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Partnership Panel Meeting Notes - 26/02/21

Present: Cllr M J Steptoe – Chair (MS), Cllr Mrs D L Belton (DLB), Cllr Mrs J R Gooding (JG), Cllr N J Hookway (NH), Cllr R Milne (RM), Cllr C M Stanley (CS), Cllr S A Wilson (SW), Matt Harwood-White – SRO (MHW), George Farley (GF), Andrew Rowson (AR), Duncan Blackie (DB), Cllr S E Wootton (SEW), Cllr M J Lucas-Gill (MLG), Cllr M G Wilkinson (MW), Cllr R R Dray (RD), Cllr A L Williams (AW), Dawn Tribe (DT) and Nicola Hopkins (NH),

Apologies: Cllr J C Burton

Notes: Julie O'Brien - from recording

Duration: 15:00 till 17:04

Note 25/21

Protocols

A polite reminder was provided to all in attendance to observe protocols and maintain confidentiality in relation to matters discussed and divulged at the Partnership Panel of a commercial sensitive nature. The notes produced of these meetings are the public record.

Note 26/21

Advice from Monitoring Officer

An advice note had been circulated by the Monitoring Officer to all Panel Members and its visitors. Should there be any questions or concerns then these should be raised with the Monitoring Officer directly.

MS suggested that the Monitoring Officer advice note be attached to each agenda going forward. Action: MHW to explore future agenda format

Note 27/21

Notes of Partnership Panel meeting on 29 January 2021 and matters arising

The notes were agreed.

Note 28/21

Programme Update

Retained Sites

Design work for the Freight House is progressing at pace and involves working closely with key colleagues with regards to the officer, community and civic functions of the proposed spaces. A similar process is evolving for the Mill and will develop further building on recent Stakeholder Focus Groups.

Non retained Sites

GF provided a brief account on current position in the Programme. Discussions were ongoing with Rochford District Council Planners concerning the sites at pre-application stage; 3-15 South Street and 57 South Street. A meeting is scheduled to discuss the Civic Suite site next week.

It was reminded that No.19 South Street already has existing planning permission granted. The Mill site is still deliberately running at 2 months behind the first tranche of works in Rayleigh.

Note 29/21

Update on Planning/Pre-app Timetable

On schedule (as above)

Note 30/21

Sustainability, including Energy Strategy Update

GF presented to the group, on behalf of gbpartnerships’ work with specialist consultants appointed on sustainability and energy. An overarching Energy Strategy is in place that covers all the 6 sites within the Programme.

Commitments in overview:

  • All developments to comply with Rochford District council’s ENV8 Policy in respect of renewable and low carbon energy generation.
  • Residential developments will follow 2020 Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) 10 requirements – an enhancement over current requirements
  • Non-residential will be assessed under Simplified Building Energy model (SBEM)
  • BREEAM – Mill Community Centre and new build element of Freight House to reach ‘Excellent’ status
  • New built ‘U value’ (rate of heat loss) to achieve 30% improvement over Building Regs
  • Refurbishments will aim to exceed Building Regs by 10%
  • Fuel: movement towards low carbon fuels with electricity as the primary fuel source
  • Mechanical Ventilation with Heat Recovery (MVHR) to be installed. This is a whole house ventilation system that both supplies and extracts air throughout a property. It offers a balanced low energy ventilation solution for new dwellings and re-uses up to 95% of the heat that would have otherwise been lost.

Each site was discussed in-turn as to how the strategy was being applied in terms of heating, ventilation and renewables proposals. It was noted that:

  • 3-15 and 19 South Street both have listed building constraints and therefore their set ups are similar.
  • 57 South Street is likely to have underfloor heating and not require radiators to be in situ
  • At the Freight House and Mill Community Centre a Variable Refrigerant Flow (VRF) air source heat pump system which converts heat via refrigerant will provide heating and cooling. This is a powerful system for use in bigger builds.
  • Consideration is being given to some natural ventilation at the Freight House, but this is driven by noise/acoustics.
  • Air source heat pumps take in air from outside and use electricity to compress and release it for use in radiators and/or underfloor heating, with the remainder stored in a hot water cylinder that can be used for showers, baths and taps.
  • Ground source heat arrangement uses liquid pumped through underground pipes and heated by the surrounding ground which gets exchanged into hot water via a pump for a heating system (underfloor heating or radiators and to the hot water system).
  • No known grants are currently available with regards to funding ground source heat pump installations.

