Agenda and draft minutes

There were apologies for absence from Councillors Christopher Alley and Stephen King.

To confirm as a correct record the minutes of the meeting of the General Public Services and Community Engagement Committee held on 1 July 2025.

A Committee Member mentioned that comments he had made in relation to Shannon House under agenda item 8 (Community Safety Annual Report) at the meeting held on 1 July had not been recorded and requested that this be added to the minutes.

Officers undertook to review the relevant section of the webcast and make any necessary addition.

Items of other business notified under Council Procedure Rule 30 to be announced, together with the special circumstances that justify their consideration as a matter of urgency.  The Chair to rule on the admission of such items.

There were no items of urgent business.

To receive any declarations of interest.

There were no declarations of interest.

The Committee is asked to receive a petition which requests that the Council suspends parking restrictions on Moneyhill Parade. The petition has been signed by 35 residents. 

“I have put my name to this petition as a resident / business owner in the area being affected by the new parking restrictions being implemented in Rickmansworth West.  I disagree with these parking restrictions and the cost of having to pay (parking permits) for something that I believe will not only be detrimental to local businesses but not offer us any better parking solutions than the one we have now.  We have been left with no choice but to pay the extra cost without any benefit to us as residents / business owners.  We demand these restrictions be uplifted immediately as we were not consulted properly and the majority disagreed.  We demand better consultation and a better thought out scheme.”

The Committee received a petition which requested that the Council suspends parking restrictions on Moneyhill Parade.

The Lead Petitioner, Michael Charnock, was not in attendance at the meeting.

The Lead Member, Councillor Sarah Nelmes, responded to the petition as follows:

‘The objective of any parking scheme is to improve and manage the parking on the public highway, a situation that needed investigation in this location given the previous public requests we had received and initial support for considering parking in the locality.  Whilst any scheme progressed will change the current parking situation and result in a degree of displacement parking it is intended there are wider benefits of any scheme, which includes in this scheme encouraging a short term parking churn outside the shops/businesses for customers to be able to park and improvements to road safety and the passage of through traffic.  As with any parking scheme Officers have to consider the requirements of a number of different users (i.e. residents, visitors, employers and their employees) in formulating a scheme.

The Rickmansworth West parking scheme was initiated in 2017 following agreement from the Sustainable Development, Planning and Transport Committee.  During investigation of the scheme it has incurred a lengthy process of public consultation.  Over the past 7 years the Council has consulted extensively with both residents and businesses and taken into account feedback in how the scheme has been developed.  We have consulted on this scheme by letter / post with two public exhibitions and this has included letters to residential and commercial properties in the scheme area and site notices erected on affected roads.

A further detailed Committee report on the scheme was presented to the Infrastructure, Housing and Economic Development Committee in November 2022, to determine which roads to pursue controls in and which to exclude.

Parking and business permits have been introduced to ensure there is parking made available for residents and businesses.  The costs of those permits reflect those around the rest of the district and specifically for Rickmansworth in terms of business permits.

The Council has committed to reviewing the scheme within 12 months of implementation and as such the scheme will be reviewed later in the year to evaluate the impact of the new parking restrictions and to review any suggestions for improvement. Initial planning for the upcoming scheme review has begun and officers are engaging with Ward Councillors on how the review will be conducted.’

The Committee is asked to receive a petition which asks the Council to review the single yellow line parking restriction at the bottom of Kindersley Way.  The petition has been signed by 34 residents.

“We the undersigned petition Three Rivers District Council to review the single yellow line parking restriction at the bottom of Kindersley Way restricting parking during the week between the hours of 1pm and 2pm (north side) and between 2pm and 3pm (south side) with a view to allowing residents of the road with a (free) parking permit to park on the single yellow lines during the hours parking is restricted.”

Joanne Colledge-Miller, the Lead Petitioner, presented a petition which asked the Council to review the single yellow line parking restriction at the bottom of Kindersley Way. 

