Agenda and minutes

(Assistant to the Chief Executive)  To report the appointment of any substitute members for the meeting.

It was noted that Councillor Mrs J H Whitehouse was substituting for Councillor M Woollard and that Councillor B Rolfe was substituting for Councillor G Pritchard.

(Assistant to the Chief Executive). 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.

None were reported.

Attached.

The notes from the last meeting, held on 6 December 2007, were agreed subject to minute item 44 being amended under the Nazeing Focus Day item to say that it was the Lorry Analysis that was not completed and not the County Freight Strategy.

To receive a presentation from the Vehicle Inspection Agency (VOSA). 

At a recent meeting, the Panel gave further consideration to their review of the Nazeing Focus Day. During this, they requested to hear from VOSA to gain their views on the issues and how they may be eased. Specifically it was suggested this cover:

• the processes for issuing HGV Operators' licenses,
• the remit and legal limits of VOSA’s authority
• the limits of the grounds for valid objections.

Consequently a representative of VOSA will be attending this meeting to consider these issues and wider issues regarding this review.

The Panel received a short presentation from Paul Hartley, the Senior Team Leader for the Environmental Team, from the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (VOSA). He took the Panel through an overview of what VOSA does and what powers they have, or lack.

Operators have to have a licence for any vehicle over 3.5 tonnes (i.e. the maximum permitted total weight when loaded) for use in a business capacity. VOSA aims to promote a safe, fair and environmentally friendly industry, overseen by a Traffic Commissioner.

An operator must show that they are fit to hold a licence, have the financial resources available for and arrangements in place, to maintain their vehicles and where appropriate, professional competence.

An applicant need only advertise in a single newspaper if they wish to operate a site. There is no guidance as to how big a circulation or readership that newspaper must have, just that it must be local to the proposed operating centre. This has raised and continues to raise, problems with local residents who can reasonably claim that they were unaware of the application.

All applications are published in the appropriate area publication called “Applications and Decisions”. This district is covered under the South Eastern and Metropolitan Traffic Area. Currently only three members received this publication. If any members would like to receive a copy they would only need to email Paul Hartley on paul.hartley@vosa.gov.uk . There is a subscription fee.

Once published, the public have three weeks to make any objections. They have to be local to the proposed site, living roughly within a 500 yards radius. They can only make objections based on environmental grounds (noise, dust, smell, vibration, visual impact etc.).

It should be noted that the Traffic Commissioner does not have absolute power over the vehicles, except in terms of maintenance. He does not have the authority to take into consideration environmental suitability or road safety aspects of an application.

The Council as a ‘statutory’ objector can object on environmental grounds and on ‘road safety’ grounds. This only applies at the point where vehicles enter or leave the site. Traffic Commissioners are not bound by locally adopted specific measures such as sight lines. Cases are investigated by Traffic Examiners, who will visit the site in question.

It should be noted that Councils have a statutory right to object, non-neighbouring public do not, although council objections must be made by its ‘administrative arm’ and not by individual Councillors.

Traffic Commissioners have a quasi-judicial role and try and find a middle ground between objector and the applicant and try and impose conditions acceptable to both sides. If there is no agreement then they can be offered a Public Inquiry, where the Traffic Commissioner will formally hear both sides. There is a further appeal option of a High Court Judicial review.

A Traffic Commissioner can only indirectly consider planning matters, if it impinges on the operators repute. This is taken to mean that there is no current enforcement action against activities on  ...  view the full minutes text for item 51.

Attached.

The Panel considered the updated work plan.

Item 1: Essex County Joint Waste Procurement Process – another meeting is scheduled for next Tuesday 4^th March. A Joint Waste Strategy questionnaire to be put in the members Bulletin.

Item2: New Local Development Scheme and East of England Plan – this will be progressed, hopefully, after Easter.

Item 3: Reuse of buildings in Green belt / Traffic issues in Roydon and Nazeing – Ian White reported that was progress on a traffic survey, a report had been published.

It was noted that the document had a lot of errors in it.

The ECC Freight Strategy consultation should start in May.

A case is being built up to ask for more Police presence in the Nazeing area.

Item 4: Clean Neighbourhoods – this was essentially complete except for a report on fixed penalty notices.

Item 7:  Anti-social behaviour in car parks – this is part of the Safer, Cleaner, Greener initiative. Overview and Scrutiny will get a report asking how they wish to monitor this. It can come to this Panel or go to an altered Crime and Disorder T&F Panel.

Item 8: Parking on Grass Verges/ in residential areas – this is still outstanding. O&S need to decide who will handle highways issues. It may be that larger issues would go to the main O&S Committee and the smaller issues to this Panel. There are future plans to pass responsibilities back from County to District level. In which event we may need a local Highways committee scrutinising how to spend the local highways money; each district may get up to £2million in the 2009/10 financial year.

Item 9: Need to change the title of Climate Change to the Nottingham Declaration, which has now been adopted by Cabinet. Officers are now setting up a “Greener Group” – to monitor the declaration and work out our corporate policy on green issues. They are still formulating the terms of reference and this Panel will be kept informed.

Report Attached.

The Director for the Environment and Street Scene introduced the report on Local Better Regulations Office – Draft Strategy 2008-11. The Panel noted that the draft strategy was tabled, and the Director apologised for its late appearance. It contained nothing really new to come out from the Rogers Review. The Local Better Regulation Office (LBRO) wished to help local authorities change their approach to enforcement to achieve positive outcomes. It saw regulatory activities as needing to be:

• Proportionate
• Accountable
• Consistent
• Transparent and
• Targeted.

The Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions Bill gives six key functions to the LBRO:

i)                    To operate the primary authority scheme;

ii)                   Provide advice to central government on local regulatory issues;

iii)                 Issue statutory guidance to regulatory authorities;

iv)                 Review and revise the (Rogers Review) national and local priorities;

v)                  Map the regulatory landscape to better understand how it all works; and

vi)                 Work with national regulators and representative and professional bodies to create benchmarks for a ‘world class’ regulatory system.

To achieve this the LBRO will focus its activities around three strategic objectives:

(1)   support for service improvement and change;

(2)   the delivery of consistency; and

(3)   improved services generally.

The LBRO have asked for comments on their draft strategy. The report provided a response to this and the Panel reviewed this response and commented appropriately.

            RESOLVED:

1)                  That the Panel agreed the response to the LBRO strategy as set out in paragraph 9 of the report.

2)                  That the Overview and Scrutiny Committee be asked to endorse this Panel’s recommendation.

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

Report on the VOSA presentation and Local Better Regulation Office – Draft Strategy 2008-2011.

23 April 2008 – 7.30 pm

23 April 2008  at 7.30 pm.