In answer to questions it was advised:

  • The growing trend is to move away from gas and look at electricity as a sustainable energy source, hence this being the preferred option within the Programme at this time. Longer term, the running costs of
  • properties are kept lower with electricity helped by using photo-voltaics, which would be an attractive incentive for residential buyers.
  • Consideration would indeed be given to how the proximity of the airport could affect whether wind turbines were suitable at any location.
  • The consultants used by gbpartnerships are an international company and those working on the ADP are located at the East Anglian office and have visited all the sites within the programme.
  • A fully analysis will be carried out on the Insulation at 3-15 and 19 South Street in respect of the listed building nature and ensuring appropriate heat and noise deliberations are made.
  • Quality and sustainability do take priority on all the builds and cross-funding across sites within the programme facilitates this. Aims for BREEAM excellence demonstrate this commitment and such status will be achieved at retained sites by taking careful decisions that address the long-term benefits and recognise this is a key aim for the Council.
  • The Government ‘Green Homes Grant scheme’ to help with air source heat pump costs would be explored.
  • In terms of the Council being carbon neutral by 2030, every effort was being made to future proof as far as possible now for the Council not to require significant changes to its retained sites, as part of the programme, going forward.
  • Upon recommendation, the recovery of heat from a loft space would be explored with gbpartnerships’ specialist consultants appointed. Action: GF to report back with advice on loft air pumps
  • The possibility of large battery storage for solar power would now be investigated seeing as prices were reducing and this avenue is being seen used for homes Action: GF to report back with advice on large battery storage

Note 31/21

Social Value

NH reminded the group of 5 key themes under the Social Value Act from which promises are made as part of the programme delivery:

  1. Promoting Skills and Employment
  2. Supporting the Growth of Responsible regional Businesses
  3. Creating Healthier, Safer and More Resilient Communities
  4. Protecting and Improving our Environment
  5. Promoting Social Innovation

In terms of these obligations and fulfilling promises NH confirmed that these are contractual, and this will be monitored with importance. Once working on site, the contractor of gbpartnerships uses a system that allows daily tracking of progress and the intention is to share this feedback with the Panel going forward.

Note 32/21

Communication and Engagement

DT provided feedback to confirm that the Community Stakeholder workgroup is very busy and convene on a fortnightly basis. There has been a lot of particular activity over recent weeks:

  • engagement with stakeholder groups is well underway and to date various meetings have been held
  • the pre-application consultation for the Rochford sites completes on 28th February. As part of the work to publicise this stage in the programme and encourage feedback from the public, a double-page article featured in the local Echo newspaper.
  • The council hosted a live webinar on 24th February regarding the Rochford sites and which was well received with over 55 attendees and a professional delivery. Mike Davies kindly led the session and questions were triaged through for officers to address. All answers to questions and feedback will be subsequently put on the Voyage website, together with a link to the recording of the Webinar on the Council’s YouTube channel.
  • The ‘Have Your Say’ poster campaign was in progress and Parishes would be encouraged to support where possible with displays on their prominent public notice boards. Spare copies are indeed available to any Members who may seek any more.
  • The Economic Development Department at the Council are actively promoting the Asset Delivery Programme and messages regularly being relayed to businesses wherever possible as part of their work.
  • now that the Government Covid-19 roadmap has been announced it is possible to consider how communications can extend with the likes of schools, universities and colleges which have re-opened their doors, and other parts of the community when they too are back open on-site.
  • The Rayleigh pre-application consultation commences on 15th March and plans are in place for another local newspaper article and that focusing on a high factual content to address key points and cover as many areas as possible due to the high level of interest in the Mill site.
  • Another webinar is scheduled for 17th March, and considerations being given as to how this might be more interactive and cater for a sufficient questions and answers session.
  • The Voyage website continues to evolve and remains the main hub for information and the latest updates. All members are encouraged to promote and remind within the community about this useful platform. This is also where online comments are captured via survey and fed into the consultations.
  • The Council continues to engage with those groups for whom the new community centre will be smaller than their current needs. We are talking with those users as part of our stakeholder forum and will support them to find solutions that work.
  • Hardcopies of electronic material and consultation feedback papers continue to be made available upon request.

In answer to a question, DT advised that despite efforts concentrating on the immediate streams of work, discussions have taken place regarding the hoardings and it is on the agenda in recognition of how these can be positively utilised to engage with the community and send strong messages at the earliest opportunity.

Although Covid-19 restrictions still hinder the ability to engage with the public in person, direct verbal approaches with requests and questions have been dealt with by officers and consistent messages are being provided.

Further engagement is being planned via 1:1 telephone conversations with the Programme team for those that cannot access the Webinar.

DT welcomed the suggestion to consider regular ‘good news’ stories to add to the engagement campaign and support the programme with history and surrounding positivity. Thoughts were already being given to the Mill in this capacity.

The Panel and its visiting Members noted that it was important not to overlook that there are unfortunately some mistruths about the Mill site spread within the community and ill feeling being generated. Notwithstanding that the wealth of published facts and figures on the Voyage website and beyond by the Council dispel any incorrect unofficial information, the recent echo news article was very constructive and worthy of reproducing and distributing by the Council amongst the community to highlight the Programme.

Reiterating the key benefits to the Programme will help the community to better understand the proposals. This will be further reviewed by the Communications and Stakeholder Workstream.

Note 33/21

Member Issues and Questions

Ward Members attending as guests were thanked for their contribution, politely reminded of the private and confidential nature of discussions, noted that the meeting notes would be provided for a public record and departed from the meeting at 5pm.

Note 34/21

Items for next Partnership Board

In noting that the next meeting scheduled for 26 March is post the webinar date, MHW proposed that an interim catch up could be beneficial. Action: MHW to confirm arrangements for meeting ahead of the webinar on 17 March. Post meeting note – interim meeting scheduled for 12 March.