The Lead Member, Councillor Sarah Nelmes, responded as follows:

‘Thank you for your request for new parking restrictions. Officers, in accordance with current agreed processes, will add this request to the Parking Management Programme request list.  This list is reviewed fully every 2 years against agreed criteria which forms part of the setting of the Parking Management Programme (although the existing programme is subject to a 12 month review).  Any parking requests will be considered as part of this programme.’

Presentation by Peta Mettam, CEO of Citizens’ Advice Three Rivers (CASTR).

The Chair welcomed Peta Mettam, CEO of Citizens’ Advice Three Rivers (CASTR) to the meeting.  Peta Mettam presented the CASTR annual update covering the financial year 2024/25.

Areas covered during the presentation included the impact of CASTR in providing advice services and helping to improve local policies and practices; key performance indicators within the Service Level Agreement (all of which had been exceeded); client issues and trends; the ways in which help is provided; a case study; the effectiveness of advice provided and its financial impact; CASTR’s value to society and the community in Three Rivers; and the research and campaigns in which CASTR had participated.

The slides used can be found here: Our Impact in 2024/25: The Difference We Make in Three Rivers

Committee Members commended CASTR for their valuable services and thanked Peta for the presentation.

This report provides an overview of service delivery of Hertfordshire County Council’s Public Health funded projects including the Placed Based Health Inequalities, which has now ended, and the Healthy Hub Project following a request from Councillors for this work to be highlighted at committee.  The report also provides an overview of the Public Health Prevention Investment Programme application being submitted by Three Rivers District Council on a Healthy Food Environments project.

Recommendation:

That Members note the contents of the report.

The Partnerships Officer (Strategic Lead for the Healthy Hub) presented a report which provided an overview of service delivery of Hertfordshire County Council’s public health funded projects (including the Place Based Health Inequalities programme which had now ended), and the Healthy Hub Project.  The report had been requested by Councillors in order to highlight work which wasn’t statutorily required, but which provided positive benefits to the community.

The Committee heard about the workstreams undertaken, levels of engagement and outcomes, as set out in the report.

In response to a Member’s question about the project with Watford African and Caribbean Association (WACA) to deliver targeted health awareness initiatives on conditions disproportionately impacting residents of African and Caribbean heritage, officers clarified that WACA did not only provide services within Watford but also in Three Rivers and the broader area.  The project had involved delivering events both in person and virtually in order to widen accessibility, and these had also been open to wider community members.

In response to a question about how success of the initiatives was measured, officers responded that most of the workstreams had involved quarterly review meetings and the production of evaluation reports as a requirement of the funding agreement with the County Council.

It was noted that some services (such as smoking cessation and diabetes support) were already offered by other providers (e.g. GP practices).  In response to a question about the potential for overlap, the Committee heard that officers worked closely with the local health services (community pharmacies and GPs) to review the local offer, to complement existing services in areas of high demand, and to offer alternative routes of access (e.g. by providing in person rather than phone-based support).

A Committee Member suggested that in light of recent high profile successes in women’s sport and the success of the ‘Man On’ initiative, officers might consider working with partners to offer a similar programme of sessions for women.

Committee Members commended officers for the report and thanked them for their work, noting that this had continued during the challenging times of covid.

RESOLVED:

That the report be noted.

This report provides Members with an update on the Beryl Bike Share pilot operating in Croxley Green since October 2024 delivered in partnership with Watford Borough Council and Smidsy Ltd (trading as Beryl). The report further details a proposed expansion to the bike hire scheme and advises that a further Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) bid has been submitted for expansion into other parts of the district.

Recommendation:

That the committee:

i)     notes the update on the Croxley Green Beryl Bike Share pilot;

ii)    approves the proposals for expansion of the bike hire scheme and delegates authority to agree final sites within the areas outlined in the report to the Head of Regulatory Services in consultation with the Lead Member for General Public Services and Ward Councillors;

iii)    notes that a CIL bid for this further expansion of the scheme into Rickmansworth, South Oxhey and Leavesden has been submitted and will be considered separately under the CIL governance process; and

iv)   agrees to delegate authority for approving and entering all required contractual arrangements to implement the pilot scheme to the Director of Finance in consultation with the Lead Member for General Public Services.

