To receive any public questions, statements or petitions submitted in accordance with the Constitution. Further information on the requirements for submitting these is available to view at the following link:-
https://democracy.bcpcouncil.gov.uk/ieListMeetings.aspx?CommitteeID=151&Info=1&bcr=1
The deadline for the submission of public questions is 4 clear working days before the meeting.
The deadline for the submission of a statement is midday the working day before the meeting.
The deadline for the submission of a petition is 10 working days before the meeting.
Minutes:
The Leader advised that two questions and one statement had been received from members of the public who were present to address the meeting:
Question from Phil Hanchet on the Agenda Item 9 - BCP Seafront Strategy
BeachPeople are campaigning to have Whitely Lake (aka Kite Beach), Sandbanks harbour-side, designated by Defra as a Bathing Water.
This would mean that the Environment Agency will sample the water for E. Coli and Enterococci twenty times per bathing season (from mid-May to September inc.)
Whitley Lake would then become the only sample point downstream of the large number of CSOs in Holes Bay, source of the vast majority of sewage pollution in the Harbour.
Do any of the council departments, in particular Destination and Culture, have any objections to BeachPeople’s campaign, and if so, what are those objections?
Response by the Portfolio Holder for Environment and Place
I would like to thank Mr Hanchet and the beachpeople for this question and their determination to get the Whitely Lake/Kite Beach designated as a bathing water site.
I've discussed this issue with seafront staff from Destination and Culture and regulatory officer's and as the portfolio holder covering Seafront Operations, I'm happy to support your request.
However, we are not intending to update or provide additional facilities in this area. As this is not land owned or managed by BCP Council, we are however conscious of its popularity and use and would support improvements.
As I know Mr Hanchet has concerns about water quality as I do, I thought it useful to let him know that I have written to all the BCP MP’s and recently had a meeting with the local MP’s about the water quality in the area.
The focus of the meeting was on sewage outflows and the work BCP Council has been doing with various agencies to address this. The aim was also to raise awareness with MP’s and to focus on the impact on our Harbour / Shellfish industry. Sewage and the quality of our beaches was also discussed along with issues associated with people seeing foul surface water (mistakenly perceived as sewage) floating across beaches.
Question from John Sprackling on Agenda Item 12 – Cabinet Forward Plan
I note from the latest edition of the BCP News, that under the heading "Delivering Our Big Planned vision for the future" on page 6, that there is a paragraph which reads "Initially, FuturePlaces will concentrate on the following schemes" and this omits the Beach Road car park scheme.
To my surprise, this has been reinstated on the Cabinet Forward Plan (01 April 2022 to 31 July 2022) and listed for Cabinet Agenda on 27 Jul 2022 followed by Council Agenda on 13 Sep 2022.
What is the current status of the Beach Road Car Park scheme?
Reply from Councillor Philip Broadhead
The addition of the stand-alone item on the Beach Road Car Park onto the forward plan was actually an error and had been removed. Its because when we took it off last time it was thought that we would bring it back in six months and it’s an automated system. This has now actually been removed from the forward plan.
In terms of background regeneration options are still being considered for the site with a clear steer from this administration that we would expect to see an improved public car park element form any part of the development. This is a very underused car park however the solution to that problem does not mean getting rid of the car park but actually in our view rather enhancing and possibly increasing the capacity whilst exploring how best to use the entirety of the site as we seek to improve the whole area. With that very firm steer we expect to see future places bring forward draft proposals in due course.
Statement from Sarah Fisher on Agenda Item 7 - Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plan (reference TCF-S6 on page 122 of the agenda pack).
This off-road kilometre of green belt water meadows floods regularly, but erratically, throughout winter. Potentially life-threatening, dangerous swirling water rises unpredictably quickly, tumbling with above and underwater hazards over varying depths of ground and river channels. No locals venture out. People have drowned.
In view of this I cannot underestimate the importance of:
· a comprehensive BCP risk assessment being in place for alerting the public, including arrangements for rapid physical closure of the route at times of mortal danger
· there will be no street lighting encouraging venturing onto the floodplain.
· all motorised transport being prevented from using this route.
The Leader thanked the members of the public for their contributions.