Agenda and minutes

(Head of Research and Democratic Services)  To report the appointment of any substitute members for the meeting.

No Substitute Members were reported.

(Head of Research and Democratic Services). To declare interests in any items on the agenda.

In considering whether to declare a personal or a prejudicial interest under the Code of Conduct, Overview & Scrutiny members are asked pay particular attention to paragraph 11 of the Code in addition to the more familiar requirements.

This requires the declaration of a personal and prejudicial interest in any matter before an OS Committee which relates to a decision of or action by another Committee or Sub Committee of the Council, a Joint Committee or Joint Sub Committee in which the Council is involved and of which the Councillor is also a member.

Paragraph 11 does not refer to Cabinet decisions or attendance at an OS meeting purely for the purpose of answering questions or providing information on such a matter.

No declarations of interest were made pursuant to the Members Code of Conduct.

Attached.

Noted.

(Chairman/Lead Officer) The Overview and Scrutiny Committee has agreed the Terms of Reference of this Panel and associated Work Programme. This is attached. The Panel are asked at each meeting to review both documents.

The Panel considered their updated work programme.

(a)        New Local Plan and Scheme

Noted that all Members had been sent a copy of the County consultation document on urban planning for comments.

(b)       Reuse of Buildings in the Green Belt/ Traffic Issues in the Roydon and Nazeing Areas

The Head of Planning and Economic Development reported progress on the focus day agreed at the last meeting on the above issues. Difficulties were being experienced with finding an independent facilitator with the skills and local knowledge necessary for the event. This was partly due to changes at officer level at County. He advised that there was a need to consider more than one potential facilitator to ensure that Best Value was achieved. He would continue to contact County to seek their assistance with this process.

Overall Members felt that the pace of work was too slow. In particular they felt that the difficulties in finding a facilitator was delaying progress and questioned whether a survey could be used to identify the issues instead.

A Member expressed concern at HGV activity in residential areas in Nazeing  and the new lorry parks the area. She questioned how a focus day would solve these problems. A traffic count was undertaken by the Nazeing Action Group, officers had also attending meetings involving residents of the area to hear about the problems. It was questioned that this could provide sufficient information on the issues.

The Head of Environmental Services reported that the next meeting of the Highways Panel for West Essex was due to be held on 21 February 2007. He invited Member to forward any issues they might have to him for this meeting by January 2007. Attempts were being made to establish more localised arrangements for highways. The Head of Environmental Services invited Councillor Cooper to forward to him any of her answered e-mails to County and undertook to take these up with County Officers.

The Head of Planning and Economic Development reported that should a date for the focus event be found prior to the next meeting of the Panel, the details would be reported to Members via the Members Bulletin.

(c)        East of England Plan (Item 5).

The recommendations of the Examination in Public for the plan were now with the Minister. It was anticipated that she would issue the proposed changes in December 2006. It was anticipated that this would be a lengthy document that would take some time to consider. Therefore it was agreed that the next meeting of the Panel programme for 19 December 2006 would be moved back to 16 Jan 2007 at 7.30 pm. In terms of the reporting route for the proposals, it was envisaged that as well as scrutiny consideration, a further Saturday morning briefing session would be held on the Minister proposal when made available.

To receive feedback on the site visit to the Braintree and Colchester Community Warden Schemes.

Earlier this month several members visited Colchester Borough Council and Braintree District Council to witness the operation of their Community Warden Schemes.

The members have been asked to report feed back on the visit and consider a way forward.

It was noted that earlier on in the month, several Members visited Colchester Borough Council and Braintree Borough Council to hear about and observe  their  Community Street Wardens schemes.

Some of the Members present at the visit reported feedback on the visit to the Panel. (Cllr Spencers own notes are attached)

In discussing the issue, Members thought that the visit was very informative and useful.  Surprise was expressed that the work of the wardens observed focused more on community engagement initiatives rather than tackling environmental crime. The scheme at Colchester cost £270,000 per year. Their wardens covered three wards and had a good leader which was seen as important. The team in Braintree appeared to play a ‘social service’ role and seamed to be performing good work in the areas of deprivation.

A Members suggested that should wardens be used in this District, they should operate between 4-11pm when most of the problems requiring attention occurred. The scheme might work well for urban areas. Such an approach might not be suited to rural areas however which might require a style of service that recognised their needs. The task of recruiting to any full time positions might be difficult in view of the  District’s close proximity to London which offered comparatively higher pay rates.

The Head of Environmental Services drew attention to the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005. The act did not empower Community Wardens to detain suspects or give them any of the powers in relation to the prevention of crime. Some of the powers in the legislation did not necessarily need to be carried out by wardens.

The Panel noted the likely high costs of the scheme and the issues that they could /could not deal with. On the balance, they recommended that at this point in time, a Community Warden scheme should not be pursued to deliver the relevant powers in the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environmental Act (ie Fixed Penalty Notices). Instead they recommended that further consideration be given to alternative methods for delivering the legislation. This might include:

·                     Giving District CSPOs the power to issue Fixed Penalty notices;

·                     Funding more CSPOs to carry out the powers;

·                     Widening the number of officers currently able to issue FPN and enabling them to use the full range of new powers (to deal with litter, junk mail, graffiti, fly posting, fast food waste). Empowering Parish staff directly to issue FPNs

·                     Creation of new bye law to control pavement parking.

The powers in the act in relation to dealing with litter were quite strong and could be carried out by the existing waste team. Those given the responsibility of issuing FPN would needed to be properly trained and uniformed to ensure that the enforcement action was effective. Government guidance suggested that should FPNs be pursued, the scheme must be publicised and residents must be consulted to ascertain their views. Consideration and a policy decision on this would need to be made.

It was likely that the process for issuing FPN would  ...  view the full minutes text for item 25.

To consider the minutes of the last meeting of the West Essex Area Waste Management Joint Committee held on 14 September 2006.

The Panel consider the notes for the meeting held on 14 September 2006. In relation to minute 67 (Kerbside Analysis Tool (KAT) Modelling, it was noted that the new waste management contract would need to be able  to accommodate                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      these proposals. The Panel also noted the structure and timetable for the Commercial Partnership Arrangements.

(Head of Planning and Economic Development). To consider the attached report.

The Head of Planning and Economic Development presented a report recommending that for a trial period planning enforcement statistics be reported in the Members Bulletin.

The Panel asked that information be made available on the difficult protracted cases to identify the history and current position regarding enforcement action. It was suggested that a proactive approach should be taken to such cases and noted that the new planning data system should facilitate this. 

It was agreed that an item be placed in the bulletin indicating that feedback on the trail be submitted sooner rather than later to identify the need to report the information on a permanent basis. It was agreed that a report be submitted to the Panel in six months time to give consideration to this question.

The Head of Planning and Economic Development undertook to e-mail Panel Members the start date for the trial.

RESOLVED:

(1)            That for a trail period of six months a monthly report be provided in the Members Bulletin indicating:

(a)               the numbers of enforcement investigations started, processed and “ in hand “ each month; and

(b)              a brief progress report on cases where an enforcement notice had not been complied with including the date action commenced;

(2)               That a report be submitted to the Panel in six months time reporting any responses received from Members on the trail and whether the statistics should be reported on a permanent basis.

(3)             That Planning Services be thanked for providing this information so quickly in response to the desire to see greater reporting of planning enforcement statistics.

To consider which reports are ready to be submitted to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee at its next meeting.

Chairman to make verbal report on discussions and recommendations made at tonight’s meeting.

19 December 2006, 26 February and 26 April 2007. All meetings will commence at 7.30p.m

16 January 2006 at 7.30 pm.