The Principal Sustainable Travel Planner and Transport Officer presented a report which provided Members with an update on the Beryl Bike share pilot which had operated in Croxley Green since October 2024.  The report also detailed a proposed expansion to the scheme and set out that a further Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) bid had been submitted for the expansion into other parts of the district.  The CIL bid would be brought forward separately for determination through the Council’s CIL governance process.

The Committee heard from officers that the Croxley Green pilot had been considered a success.  There had been an average of 1.2 rides per bike per day recorded since launch.  This compared to 1.9 in the main Watford area; however, the lower figure for Croxley Green was to be expected given its location on the outskirts of the area and lower population density. 

The extension of the scheme (including from Bushey into some Hertsmere Borough Council areas) was expected to improve connectivity further.  The proposal for expansion within Three Rivers would involve a further 36 new e-bikes and 13 physical bays at a cost of £138,000, and this was the sum of the current CIL application.  The proposed locations were:  Rickmansworth (station, Watersmeet, Aquadrome café, Aquadrome bridge and Harefield Road); South Oxhey (Carpenders Park station, junction of Gosforth Lane and Hayling Road, junction of Green Lane and Prestwick Road, near the Prestwick Road Parade opposite Greenfields School and near the parade on Little Oxhey Lane) and Leavesden (Warner Bros Studios, Leavesden Country Park and near Evergreen Park on South Way).  However, the Principal Sustainable Travel Planner and Transport Officer highlighted that these proposals would be subject to consultation and alternative locations could be considered.

A Committee Member noted that the report presented the scheme positively, but highlighted that there been some issues, including reports of bikes being dumped in the river in Croxley Common Moor and at the Aquadrome.  The docking station outside Croxley Green Library had also not gone live, which presented an operational risk to the rest of the programme.  Additionally, a docking station requested for the Moor Lane Crossing industrial estate - in order to link Croxley Green Station and Rickmansworth Station with one of the district’s largest industrial estates - had not been included in the proposal. 

Officers clarified that residents were asked to report issues with the bikes directly to Beryl and not the Council.  The incidents referred to had not been recorded by Beryl as issues or complaints.   However, it was acknowledged that use of the complaints data provided by Beryl resulted in a discrepancy in presenting the issues which had been experienced and officers would review this.

With regard to the delay at the Croxley Green Library site, officers advised that difficulties had been experienced in securing a licence for the site due to complexities relating to land ownership.  For the new expansion sites, officers were looking to mitigate similar problems by prioritising the location of docking stations on land which could  ...  view the full minutes text for item 20.

This report covers this Committee’s financial position over the medium term (2025 – 2028) as at Period 3 (end of June 2025).

The Period 3 comprehensive Budget Management report has already been presented to the Policy & Resources Committee at its meeting on 8 September 2025 which sought approval to a change in the Council’s 2025 - 2028 medium-term financial plan.

Recommendation:

That Members note and comment on the contents of the report.

The Finance Business Partner presented the budget monitoring report for period 3 (to end of June 2025).  The period 3 budget monitoring report had previously been presented to the Policy & Resources Committee at its meeting on 8 September 2025, where approval had been sought for a change in the Council’s 2025-2028 medium-term financial plan.

A Committee Member queried the adverse variance of £12,000 arising from planning subscription costs, and the reason for the increase.  Officers responded that this had been due to a significant increase in the subscription cost charged by the provider.  The subscription was used by Planning Officers for their professional development and professional casework; it was considered important to retain it and no alternative provider was available.

RESOLVED:

That the report be noted.

To receive the Committee’s work programme.

The Committee noted its future work programme.

Officers reported that two transport and parking items would shortly be added.  These were (i) Parking Management Programme Annual Review and (ii) Parking Management Programme Policies.