To receive questions from Councillors in accordance with Standing Order No.19.
Question submitted by Councillor Fordham:
“Given the apparent policy within the CBC Housing is to replace damaged doors from Council Estates and Properties rather than repair them, what steps does the Council take to ensure that such waste, which appears to go into skips for collection, does not just go to landfill?”
Question submitted by Councillor Fordham:
“It is now a year since the Elder Way Co-op store for food closed - a situation driven largely by a reduction in footfall and the pandemic. Given this sits at the heart of Northern Gateway with the new car park, the Enterprise Centre and of course the development of the empty shops that comprise the former Co-op Department Store - isn't this now the time to lead by example regarding town centre living and offer in-town housing flats and apartments in the Council owned former Co-op food store building?”
Minutes:
Under Standing Order No. 19 Councillor Fordham asked the following questions:
· “Given the apparent policy within the CBC Housing is to replace damaged doors from Council Estates and Properties rather than repair them, what steps does the Council take to ensure that such waste, which appears to go into skips for collection, does not just go to landfill?”
Councillor Serjeant provided a verbal response explaining that CBC always undertakes repairs to damaged doors where appropriate to limit waste and any doors that are replaced are recycled through Wards recycling.
The Council was currently progressing several major replacement programmes to ensure that the highest standards of security and fire safety were achieved. Only minor repairs could be carried out on fire doors that were already to the required FD30s standard. Repairs couldn’t be carried out on old doors where there was no certification or proof of compliance with the required standard, also items such as locks would need to be capable of being opened from the inside without a key, and letter boxes and other components fire rated. Similarly, if fire doors were damaged and their integrity compromised, the only option was to replace them.
The contractor used to recycle old or damaged doors as part of the current Holme Hall door replacement scheme, Ventro, had a Sustainability Policy which ensured all waste was re-cycled where possible and other measures taken to achieve the company’s net-zero targets.The Policy was available on Ventro’s website for reference.
· “It is now a year since the Elder Way Co-op store for food closed – a situation driven largely by a reduction in footfall and the pandemic. Given this sits at the heart of the Northern Gateway with the new car park, the Enterprise Centre and of course the development of the empty shops that comprise the former Co-op Department Store - isn't this now the time to lead by example regarding town centre living and offer in-town housing flats and apartments in the Council owned former Co-op food store building?"
Councillor Dean Collins provided a verbal response confirming that the Council’s Local Plan sought to prioritise town centre living and that the Council was already seeing a pleasing increase in applications for town centre housing schemes.
Whilst the Council owned the freehold for the property, Central England Co-operative still had over 80 years remaining on their lease. The site was being actively marketed by the Co-op and the Council was supporting this by including the site within its site and premises guide.
The site offered limited potential for conversion to Council housing stock as the key pressure points for social housing were for bungalows and larger properties. This site would be more suitable for upper floor 1- and 2- bedroom apartments for which there was less demand.
There had however been several recent town centre property conversions where the Council had worked pro-actively with private sector investors and developers to secure attractive, high-quality schemes enabling key town centre buildings to be brought back into use. A good example was Knightsbridge Court.