My report to council

Posted By: Wera Hobhouse
Date Posted: 17/10/2008

Thank you Mr Mayor for the opportunity to report to the Council the latest developments on various matters relating to the Environment and Sustainability Portfolio.


PLANNING AND REGULATION SERVICE

Trading Standards

In recent weeks officers have been systematically tackling underage drinking.
Recent actions have included:

Revoking the Designated Person Licence for alcohol sales for a shop in Middleton. Although the shop is allowed to still sell alcohol, it is subject to strict conditions and no complaints about it have been received.

A second Bottle Marking Initiative was launched in Norden with three off-licences signed up. This allows Police to identify where alcohol has come from when investigating cases of underage drinking. This is achieved by placing special markers on a selection of those alcoholic drinks most likely to be used by under age drinkers. When police then come across cases of underage drinking it is possible to track the bottles back to the shop at which they were purchased. This allows police and Trading Standards to take direct action against the shops where the alcohol has been purchased. Past actions of this kind have been successful and this initiative is intended to refresh the message with both shops and children. We will be monitoring the initiative and will report back on the results. These tend to be positive where we have the co-operation of retailers, but action such as detailed above for Middleton remains an option.

A series of actions have also been taken against the sale of counterfeit goods. A market trader was found guilty of 13 counts of trade mark offences and fined and ordered to undertake community service. We have participated in Operation Yukon which tackled bogus officials and rogue traders including checks of building workers.

In August, we became the first Trading Standards Service in the Country to use a new tobacco reader to identify counterfeit cigarettes. This is now being used in premises where we have received complaints.

Preparations are now underway for this years Good Guy (Fireworks) Scheme. All premises intending to sell fireworks this year will be visited and encouraged to join the scheme. We are hoping to launch the initiative early in October.



Planning

Consultation is well underway on the Core Strategy of the Local Development Framework for the Borough. At this stage we are consulting on issues facing the Borough and the options for the scale and location of development in the Borough over the next 15 years. Many members will have participated in the consultation process already but I would urge those who have not to look at the reports on the Councils Consultation Website and to offer their views. Alternatively contact the officers dealing with the plan in the Strategic Planning Team to discuss possible implications for your ward.

I am pleased to report that planning permission has been granted to rebuild the Tesco store at Sudden. This will create a new high quality store at one of the major gateways into the Borough. Concerns were expressed about the potential impact on Rochdale Town Centre but these have been offset by an investment package by Tesco in improvements to Yorkshire Street, highway improvements and the local recruitment of 200 people.

In Middleton we are working with Tesco to create one of their first eco-stores. This will feature wooden cladding, greatly increased energy efficiency and passive ventilation. The revisions should not change the timetable for delivery of the store that is scheduled for a start on construction in January.

We are leading an initiative entitled Green Infrastructure on behalf of Greater Manchester. This is looking at how we can develop and exploit our green spaces for leisure and recreational uses but also using them for flood prevention. A major conference will be held in October and Heywood has been selected for a pilot initiative to demonstrate how the initiative can bring benefits.


Environmental Health

Eat Clever Rochdale – challenging health inequalities

Eat Clever Rochdale is a food based lifestyle project. Following a successful pilot scheme at a homeless persons hostel, a successful grant application to the Food Standards Agency has gained £2,400 to support the course delivery to the homeless and mental health and alcohol rehabilitation groups until March 2009.

The course includes wherever possible, certificated food hygiene training for those seeking employment. The specialist food safety promotion officer and the public health nutritionist deliver the course.

Rochdale Salt Shaker project

This project supports the Food Standards Agency ongoing campaign to encourage consumers to use no more than 6g of salt daily. Salt consumption above this upper limit has been shown in scientific trials to affect blood pressure readings (hypertension can predispose to stroke and heart disease). Fish and chip shops have been given the opportunity to have an initial set of 5-holed salt shakers during routine food hygiene inspections. Commercial salt shakers normally have 17 holes.



Sodium sampling by trading standards officers has shown a sodium reduction of 3.52g per sample of chips to 2.61g. In the context of a daily diet, this small reduction offers a simple way to reduce salt intake without affecting taste. The project has been low cost, involving £102 for amended shakers and £63 for publicity and training posters.

The BBC and Channel M have covered this during live interviews recently.

ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT SERVICE

1) Waste Disposal Facilities
Unfortunately due to the current economic climate it has not been possible to
finalise the PFI contract with Viridor-Laing, I hope this should be concluded very shortly. However in order to ensure that suitable facilities are available at the new site at Chichester Street (Household Waste Recycling “In Vessel” composting and transfer loading station), the Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority agreed to further advance works which will ensure that the facilities will be available on a phased basis next year. This is good news on two fronts: (i) to avoid extra costs of transportation next year and (ii) it will ensure that the Entwistle Road is available for other uses.

2) Sustainability and Recycling
At the recent meeting of ELT and Cabinet consideration was given to the major challenges facing the authority in the forthcoming years and the Council’s response to reducing our carbon foot print and combat global warming at a local level was identified as one of these key issues. The expansion of the

new Sustainability Team will provide a platform to address these issues.
I am looking for a commitment from council to increase recycling from 35% to 50% in the next three years.

Street cleansing, Enforcement and Campaigns

The Enforcement- and Campaigns Team have successfully signed up 252 Business to the Environmental Tidy Business Standards charter since its recent launch.

The team has also supported and carried out over a dozen Environmental clean ups supported by residents and community groups and has also issued over 250 Fixed penalty notices for environmental offences and 711 Statutory notices on those failing to keep land they own or manage in a reasonable clean condition.

Improvements into street cleansing standards are being driven by the employment of the additional street sweeping and chewing gum removal machines that have been rolled out in all townships. This will also be supported by a chewing gum litter awareness and enforcement campaign for all townships rolled out by spring 2009.

Our campaigns team have recently worked with over three hundred primary school –children as part of the Local Environmental Action Fortnight and spent time delivering environmental messages around littering and wildlife conservation issues.




Rochdale Township Environment Wardens

I am delighted to report that Rochdale Township has shown its commitment to tackling litter and grot spots by funding two additional litter wardens. These Wardens will work alongside the Borough wide enforcement officers. It is hoped that these Wardens will eventually be mainly funded by the income they raise from fixed penalty receipts making the initiative ultimately self funded at little or no cost in coming years to Township funds.

Parks

Falinge Park

Development proposals have been submitted at the end of September for a full stage 1 application for the restoration of Falinge Park under the Heritage, Parks for People Lottery Fund.

The bid if successful will bring investment of £5 million and would fully restore all the park and principal buildings providing a community hub and world class facilities.
Funding under the Playpathfinder project has already been approved for a natural play facility of nearly £850,000.00 within Falinge, which will be constructed over the next year.

I hope you will join me in supporting this submission, which I hope you agree could transform the biggest green space in Falinge to an important resource for local people.

Truffet Park

As part of the commitment to achieve Green Flag status, work is well underway to transform this park for the benefit of the borough. New floodlights have been installed to provide night time bowling events, repairs to the drainage infrastructure have been commissioned and new fencing works are currently underway. A new play area has been installed along with the appointment of a Middleton Park Ranger, Tom Ratcliffe and a newly formed Friends Group.

The Green Volunteers

I am particularly pleased to announce that the Green Volunteer (GV) Service was short listed as a National Finalist in the Association of Public Service Excellence (APSE) Awards 2008 as an example of good practice in public/voluntary sector working. This placed it in the top 7 out of 370 entries from across the UK. The fact that such a new service has already received national recognition demonstrates great commitment from the volunteers and real leadership from officers setting a wonderful example to everybody in the Borough. The Green Volunteer service was formed as a direct result of putting money behind our political priorities in the 2006/07 budget.

Townships in Bloom

Despite an appalling summer for gardeners, the Townships in Bloom presentations at the Town Hall on Thursday 25th were better attended than ever. There was a record number of entries in the Community Environmental Projects, indicating that local people are getting more and more involved in improving their local environment. This year was the second in which Rochdale Boroughwide Housing (RBH) were running their own awards as part of the wider competition. This partnership approach is something which Environmental Management sees as the spearhead for moving this competition from strength to strength and bringing together local pride, community cohesion, quality of place and environmental improvements.

Local Nature Reserves

Subject to approval, English Nature have agreed to back the designation of 2 further Local Nature Reserves (LNRs) in the Roch Valley and at Hollingworth Lakes. Not only will these provide additional protection for habitats and wildlife in these areas but also represent a big boost for the two Friends Groups.

Councillor Wera Hobhouse