Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor R A Renshaw.

It was noted that Councillor G E Cullen was in attendance as a replacement member for this meeting only.

There were no declarations of interest at this point in the meeting.

(To receive a report by Daniel Steel, Scrutiny Officer, which sets out the Scrutiny Review Process and formal working arrangements for the review of the Impact of the Part Night Street Lighting Policy)

Members received a report which set out the Scrutiny review process and formal working arrangements for the review of the Impact of the Part Night Street Lighting Policy.

It was requested that any reports written by senior officers were written in plain English.

RESOLVED

            That the Scrutiny Review process and working arrangements in relation to the Impact of the Part Night Street Lighting Policy Scrutiny review be endorsed.

(To receive a report by Daniel Steel, Scrutiny Officer, which provides the Scrutiny Panel with the opportunity to consider and agree the scope and resources for the Impact of the Part Night Street Lighting Policy Scrutiny Review)

Consideration was given to the scoping document for the scrutiny review for the Impact of the Part Night Street Lighting Policy.  Members were advised that to be effective, a scrutiny review must be clearly defined to make sure that the review achieved its aims and had objective outcomes. 

Members were guided through the scoping document and provided with the opportunity to ask questions in relation to the information contained within the report, and some of the points raised during discussion included the following:

·         It was clarified that this would be a cost neutral exercise to the Council, and if there was a recommendation to spend more money in one area it would need to be taken from somewhere else.  However, it was queried whether if there was an opportunity to bring money into the council, if this could be considered.  It was confirmed that if it was additional funding it could be included within the review.

·         It was suggested that the scoping document be sent back to the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board for final approval.

RESOLVED

1.    That the scope for the review as outlined in the report be noted.

2.    That the final Scoping Document be submitted to the next meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board for approval.

(To receive a report from John Monk, Group Manager Design Services, which provides background information to the Scrutiny Panel and describes the process by which part night lighting came to be implemented on a wide scale across Lincolnshire)

Consideration was given to a report which provided background information and described the process by which part night lighting came to be implemented on a wide scale across Lincolnshire.

Members were guided through the report, with attention being paid to information relating to the street lighting transformation project, part night lighting, policy changes, transformation project communications and transformation project outputs.

It was queried of the £1.7m savings achieved, how much of that had been achieved by the part night aspect, and members were advised that this accounted for approximately one third of the savings.  However, the LED conversions had made a significant savings on the higher wattage units.  Members were advised that these savings did take into account the fact that LEDs had a longer service life.  Energy savings accounted for approximately £1.4m of the savings and the remainder was from maintenance savings.

RESOLVED

            That the information presented be noted.

(To receive a report by Daniel Steel, Scrutiny Officer, and Rachel Wilson, Democratic Services Officer, which enables the Scrutiny Panel to engage in discussions with the Community Engagement Team to agree the purpose, scope and objectives of any engagement to be carried out as part of reviewing the Impact of the Part Night Street Lighting Policy)

The Scrutiny Panel were provided with an opportunity to engage with a member of the Council's Community Engagement Team to agree the purpose, scope and objectives of any engagement to be carried out as part of reviewing the impact of the part night street lighting policy.

Members were reminded that the policy itself was not under review, and there was a need to be clear about what was in the scope and what was out of scope of the review.

There was a need, when asking questions, to ensure that the right questions were asked.  There were a number of ways to gather information such through questionnaires, focus groups or public meetings.  The Community Engagement Team was able to facilitate the conversations between the Panel and wider stakeholder groups.

Members were provided with the opportunity to ask questions to the officers present and some of the points raised during discussion included the following:

·         It was commented that from a lot of the comments which had been received, and the concerns that people had, there was a lot of 'hear say'.  There was a need to start with some quantitative data.

·         It was suggested whether some sort of 'business card' could be produced which could be handed out to the business community which gave contact details on how people could contribute their views to the Review.

·         Social media channels could be used to drive people to a central place to give their views.

·         It was important to reach as many people as possible.

·         If the Panel wanted the questionnaire to generate a lot of responses it would be sensible to keep it simple and succinct, but people should always be given the opportunity to give their views.

·         The Community Engagement Team would work closely with the Communications Team and could distribute the questionnaire, or a link to the questionnaire, through social media.

