Agenda item

To discuss the following matters raised by Local Council’s:

• Conservation Areas – Local Councils requested that additional areas should be considered for conservation area status. This matter had been raised at the meeting of the Epping Forest Association of Local Councils and after a brief discussion about the value of Conservation areas, it had been agreed that they were not being served well by present planning arrangements in the District. In spite of being identified as ‘conservation areas’ much that was of interest had been lost. It was also noticed that without the adoption of Article 4 provisions, the District’s conservation areas lacked meaningful protection. 

• Village Hall Rubbish Collection – Local Councils’ requested an updated on the current position regarding waste collection services for village halls and a review of free collection.

• Presentations - The Local Councils’ briefly discussed the length of presentations arranged by EFDC at the Local Councils Liaison Committee.  It had generally been agreed that presentations should be time limited.

a)                  Conservation Areas

Concerns had been expressed by the Local Councils that not all notifications of Tree Protection orders had been clearly advertised, which had caused problems when Parish and Town Councils had gone onto complete remedial works .

The Local Councils felt that the Conversation appraisals seemed to be a slow process and more involvement for third party organisations should be considered.  Whilst the use of the Article 4 directive should be used to provide more protection for areas within the Epping Forest District and reduce the alterations, protect and value the areas of conservation.

County Councillor C Pond commented on areas of Loughton and Buckhurst Hill that had been mentioned by members of the national heritage as conversation areas and asked how the Parish and Town Councils could forward this information onto EFDC.

The Assistant Director of Planning, Policy and  Conservation, Kassandra Polyzoides advised that they were aware of resources issues and currently they had only one Conservation Officer, Elizabeth Haines. A report had been submitted to Cabinet on 19 April 2010, for a one year fixed term Technical Officer post in the Conservation section to support the high demand of work and the post would allow for work to be progressed on existing Conservation Areas although not reviewing other areas and whether they merit designation.  

County Councillor C Pond advised that consideration for joint funding to create further role, could be considered because of the valued work of the Conservation section.

Councillor Mrs A Haigh advised that Buckhurst Hill Parish Council had previously tried to protect areas of conservational interest but had been unsuccessful because the houses had been altered too much or too many Victorian buildings had been protected, although if comments had been received about the Buckhurst Hill containing buildings of interest they would take it on board.

RESOLVED:

That the Assistant Director of Planning, Policy and  Conservation, add the Local Councils comments to the Cabinet report for consultation undertaken.

b)                 Village Hall Rubbish Collection

The Assistant Director Environment and Street Scene (Technical) , Kim Durrani advised that the Cabinet Committee on the 8 March 2010 had decided that fees for the collection of residual waste from Village and Community Halls would be charged at £7.50 per container per collection and £2 rental per week via Sita UK with costs being reviewed annually. The Recyclable Waste collection and Recyclable Waste containers would be free of charge. The decision currently awaits the call in period after which a letter will be sent to all Parish and Town Councils inviting them to get in touch with the Council to discuss arrangements for implementation of collection services. These include formal agreements and duty of care requirements for collections. Officers of the Council will be able to visit the premises and agree the most appropriate collection arrangement with the Parish and Town Council.

Local Councils felt that the recycling collections were acceptable but that the costs for the residual waste were unfair because the majority of the Village halls were not profit making organisations and the residual waste produced would be minimal.

The Assistant Director Environment and Street Scene (Technical) advised that the Local Councils comments would be referred back to the Portfolio Holder for Environment, Councillor Mrs M Sartin and all Parish and Town Councils would be visited by officers to discuss collection details.

            RESOLVED:

That comments from the Local Councils are passed onto the Portfolio Holder for Environment, Councillor Mrs M Sartin. 

c)                  Presentations

Noted that future presentations from outside organisations should be kept to a minimum time and that if the organisations require longer, they could visit Parish and Town Councils individually.