Agenda and minutes

(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.

No declarations of interest were made.

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

It was reported that Councillor J Philip was substituting for Councillor M Colling.

To consider and agree the notes from the meeting of the Panel held on 24 February 2009.

The notes from 24 February 2009 were agreed as a correct record.

(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 Terms of Reference and Work Programme were noted.

(1)        Safer Cleaner Greener:

a)         They were now fully staffed. Officers were to be trained in July on a week long course;

            b)         -

            c)         They would be accredited after their training;

            d)         -

            e)         The Strategy document was currently at the printers.

(2)        Safer Communities

            a)         CCTV strategy to go to the next meeting.

(3)        Essex Waste Procurement process and Joint Committee

            a)         No recent meeting taken place, so no minutes available;

            b)         -

            c)         Letter of intent signed May 2009.

(4)        Waste Management Partnership Board

a)         Latest minutes on this agenda; noted that the June meeting was cancelled.

(5)        Nottingham Declaration

            a)         Still awaiting a report from Planning.

(6)        Residential Parking; and

(7)        County Highways.       Both items to be deleted and moved to the new Highways Panel.

(8)        Bobbingworth Tip

            a)         In final stage of completion.

(9)        Flooding Matters

a)         -

b)         New Task and Finish Panel has been set up.

(10)      Safer – Crime and Disorder

To be discussed later on in the agenda.

(11)      Leisure Task &Finish Panel Workload; to be discussed later on in the agenda.

(Director of Environment and Street Scene) To consider the attached report.

The Panel considered the report on the scrutiny of Crime and Disorder in the district. The Government had determined that crime was one of the top concerns for communities and has taken steps to address that. The Panel would be tasked to consider the scrutiny of Crime and Disorder matters along with its other matters and, in accordance with government regulations, two meetings a year are to be dedicated to Crime and Disorder matters. The Panel agreed that they would be the February and October meetings.

The Panel received a tabled document on delivering ‘Safer and Confident Communities – Guidance for the Scrutiny of Crime and Disorder Matters’. This was a Home Office publication laying out the background to the implementing sections (19 and 20) of the Police and Justice Act 2006.

The Panel agreed to add scrutiny of Crime and Disorder matters to their terms of reference.

            RESOLVED:

(1)        That the guidance on the establishment and operation of a Crime & Disorder Scrutiny Committee be noted;

(2)        That, notwithstanding the need to consider Crime and Disorder scrutiny matters at any time throughout the civic year, the Panel agreed to nominate two meetings per annum, in February and October, for the consideration of Crime and Disorder Scrutiny matters;

(3)        That the Panel’s Terms of Reference should facilitate the co-opting of non Council Members onto the Panel should the need arise; and

(4)        That the changes to the Panel’s Terms of Reference be referred to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee for endorsement.

(Director of Environment and Street Scene) To consider the attached report.

The Assistant Director Neighbourhoods, Jim Nolan, introduced the report to the Panel on the latest version of the Environment and Street Scene Directorates Enforcement Policy.  The Policy was written in accordance with the Government Enforcement Concordat. The Policy was based on the principles that those in receipt of Council Services should:

• receive clear explanations from enforces of what they need to do and by when;
• have opportunities to resolve differences before enforcement action was taken, unless immediate action was taken; and
• receive an explanation of their rights of appeal in the event of enforcement action being taken.

Councillor Whitehouse said it was helpful to say how things would be done and not just that we would do something.

Councillor Jacobs asked about the paragraph on helpfulness. The Council could not continue being helpful to repeat offenders. Mr Nolan said that they tried to be helpful at least once.

Councillor Jacobs then asked about the issuing of formal cautions, what if the person did not admit to the offence. Mr Nolan said they would have to make a decision one way or the other. In reality they would only issue a caution if they had a very strong case.

Councillor Jacobs asked about the meaning of one of the bulletin points under the ‘Prosecution’ headline. He wanted to know exactly what “the likelihood of the defendant being able to establish a due diligence defence” meant. He was told that if the defendant could establish that they had done all they could, i.e. ‘due diligence’, they would not be prosecuted.

Councillor Philips asked about the paragraph about asking some of the people who they had dealt with to fill in a form to tell the council what they thought about the inspection. He was told that it fell under National Indicator (NI) 182. Councillor Philip said if it had to do with NI 182 then it should be referred to in the text as such.

            RESOLVED:

That the members of the Panel endorsed the updated version of the Environment and Street Scene Directorate Enforcement Policy.

(Director of Environment and Street Scene) Report to follow.

The Panel noted that this report had been withdrawn and would be brought to their next meeting.

To note the attached minutes from the last meeting of the Waste Management Partnership Board.

The Panel noted the minutes of the Waste Management Partnership Board Meeting for 20 April 2009.

Councillor Jacobs commented that the SITA representative had said that that no loads were rejected, but David Marsh (EFDC) said that a few loads were contaminated. Which is right? The Assistant Director Technical Services, Mr Durrani replied that it referred to contaminated wheeled bins, but no contamination at the disposal site.

Councillor Jacobs asked what “the anomalies” were, that were referred to in the minutes.  Mr Durrani said they referred to any missed collection of individual wheeled bins; there was a system in place detailing problems encountered.

Commenting about the publicity for the new service implementation, Councillor Jacobs said that it was expensive to advertise in the local press and the council’s website should be used. Also, the local press was being read by less people.

Councillor Jacobs was also worried about the fact that County had indicated that bridleways and other areas such as traveller sites were no longer their responsibility as far as flytipping was concerned. Mr Durrani said that officers were presently in talks with county officers. The county said they were not the land owners, but EFDC still believe it was a county function.