·         It was noted that a few complaints had been received by members regarding the street lights going off earlier since the clocks had changed, and it was suggested that a message should be got out that the units were self-adjusting and should correct within a couple of weeks of the clocks changing.  It was queried whether the Communications team could arrange this so that there were not mixed messages regarding the Review, and it was noted that something had gone out to the local media.  It was also noted that the CSC had been briefed.

·         It was queried whether these messages would be made available in different languages, and members were assured that documents could be made available in different languages if required, as well as making them available in larger fonts for people with sight issues.

·         Sometimes to have a snapshot of a broader view was just as powerful as making sure everyone could give their view.

·         It was felt that this questionnaire/engagement should be web-based, rather than producing printed forms, with an option to download and return the form.

·         It was noted that there would be information  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

(This is an opportunity for the Scrutiny Panel to discuss areas for further investigation with Claire Seabourne, Safer Communities Service and Graeme Butler, Road Safety Partnership)

The Scrutiny Panel received an update from Sara Barry, Safer Communities Manager, in relation to the involvement of Safer Communities in this Review.  It was reported that the role of the Safer Communities team was to ensure that the County Council addressed its duties in relation to crime and disorder in relation to the prevention of crime and addressing the fear of crime.  It was also noted that there was a very small team who supported the Community Safety Partnership.

It was reported that prior to the start of the Street Lighting Transformation Project, the team had been asked where the high crime areas were in the county, and it had been difficult to identify these areas in Lincolnshire, as it was generally a safe county.  However, the team was able to provide data on a detailed basis to the Street Lighting Team.  Some research of the situation nationally had also been carried out for those areas where street lights had been turned off, and it was noted that Lincolnshire was one of the last areas to implement this policy.  This research showed that in a lot of cases crime had fallen, however, there was no data regarding the fear of crime.

It was the intention to carry out some research once the lights had been changed for some time to examine how crime patterns had changed.  It was noted that the Team would be able to access Police data.

The responsibility of the Community Safety Partnership was to engage with the community to understand the issues which were concerning them.  Some research was carried out the previous working with the PCC, and of 858 responses, only 14 mentioned street lighting as a problem or a fear of safety in their locality.

The Panel also received an update from Graeme Butler from the Lincolnshire Road Safety Partnership (LRSP).  It was reported that the LRSP was a data led organisation in terms of accident reporting, and worked very closely with the Police.  It was felt that there had not been enough time to gather statistics relating to street lighting.  However, the Police collected all data at the site of any injury accident, including information relating to street lighting, such as whether there was:

·         Daylight

·         Darkness with street lights lit

·         Darkness with street lights not lit

It was thought that there could be some useable data by January 2018, but it was noted that it was still a very short time to make any meaningful comparisons.  It was suggested whether this data could be used a data check mechanism instead, to compare with responses that would be received from the questionnaire.

It was also noted that just because the police may record at an accident that it occurred in darkness, it did not mean that was the cause of the accident, the road could have been icy, or excess speed could have been involved.

It was noted that the Safer Communities team would be happy to work with Community Engagement about the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

(To discuss and agreed the future meeting arrangements for the Scrutiny Panel)

The Scrutiny Panel was asked to discuss and agree the arrangements for future meetings of the Review. 

It was suggested that the questionnaire need to be in the public domain before the next meeting in December, and a possible closure date of the end of the year was suggested.  There was support for this suggestion, and there was a need to move quickly with this.

Community Engagement offered to work with Democratic Services to work out a plan in relation to focus groups.  It was queried whether the draft report and results from the questionnaire could be presented to the meeting of the Panel on 12 January 2018.

In relation to the drafting of the questions, it was thought it would be useful for some members of the Panel to work on this with officers, as it was important for the Panel to have an involvement in this.

It was suggested that officers put together a draft timeline for the review and present it to the meeting on 6 December 2017.

It was also queried whether there could be a standing item on the agenda for correspondence which had been received, to inform the Panel of responses which had been received from stakeholder groups (but not to discuss the response at this point).

In relation to evidence gathering, it was noted that once evidence started to be submitted, the Panel would need to look at how it would be reviewed.  Some meetings would be held informally so that the Panel could fully consider and discuss the evidence.

In relation to crime figures, it was noted that crime had gone up during the day, throughout the country, and there were various types of crimes which had increased.  However, these increases could not be directly linked to the street lighting.

RESOLVED

1.    That Panel Members and Officers work outside of this meeting on finalising the questions to be included in the questionnaire.

2.    That a draft timeline for the Review be presented to the next meeting on the 6 December 2017.