panel believed that it would be worth looking into trialling the Bigbelly bins.

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

·         Tuesday 12 July 2016

·         Monday 3 October 2016

·         Tuesday 29 November 2016

·         Thursday 19 January 2017

·         Monday 6 March 2017

·         Tuesday 9 May 2017

It was noted that the dates of future meetings had been scheduled as follows (7.30pm in the Town Hall):

·         Tuesday 12 July 2016

·         Monday 3 October 2016

·         Tuesday 29 November 2016

·         Thursday 19 January 2017

·         Monday 6 March 2017

·         Tuesday 9 May 2017