Councillor Jacobs then asked about weed spraying on the verges; were they not doing it this year? Councillor Mrs Sartin replied that there was a delay in the funding this year.

Update to be presented at the meeting.

The Assistant Director Technical Services, Kim Durrani, updated the meeting on the progress on the revised waste service. He informed the meeting that there was to be a new wheeled bin of 180ltr capacity with a green lid, this was to take garden and kitchen waste. Households were also to be issued with a kitchen caddy. There was also a third, optional, container and that was a kerbside caddy, but not everyone would get one. The new bin would be collected weekly, and the remainder residual bins still on a two week cycle. Officers were aiming for a start date of September 2009 for this new service. They were currently preparing the new bins and lorries etc. and there would be a letter going out soon explaining all this to the public. Councillors would get prior warning about the letter via an email, as would local Town and Parish Councils.

Officers were presently working on FAQs to go on the Council’s website. As before, SITA would not collect any side waste. If a household did not currently have a wheeled bin then officers would assume that they can’t have them and would not issue them to that household.  Some households had room for one bin but not two; this would be assessed at the time.  If the household had no garden then they would get a kerbside caddy but not a green wheeled bin. Kitchen waste could be wrapped up in newspaper and put in the caddy but not in plastic bags.

Councillor Rolfe asked if people could choose to have a composter instead of a green wheeled bin. He was told that officers were currently looking at the cost benefits of this; it was a finance issue now.

Councillor Jacobs asked if people could opt just for a kerb side caddy. He was told that it was not an automatic thing. Officers would have to assess the situation.

It was noted that flats were excluded this time; officers were exploring having large containers for houses of multiple occupation. 

Rochford had rolled out an identical system and we have been liaising with them to help us in our own roll out.

Councillor Frankel asked if there was information available about the types of plastic that could be collected, as the list we have now is not comprehensive. He was told that it was a valid point; the difficulty was what recycling plant we went to. If the council gave too much detail or said not bottles or flowerpots etc. it could be some of these could be recycled. It depended on the recycling plant. So, we leave it up to them to sort out.

Councillor Barrett asked if the collection went on into the winter. He was told that it did, there was always a large amount of garden waste to be collected throughout the year.

Councillor Angold-Stephens said there were a lot of people using small bio-degradable bags. Councillor Mrs Sartin agreed but added a lot of people would  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.

(Paper to follow) At the 2^nd June 2009 meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Panel, the remaining workload of the Leisure Task and Finish Panel was put into this Panel’s work programme and the Task and Finish Panel itself wound up. The Panel is asked to consider the implications for their work programme.

The Panel considered the terms of reference of the Leisure Task and Finish Panel that had been wound up by the main Overview and Scrutiny Committee at the beginning of June 2009. The Committee passed the remainder of the workload over to the Safer, Cleaner, Greener, Standing Panel.

The Panel noted that it was unlikely that that Epping Forest College would be actively pursuing the provision of leisure/sports facilities as part of it current developments. Members thought they should delete this part of the terms of reference on the basis that in the event circumstances changed, consent could be sought from Overview and Scrutiny Committee to reinstate it.

            RESOLVED:

(1)               That the Leisure Task and Finish Panel’s terms of reference be included in this Panel terms of reference.

(2)               That the terms of reference include:

a)                  the Waltham Abbey Sports Centre, and

b)                  the monitoring of the Youth Initiative Scheme and Play Strategy.

(3)        That the Panel would not include the Task and Finish Panel’s terms of reference on the evaluation of the provision of sporting facilities as part of the development of the Epping Forest College.

1.         The Panel noted that the Planning Standing Panel had asked that the environmental aspects of the recent fires at Birchwood, Hoe Lane, Nazeing be considered by this Panel. Given that there was not another meeting of this Panel until September 2009 it was agreed that a special meeting be convened as soon as possible. The dates of 20 or 23 July was offered to members. They asked for time to consult their diaries and get back to the officer later on a suitable date for the meeting.

2.         The Assistant Director Technical Services, Mr Durrani asked the Panel if a piece of Government consultation could be taken to the next meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee. He explained that officers had recently received a consultation document consisting of a number of questions, coming out of the Flood and Water Management Bill, in answer to the recent Pitt Review on Flooding. Because of the tight timescale for returning the consultation document, officers could not wait until the next scheduled meeting of this Panel and taking it to the 9^th July 2009 meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee seemed to be a viable option.

Councillor Frankel asked if a short powerpoint presentation could be given to the Committee to bring them up to speed on the background to this consultation. Mr Durrani said that he would provide a short presentation for the Committee.

            RESOLVED:

That the consultation paper on Flooding and Water Management be taken to the July 2009 meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Panel for their consideration.

3.         Councillor Pritchard said that he was keen to look at the tree strategy and asked if it could be brought to a future meeting for their consideration.

AGREED: that the tree strategy be brought to a future meeting of this Panel.

4.         Councillor Pritchard also wanted to know how a member could add an item onto an agenda for the Panel’s consideration. It was noted that members should ask the lead officer to add an item to the agenda for the next meeting if it was considered urgent or, ideally, they should bring it up at a meeting under any other business to enable the Panel to decide if they wished to consider it and when.

To note the forward programme of meeting dates for the Panel. They are:

1^st September 2009;

27^th October 2009;

8^th December s 2009;

25^th February 2010; and

29^th April 2010.

The dates of the future meetings of the Panel were noted.