Minutes:
The Overview and Scrutiny Officer referred Members to recent press articles relating to the remit of Environment and Sustainable Communities Overview and Scrutiny Committee.
The articles were:
· Durham Leads the way in new national drinking water scheme – people will be able to refill water bottles for free in tens of thousands of places in England in future following the announcement of a new national scheme by the water industry.
· Public asked to join streets clean up operation in Spennymoor – residents asked to join a community litter pick which will be held as part of a multi-agency clean up operation. The scheme is in an area covering 540 homes in terraced streets near Spennymoor town centre which aims to tackle issues like empty properties and flytipping to improve health and wellbeing which is linked to Agenda Item No.9.
· Volunteers sought to safeguard County Durham’s Woodland – Volunteers to receive expert training to help them identify diseases that are attacking trees in the county as part of the Woodland Trust’s Observatree project of which Durham County Council is a leading partner. Durham Woodland Revival has received initial support for National Lottery funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund. The links to a previous scrutiny on woodland estates.
· We win national award for ‘Operation Spruce Up’ – Durham County Council has clinched a prestigious national ‘green’ award for the second year in a row thanks to ‘Operation Spruce Up’.
The Chairman commented that there had been a lot of good work on ‘Operation Spruce Up’ which was a good report and excellent feedback from the community.
Resolved: That the report be noted.