DERBY CITY COUNCIL

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Derby City Council approved a recommendation from its independent remuneration committee to continue with the current level of basic allowance for next year. They also agreed to cut the extra allowance paid to members of the council's licensing committees. The councillors would still get the basic incremental increase in line with council staff but not the general rise that all three party leaders had called for.

Labour group leader Chris Williamson said he was disappointed that councillors were still largely undervalued. Mr Williamson gets the basic allowance plus a special responsibility fee of £28,141.33 for being leader of the council, taking his total to £37,521.77. He estimates he works between 80 and 90 hours a week and he is ultimately responsible for about 10,000 staff, including the chief executive and other chief officers.

Conservative group leader Philip Hickson said, "There were a few issues that we raised with the panel. But the biggest one in my view is that all three parties are struggling to attract and then keep the very best candidates. This is partly because of the basic allowance on offer." Hilary Jones, Lib Dem group leader, added, "We might be able to attract councillors in their late 20s and early 30s if there was a more attractive remuneration package, but most people aren't prepared to do two full-time jobs for the allowance on offer." (Source: Derby Evening Telegraph, Feb/07)

Derby City Council is considering investing in a fleet of electrically-powered vans to help the authority become more environmentally-friendly. The council currently has about 300 vehicles, of which about 150 are vans that could feasibly be replaced by electric models. They are not powerful enough to carry out tasks such as refuse collection but they can be used as maintenance or delivery vehicles.

It is not known how many vans the council could buy but each one would cost about £25,000. A similar petrol or diesel vehicle would cost about £22,000. The vehicles can run for 100 miles after a single charge, which manufacturer Modec claims beats its rivals, and would return to the Stores Road depot every night to be charged. Council leader Chris Williamson said, "These are impressive vehicles and they don't have the problems that others in the field have, in that they can run a lot further without the need to recharge the battery." (Source: Derby Evening Telegraph, Feb/07)

The city council's escalating fuel bills, which rose to £5.15m during the past financial year, has prompted the authority to look at wind and water turbine power for the future. As well as the turbines, energy could be created by sourcing heat from tapping deep into the earth. That energy would initially be used to power public buildings, but eventually could be sold to private householders.

Rising fuel costs meant the local authority spent £2,568,845 on gas in the past financial year, a jump of 128% on the previous year. The size of the rise was partly due to the expiry of a three-year fixed price contract. Electricity costs also rose by a third to £2,596,431. Chris Williamson, the leader of the council, said, "Clearly, we have a responsibility because of the global situation to look very seriously at our energy uses and where savings can be made."

David Romaine, the council's scrutiny and complaints manager said, "There's the possibility to put water turbines in some of the industrial areas of the city and there's also the potential to use wind energy. Another possibility is creating geo-thermal energy, where underground heat is used to create power. There is the potential that we could create power through natural sources and sell it to residents at a much more reasonable rate." (Source: Derby Evening Telegraph, Sep/06)

Derby City Council is in talks with Lancashire firm Wind Direct over proposals to install up to 10 400ft-high wind turbines on Pride Park ata a cost of £1.7m each. Turbines of this size would have the potential to generate enough electricity to power 1,300 homes but the council is more likely to offer the power to businesses at Pride Park as a green alternative. Another option would be to power the council's own buildings.

Council leader Chris Williamson said up to 10 turbines could feasibly be installed adding, "It's the very early stages, so clearly we're not sure what we're looking at but we're very seriously considering this as a terrific way to create energy and show that we're serious about green issues. There's no doubt that you'd be able to see these things from a long way away. They could be an iconic symbol of how Derby is a forward-thinking city. We're dedicated to reducing carbon emissions in Derby and this would be an excellent way of achieving that aim."

No funding arrangements have been drawn up but if a deal was agreed, the council would be able to raise money from selling the power to Pride Park businesses, and Wind Direct would be entitled to receive profits from selling any surplus energy back to the National Grid. If the council wholly funded the scheme, it would need to borrow the cash. It would pay it back over many years, but Mr Williamson said this would eventually be a cost-neutral exercise with likely savings of about £150,000 per year per turbine. (Source: Derby Evening Telegraph, Feb/07)

Plans for wind turbines in Pride Park are to be downgraded because Derby City Council says the blades of the 400ft-high wind turbines would disrupt Pride Park's telecommunication network by interfering with the transmission of radio and microwaves. Although turbine blades are not of metallic construction, they can reflect and diffract radio waves. Lightning protection built into turbine blades can also reflect radio signals. Council leader Chris Williamson, however, said the council still hoped to install one or two of the turbines at the site.

Mr Williamson said, "The scale we had planned is not possible at the moment because of the spider web of communication channels at Pride Park. It makes it problematic to be able to find a space to erect the turbines. But we still want to install one or two as a pilot. A couple could serve a large part of the businesses in Pride Park." He said if this proved to deliver low-cost energy to the businesses then it might be possible to redirect radio and television signals but he did not know how much that would cost. (Source: Derby Evening Telegraph, Feb/08)

The city council has revealed that turbines are also being considered for Markeaton Park and Allestree Park and could be in place within two years. Both sites would have one wind turbine but the one on Markeaton Park would have a visitor centre revealing how it worked and showcasing methods of generating green energy. Rather than paying directly for the turbines, the council would be likely to strike a deal where the developer paid for construction would get a share of the revenue from selling the energy.

Unlike the proposed turbines for Pride Park, virtually all of the power generated by those at Markeaton and Allestree parks would be fed into the National Grid. Council leader Chris Williamson said, "I'm particularly excited at the idea of a turbine and visitor centre in Markeaton Park. This would not just be a green way of creating energy but would also be a visual symbol of what we're trying to achieve in Derby." (Source: Derby Evening Telegraph, Mar/07)

Pat Woolley, a member of Derby Heart and the Bus Station Action Group, accused Derby City Council of attempting to deliberately mislead people in a public consultation. People were asked to say what they would spend between £40m and £80m of Government money on if they were transport planners to help the council produce the 2006-2011 Local Transport Plan for the Derby area. The final section of the survey, called Your Experience, used a grading system of one to 10, in which a score of one indicated no problem and 10 a severe problem, for two questions.

But for the final question, about how well the council and its partners are doing in addressing issues, the one grade switched to indicate "very poorly" and 10 meant "very well", the opposite of the previous questions. Mrs Woolley said, "The questions are twisted and manipulated by the council to make it seem like it's working well to address transport issues, when I don't think it is. It's an attempt to mislead people into giving a higher score." She believes if people haven't read the question carefully, they could give a 10, which they think means very poor but the result would be recorded as the council doing very well.

Councillor Lucy Care, Derby City Council's cabinet member for planning, transportation and environment, said, "The council wants people to take the survey seriously and read the questions before answering them. We don't think people in Derby are stupid and they will have answered the questions correctly." Paul Baker, managing director of Vector Research, which drew up the survey with the council, said the question was phrased 'using conventional market research techniques'. He said, "In no way was this question setting out to measure the city council and its partners. It was to get an overall picture of why people answered earlier questions in the way they did."

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