Lead Members – Councillor Kate Halliday – Chairman of the Task and Finish Group & Councillor Joyce Barrow – Chairman of the Economy and Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee

Report of Tom Dodds, Scrutiny Manager

RESOLVED:

To accept the recommendation 1 to 8 set out in section 7 of the report and provide a response and action plan for their delivery, to the Economy and Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

Councillor Joyce Barrow, Chair of the Economy and Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee, presented the report and the following recommendations from the task and finish group:

1.     That Shropshire Council, as the Local Planning Authority, should

· Adopt Grampian Conditions in Shropshire to ensure that new developments will be joined to appropriate infrastructure and access to treatment works with the sufficient current and future capacity in place.

· Promote the requirement for grey water systems and rainwater capture as part of new housing developments, reducing the use of drinking water to water gardens and clean cars. As part of this, Members recommend that the feasibility of introducing supplementary planning documents (SPD) should be explored and progressed.

2.     That Shropshire Council, as the highways authority, should proactively engage with and encourage Severn Trent Water in their progression of works that will increase the separation of rainwater run-off from wastewater, including highways runoff, thereby helping to reduce the risk of overwhelming sewage infrastructure and treatment works.

3.     That more monitoring of the health of rivers and waterways needs to take place:

· Severn Trent Water should increase the frequency of monitoring and reporting to once a week and ensure that testing occurs before and after releases. This data needs to be made available and the results made visible and easily accessible and understandable e.g. using trend charts and maps.

· System partners, including Shropshire Council, should work with citizen scientists to identify and put in place mechanisms that will allow them to continue to deliver and develop testing and monitoring that enhances the picture of what is happening beneath the surface of rivers and waterways.

4.     That Shropshire Council is a ‘Place Leader’. Within this there are a number of roles and actions that the Council should take to enable communities to help contribute towards improving river water quality:

 · Identify and provide access to small grants or accessible funding such as through initiatives like civic social crowdfunding that can be used to enable communities to take forward work that results in improved river water quality e.g. funding equipment and lab testing of citizen scientists work, and funding the River Health Checker app.

· Supporting and enabling initiatives and applications for Bathing Water Status.

· Assessing the feasibility of managing the River Health Checker App and promoting its use locally with stakeholders in the system and communities. Softer recommendations

5.     That system partners confirm shared outcomes and objectives in relation to river water quality and the environment and use these to jointly and consistently lobby Government to realise a regulatory framework and requirements that encourages water companies and other stakeholders who are part of the system, to target and achieve the best environmental outcomes.

6.     That local representatives, including Shropshire Council, should work closely with Severn Trent Water to inform how and where the recently announced investment to reduce sewage pollution takes place. This should include enabling and ensuring the engagement between agencies and with local communities and help to realise the greatest benefit for the environment of the resources being brought to bear.

7.     That system partners work to support increasing the visibility of the data and enabling greater understanding of what is actually happening in Shropshire rivers and water ways.

· Support the adoption of the River Health Checker App

· Enable and promote consistency of recording, data structures and access to the data, using those nationally described and adopted by other areas of the country.

· Encouraging effective use of the data, and promoting the development of visualisation, including engaging with local further and higher education colleges.

8.     That, once a reduction of sewage releases has been put in place, Shropshire Council progresses activity, directly through its own services and responsibilities, and through its partnership working as a Place Leader, to reduce the flow of other pollutants from agricultural and highways run-off.

Members and officers were thanked for their input into the task and finish group’s work. It was felt that the rivers were an important asset in Shropshire and that the engagement with Severn Trent had been productive.

RESOLVED:

To accept the recommendation 1 to 8 set out in section 7 of the report and provide a response and action plan for their delivery, to the Economy and Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee.