Agenda item

1.    That a capital budget of £400,000 be agreed to upgrade 4 waste-water treatment works (WwTW) to be funded from HRA reserves.

2.    That works to individual WwTW works to be delivered subject to the Council’s Chief Finance Officer and Strategic Director agreeing the business case and granting authority to spend the budget under Financial Procedure Rule 7.4; and, if credits are to be sold in the market, suitable agreements being secured.

3.    That authority be delegated to the Strategic Director, S151 Officer and Director – Legal to utilise and/or dispose of (in accordance with market conditions at the time of sale) credits generated from historic and new upgrades in accordance with the following strategy:

a)    To support the delivery of council housing commissioned by the council.

b)    To support the delivery of housing where an element of that housing is to be council housing and the approach helps to unlock delivery via credit disposal.

c)    To dispose of credits to support other council led and enabled activities.

d)    Disposal of credits to the open market.

4.    That authority be delegated to the Strategic Director and Director - Legal authority to agree required monitoring and enforcement mechanisms for such arrangements and to enter into legal agreements to facilitate delivery.

5.    That authority be delegated to the Strategic Director for the procurement of any works or services and that the Strategic Director be authorised to award contracts and enter into all necessary legal agreements with the preferred bidder(s).

Councillor Becker left the room during consideration of this item and took no part in the discussion or decision.

Councillor Westwood introduced the report which sought approval, subject to individual business cases, to upgrade a further four of the council’s own waste-water treatment works (WwTWs) which would result in improvements to water quality and also generate nutrient credits.

Ian Tait spoke during public participation as summarised briefly below.

He generally welcomed the proposals but raised some concerns as he believed the council’s own WwTWs were discharging water with higher levels of nutrient than was acceptable under the Natural England directive from 2019.  He stated that the council should address the wider issue and not just relating to the HRA.

At the invitation of the Leader, Councillors Horrill and Lee addressed Cabinet as summarised briefly below.

Councillor Horrill

She welcomed the proposals and the upgrade of the two council owned WwTWs that had already been undertaken.  She requested clarification of a number of points, including the priority order of the schemes, how it interacted with the Partnership for South Hampshire (PfSH) mitigation scheme, use of credits to date and staffing resource implications.

Councillor Lee

He stated that recent analysis of the River Meon indicated poor chemical health and emphasised that a wider approach was required to tackle this issue than suggested in the report.  He highlighted other methods to reduce harm from nutrients and queried whether PfSH, Natural England and the local nutrient mitigation fund were constraining a more flexible approach.  He also raised a number of other detailed points, including querying whether future cross-cutting project reports should be considered by Scrutiny Committee, the impact of plants being situated in the South Downs National Park and the assessment of risks. 

Councillor Tod advised that PfSH would discuss deployment of nutrient mitigation schemes at its meeting on 23 July 2024 and there was provision for deputations to be made at that meeting.  In response to comments made by Mr Tait, he also emphasised that the report dealt with nutrient overflow and that there was no sewage overflow from existing council owned WwTWs.

Councillor Westwood, the Strategic Director and the Service Lead – New Homes responded to the detailed questions asked by Mr Tait and the two councillors, including emphasising that there was wider work on nutrient mitigation proposals being led by PfSH and that the credits generated to date had not been sold but had been used to further council owned developments.

Cabinet agreed to the following for the reasons set out in the report and outlined above.

RESOLVED:

1.             That a capital budget of £400,000 be agreed to upgrade 4 waste-water treatment works (WwTW) to be funded from HRA reserves.

2.             That works to individual WwTW works to be delivered subject to the Council’s Chief Finance Officer and Strategic Director agreeing the business case and granting authority to spend the budget under Financial Procedure Rule 7.4; and, if credits are to be sold in the market, suitable agreements being secured.

3.             That authority be delegated to the Strategic Director, S151 Officer and Director – Legal to utilise and/or dispose of (in accordance with market conditions at the time of sale) credits generated from historic and new upgrades in accordance with the following strategy:

a)    To support the delivery of council housing commissioned by the council.

b)    To support the delivery of housing where an element of that housing is to be council housing and the approach helps to unlock delivery via credit disposal.

c)    To dispose of credits to support other council led and enabled activities.

d)    Disposal of credits to the open market.

4.             That authority be delegated to the Strategic Director and Director - Legal authority to agree required monitoring and enforcement mechanisms for such arrangements and to enter into legal agreements to facilitate delivery.

5.             That authority be delegated to the Strategic Director for the procurement of any works or services and that the Strategic Director be authorised to award contracts and enter into all necessary legal agreements with the preferred bidder(s).