To receive any apologies for absence.

Apologies were received from Councillors Nicola Pryer and Lynda Yong.

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.

The Chairman informed everyone present of the fire evacuation procedures and asked that all mobile phones were switched off during the meeting.

To note the Part I minutes of the meeting of the Panel held on Tuesday 12 July 2016.

The Part I minutes of the meeting held on Tuesday 12 July 2016 were agreed as a correct record subject to Councillor Werner’s apologies being added.

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

Nothing raised.

The Chairman informed everyone present that the Panel’s role was to deliver the Council’s Sustainability Strategy that had got six separate work streams which were available on the RBWM website (sustainability, energy, water, waste, transport, renewable generation).  It was noted that the work streams fed into a list of three main pathways. 

Members were asked for any ideas or residents ideas on sustainability to be fed into the Chairman.   

By Nigel Conder (Propelair).

The Chairman welcomed the Sales and Marketing Director – Propelair, Nigel Conder and Oliver Cullum to the meeting and invited Nigel to address the Panel.  Members were given a brief presentation on “Propelair – High performance 1.5 litre flush toilet”. 

The presentation covered the following:

·         Why Propelair?

·         1.5 litre flush toilet.

·         Video.

·         Product approvals.

·         Current customers.

·         Customer – Brighton & Hove City Council.

·         Customer – London Borough of Redbridge.

·         Customer – Thames Water.

·         Monitoring Maidenhead Town Hall.

·         Monitoring Windsor Town Hall.

In the ensuing discussion the following points were noted:

Ø  That in addition to direct water savings for the Council there would also be an indirect CO2 saving as a result of the water supplier having to use less electricity when processing the water.

Ø  That the toilet lid closed manually and the toilet handle was sterile.

Ø  That a pre-installation site survey would take place in the first instance with the view to installing the Propelair toilet to the existing soil pipe. 

Ø  That the Propelair toilet flushed water around 30 metres from the source of the flush.

Ø  An example was given of the Princess Alexandra Hospital which had experienced drain issues but had not experienced any since installing Propelair toilets.

Ø  That the payback period for 10 toilets was approximately 8.6 years, depending on usage.

Ø  It was suggested by the Sales and Marketing Director that a site visit could be arranged to take Members of the Panel to another Council where Propelair toilets had been installed.   It was noted that if this was of interest to the Panel they would make contact via the Clerk.

The Chairman thanked Nigel Conder and Oliver Cullum for attending the meeting and presenting to the Panel.

By a member of the Waste Team.

The Chairman welcomed the Waste Strategy Manager, Naomi Markham, to the meeting and invited her to update the Panel.  The Waste Strategy Manager explained that she had been to a previous Sustainability Panel earlier in the year where she had given Members data with regard to the food waste collections in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead from the first quarter.

Members were informed that the September figures were not available to date but that up until the end of August there had been just over a 43% increase on food waste collected in the Royal Borough. 

It was noted that the Council had saved just under £41k on food collection costs in the first seven months of collections. 

The Waste Strategy Manager informed the Panel that she had been delighted to see the volume of food waste collected in May had increased by 65%  from the same month in 2015. 

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 for example flats.

                        In the ensuing discussion, the following points were noted:  

·           That the Panel would like to be updated on the increase in food collections shown month on month.

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

·           That Stafferton Way had seen a 20% increase in food waste collections by way of residents using the green liners. 

·           That 2,500 containers had been distributed and levels of waste collections had been maintained.

·           That a trial would be starting this month  with regard to flats where bins were not labelled up well in bin stores as part of a rolling campaign.  It was noted that a door knocking exercise would be taking place tomorrow to inform residents of the campaign which included a leaflet of the do’s and dont’s. The Waste Manager explained the flat residents would be left with a storage bag which had worked well in London Boroughs.   It was noted that the target was to achieve 95% recycling.  The Waste Manager informed the Panel that the campaign would cost approximately £30k and would be delivered by EnviroComms.

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

·           That Veolia would not distribute the food recycling sacks to residents on a bag for bag basis (like in Ealing) as they believed there to be a health and safety issue involved.  It was noted that there was 2.5 years remaining on the Veolia contract but that it could be something that could be looked into in the future.  Councillor Derek Sharp stated that he would be interested to see the vehicles used by Veolia.  

·           It was questioned whether Veolia was contributing towards the cost of education pupils about recycling.  The  ...  view the full minutes text for item 48.

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

The Energy Reduction Manager, Michael Potter, referred Members to pages 13-24 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:

• Energy reduction performance 2016/17
• RBWM Energy Switch to Save
• Schools energy saving competition
• Town Hall Building Management System (BMS) project
• Maidenhead District Energy Network
• Water Saving Toilet Trial
• Work planned over the next period until the next Sustainability Panel

In the ensuing discussion, the following points were noted:  

Ø  That a lot of energy reduction savings would be made through LED lights.

Ø  The Chairman asked that the Energy Reduction Manager continue to encourage people to sign up to the switch to save campaign and continue to help to raise the profile.

Ø  The Vice-Chair expressed his concerns regarding the timings of the schools energy saving competition as he felt that virtually no notice would be given to schools.  The Vice-Chair informed the Energy Reduction Manager that he felt the earliest this competition could be run would be at Christmas time.  The Chairman requested that the prize awarded be given via a presentation.  It was agreed by the Panel that this scheme should go ahead with the competition being run in January.  The Energy Reduction Manager agreed to email Head teachers regarding timescales.

Ø  The Energy Reduction Manager informed the Panel that the RE:FIT energy performance contract was currently being reviewed and that the Council was speaking to a third party company to review the contract as a whole.

Ø  The Panel was informed that the assessment looking into the possibility of installing a District Energy Network in Maidenhead was now complete and a final report had been issued.  It was noted that the report was with the Regeneration Team for comment and that the Energy Reduction Manager was waiting to hear back from the Director of Planning, Development & Regeneration, Chris Hilton.  It had been suggested that the gas generator could be located in the Nicholson’s Car Park.  The Panel agreed that it was worth investigating depending on the reaction from the Regeneration Team but that the Council would need to get the timing right.

That work planned over the next period included:

• Completing the energy switching campaign.
• Setting a low flush toilet trial in the Town Hall public toilets.
• Tendering the Town Hall BMS project.
• Gaining support for the Schools Energy Saving Competition in schools.
• Finalising plans for the LED upgrade programme phase 2

UNANIMOUSLY AGREED; The Panel noted:

v  The progress made and commented on the proposed work plan over the next period as detailed in paragraph 17.24.

v  That more information needed to be provided at the next meeting in November with regard to a trial of low flush toilets in the public toilets of the Town Hall subject to procurement rules and final pre-installation checks at a cost of up to £15k using CY03 capital code.

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

•           Tuesday 29 November 2016

•           Thursday 19 January 2017

•           Monday 6 March 2017

•           Tuesday 9 May 2017

Future meeting dates were noted to be as follows:

·         Tuesday 29 November 2016

·         Thursday 19 January 2017

·         Monday 6 March 2017

·         Tuesday 9 May 2017

The Chairman requested that the meeting start time remain at 19:00 going forward. 

Appendices 2&3.