Agenda and minutes

Report of the Group Director of Operations

Report of the Group Director of Services

Report of the Group Director of Operations

Report of the Group Director of Operations

Report of the Group Director of Operations

Report of the Group Director of Services

Report of the Chief Officers Executive

Preamble :-

If Darlington is to achieve the ambitions of its Climate Change Action Plan and meaningfully contribute to the national zero net carbon emissions target, then improving the relative attractiveness of local bus services as a transport option is one of the quickest, cheapest and most effective way to improve the trajectory of emissions from transport.  This applies both over the shorter-term in enabling modal shift away from higher emissions-per-head forms of transport, as well as over the long-term as fleets are electrified.

Bus services, and “modal shift” (to lower emission forms of transport) more generally, is critical for achieving our net zero targets and levelling up our area.

England’s urban bus networks provide a net economic benefit of £2.5 billion, half of which reflects benefits to bus users including employment and amenities, and half of which benefits non-users, related to reductions in congestion and pollution.  With the soaring cost of living, well-funded, accessible and regular bus services are critical to assisting our residents during this time.

Council Resolves to :-

1.      Recognise the importance of a properly funded public transport system in solving the climate emergency.

2.      Recognise the importance of a properly funded public transport system in delivering levelling up for Darlington.

3.      Ask the responsible Cabinet Member to consult with the Transport and Capital Projects team to agree a figure which is ring-fenced specifically for the support of local bus services and report to Council on the outcome no later than January 2023.

4.      Ask the responsible Cabinet Member to write to the Department for Transport to ask for further support for bus services.

Crustacean Deaths

Preamble

First dead crustaceans were washed up on our region’s beaches, followed by dead seabirds and emaciated seal pups.  More recently, vast amounts of seaweed, dead razor clams, and fish washed up.  It is an environmental and economic disaster in the short term.

The report of the Government joint agency investigation into the crab and lobster deaths was published – inconclusively -in May 2022, but as healthy animals were being found, the investigation was closed.  It is considered that the decision to close the investigation was premature.

A number of universities have undertaken research on the loss of marine life.  Newcastle University research identified high levels of pyride – a chemical with a long history of release into the river Tees, a by product of the coking process in steel production, and petro-chemicals – in tissues of the dead crabs on the North East and North Yorkshire coasts, and in Tees surface sediments.

More must be done to investigate the cause of the mass deaths of sea creatures on the Teesside coast from October 2021 to the present day.

Council Resolves :-

1.      That it writes to the Government and demands that it re-opens its Joint agency investigation into the crab and lobster deaths swiftly to consider the reasons for the initial and on-going deaths of marine life around the Tees mouth in light of further independent analysis.

2.      That it joins the special joint working group which is being set up by each Tees Valley Council to monitor the on-gong situation.

3.      That it works with the Tees Valley local authorities to commission a new independent report, to further examine the issues in the light of the inconclusive official report and new evidence of the presence and acute toxity of pyridine to crustaceans for presentation to Government.

4.      That it writes to the Tees Valley Combined Authority and other organisations involved with high risk disturbance activities in the Tees estuary such as piling and demolitions at Teeswork and non-maintenance dredging in highly contaminated parts of the Tees and asks for all works to be paused until the cause of the marine die offs is determined and a risk assessment and plan for how to safely proceed with these developments is created, if needed.

5.      That it writes to the appropriate bodies (which should include EA, Cefas, NEIFCA, MMO, FSA and the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), Teesworks and the TVCA) to :-

(i)                  detail what action or recommendations can, or have been taken to support the future of our region;

(ii)                explain how they will improve monitoring and regulation to prevent contamination events from occurring in the UK – particularly whether the suite of chemicals tested for is adequate given the Tees’ industrial heritage