Environment Committee - 10/06/2013

At a MEETING of the ENVIRONMENT COMMITTEE held at Dundee on 10th June, 2013.

Present:-

BAILIES

COUNCILLORS

Councillor Craig MELVILLE, Convener, in the Chair.

The minute of meeting of this Committee of 20th May, 2013 was held as read.

Unless marked thus * all items stand delegated.

I DECLARATION OF INTEREST

No declarations of interest were made.

II FORESTRY COMMISSION GUIDANCE ON ASH DIEBACK

There was submitted Report No 254-2013 by the Director of Environment updating the Committee on the Action Plan issued by Forestry Commission Scotland for Ash Dieback disease.

The Committee noted the content of the report.

III SUPPLY OF PLANT 2013/2014

There was submitted Report No 255-2013 by the Director of Environment seeking approval for the purchase of plant as required by the Environment Department to maintain operational efficiency.

The Committee approved the purchase of the plant listed in Appendix 1 to the report, at a total cost of 17,768.

IV DOMESTIC WASTE COLLECTION STRATEGY

There was submitted Report No 18-2013 by the Director of Environment advising the Committee on the Waste (Scotland) Regulations 2012 which were introduced to support the Scottish Government Zero Waste Plan and providing an update on the work being undertaken to respond to the Regulations.

The Committee noted the content of the report and the further development work required to enable the long-term waste collection strategy to be developed.

V KEEP SCOTLAND BEAUTIFUL

There was submitted Agenda Note AN67-2013 advising the Committee that Keep Scotland Beautiful was a National Environmental Charity, whose objectives were to protect, preserve and enhance the environment of town and country in Scotland for the benefit of the public and to educate the public about the environment generally by promoting awareness of the ways in which the environment is at risk and the ways in which this can be minimised. Keep Scotland Beautiful met these objectives by organising and promoting environmental campaigns and programmes. Dundee City Council actively participated in a number of these programmes including:-

People and Places Programme;

Green Flag for Parks;

Beach Awards and Coastal Campaigns;

Beautiful Scotland and Its Your Neighbourhood;

National Spring Clean;

Eco-Schools Scotland; and

Sustainable Scotland Network.

Clean Up Scotland was to be a new national campaign led by Keep Scotland Beautiful and would replace the National Spring Clean campaign above. This would be a year round mass engagement campaign that aimed to get one million people in Scotland involved. The overarching aims of Clean Up Scotland would be to quickly free our country of litter and mess so that Scotland would shine when the world was watching in 2014. In order to demonstrate commitment, organisations and individuals were being asked to sign a pledge in support of the campaign.

As a local authority partner, Dundee City Council had been requested to Keep Scotland Beautiful to support the campaign by signing a citywide pledge and to actively promote the national campaign using the Clean Up Brand in all relevant marketing and publicity material. In turn, Keep Scotland Beautiful would promote key local events and supply Clean Up Scotland materials to participants. The Environment Department currently encouraged groups to take part in similar campaigns by organising and supporting group litter picks.

The Committee noted the above and agreed to the signing of the Clean Up Scotland pledge.

Craig MELVILLE, Convener.