Agenda and minutes

(Director of Governance)  To report the appointment of any substitute members for the meeting.

It was reported that Councillor D Stallan was substituting for Councillor E Webster.

(Director of Governance). 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.

To agree the notes of the last meeting held on 15^th April 2014.

The notes of the 15 April 2014 meeting were agreed as a correct record.

To receive a presentation from Adam Pipe, the Casualty Reduction Manager, from Essex Police and PS Simon Willshire around the work Essex Police are doing on Road Traffic Collisions data for the Epping Forest area including hot spots etc. and provide an understanding of our enforcement and operational activity.

The Chairman welcomed Adam Pipe, the Casualty Reduction Manager from Essex Police and PS Simon Willshire. They were there to talk about the work Essex Police were doing with the road traffic collisions data for the Epping Forest area.

Firstly Mr Pipe gave an overview of the Epping Forest area. He noted that the traffic section were having a difficult time as they were not seen as a priority by central government and had to deal with cuts in their resource budgets. They were to get down to 80 from the current 160 officers for the County and to 10 motorcycle units, with only 2 officers responsible for commercial vehicles. They were also down to 9 special constables responsible for casualty reduction.

The meeting noted that his section was also responsible for the road side safety cameras and carried out camera offences investigations. The cameras were not just for fines, a lot of the people caught this way were told to take safety courses by the courts.

His section was based at South Woodham, where they coordinated multi agency operations targeting commercial vehicles or young drivers or speeding motorists.

Part of their job was to reduce the number of people killed or seriously injured (KSI) on Essex roads through enforcement, education and engagement. Partly this would be down to the maximum use of re-education for the low end offenders and ensuring, where possible, that top end offenders were brought to justice. They also identified those persons who used the road network to commit crime. To continue to do these tasks they had to ensure that they were fit for purpose and were capable of delivering effective and professional roads policing.

They were creating all sorts of courses for low level offenders from cyclists, to motorcyclists and drivers, all based around educating them and modifying their behaviour. The meeting noted that a disproportionate 26% of KSIs were motorcyclists who made up only a small percentage of motorised road traffic. They were also noticing an increase in drunk drivers at present. The accidents were all plotted on an ‘ACCSMAP’ system that identified the position of all collisions and also recorded the reasons behind them. In the Epping Forest area, in 2014 so far there had been 35 KSIs. There had been 40 for 2013. As for cyclists, so far this year there have been substantially less KSIs than last year, which was encouraging. There had been quite a few pedestrian accidents so far this year especially in the Loughton area, a densely populated urban area.

Julie Chandler, the Assistant Director Community Services, asked if the figures could be broken down by day and time. Mr Pipe said that yes they could be if needed. They used this data to direct what they are going to do.

Mr Pipe finally showed the break down of KSI and slightly injured accidents of the surrounding main roads for the district for the past 36 months. The M11 had 23 KSIs and 151 slights; the M25  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

(Director of Communities) To consider the attached report.

The Communities Safety Manager, Caroline Wiggins noted that new legislation on Anti-social Behaviour, the Crime and Policing Act 2014 (formally known as ‘Community Triggers’) received royal assent on 13 March 2014. The Act was designed to introduce simpler, more effective powers to tackle anti-social behaviour and provide better protection for victims and communities.

Within the Act are new responsibilities for the relevant bodies including the District Council, the police, clinical commissioning groups, health providers and registered social housing providers.

To ensure agencies took a more joined up, problem solving approach, Safer Essex had agreed to develop a consistent County-wide approach across all agencies who are involved in the use of the new legislation; providing victims of anti-social behaviour with a coherent and effective response regardless of where they lived in Essex.

It was important to note that the District Council would play a key pivotal role in this process by taking the lead over the other agencies, including Essex Police, in recording, collating and responding to all Anti-social Behaviour Review requests from the public.

The new act allowed for local areas to set their own threshold to accommodate local needs and resources. Safer Essex has set a county wide threshold of 3 incidents of ASB within the last 6 months where the victim considers no action had been taken.

It was also agreed to adapt the Anti-Social Behaviour Case Review model to include a lower threshold where the victim perceives the ASB to be of a Hate Crime nature to 1 incident within last 6 months where the victim considers no action has been taken.

Ultimately this strategy would aim to achieve County-wide publicity to introduce the Case Review’s being complemented by local publicity, press releases and website site information identifying local contacts and specific details for each District and Unitary authority, including dedicated telephone numbers and web pages.

She noted that there were currently a lot of neighbour disputes cases, with officers increasingly using mediation tactics to resolve them. Officers could review cases if needed and could send them up to the police panel for review.

Councillor Stallan asked how many cases they had a year and would be more of a problem if one of the neighbours had a council house and the other had a privately owned house. Mrs Wiggins replied that if they were council tenants her team would normally not get involved and would leave it to housing officers. In a housing tenant / private householder dispute her team would take the lead.

Councillor Jon Whitehouse commented that sometime it depended on the persons involved. Did you have links with the mental health authorities? Mrs Wiggins replied that it was difficult, if the person said they were fine there was nothing the police could do, the same went for mental health officers, sometimes we could do nothing.

RESOLVED:

That the Panel noted the progress made to develop and launch a County-wide approach to the Anti-social Behaviour Case Review model, prior to the anticipated implementation  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

(Director of Neighbourhoods) To receive a verbal update on the waste contract.

The Assistant Director, Technical Services, Mr Durrani gave the meeting a rundown on the latest of the new waste management contract awarded to BIFFA. The Cabinet agreed on 19 May to award the contract to Biffa Municipal Limited. Following the publication of the decision on 21 May there was the Alcatel mandatory standstill period. This was to allow any unsuccessful bidder to challenge the decision made by the Council. It was noted that no challenges were made to the awarding of the contract and the contract had now been formally awarded to them. The unsuccessful bidders had a debrief session on 3^rd July. This was attended by SITA, SERCO and Ubaser.

It was noted that:

·         BIFFA’s mobilisation team had been accommodated at the Langston Road Depot -Loughton;

·         An officer’s working party had been set up to oversee the transfer;

·         The new contract was different to one the Council had with SITA, BIFFA would now supply their own dust carts, dry recycling sacks, wheelie bins and other containers. The officer group would oversee the mobilisation of the new contract.

·         There were a number of key issues to be monitored closely: introduction of new information technology systems, TUPE transfer of all SITA staff, asset transfer, handover from SITA to BIFFA, the relocation from Langston Road Depot to BIFFA’s two depots and the introduction of a four day collection service next year.

Further updates will be given when available.

Councillor Sartin commented that various District Councils in Essex have dropped in their recycling figures recently. How were we doing? Mr Durrani replied that we were close to last years figures, not yet at 60% but at about 59% at present. We are one of the highest performing councils nationally. We are looking at recycling in flats to increase our figures.

Councillor Sartin then commented that she had noticed that children’s education in recycling was not high on BIFFA’s priorities. Councillor Breare-Hall noted that they were the weakest on this at the interviews. He stated that he would be raising this with BIFFA at the Waste Management Partnership Board meetings.

Councillor Janet Whitehouse noted that they would now collect tetra packs© along with glass. Mr Durrani noted that tetra packs© would be collected with dry recycling and as present, in clear plastic sacks, whereas glass would be in blue boxes. BIFFA will also do only one pass and pick them up all up in one go. They would also collect small electrical items.

Councillor Stallan said it was good to have publicity on this and suggested that we should match our bin colours with other councils to avoid confusion. Councillor Waller noted that Germany had standard bin colours for the whole country and this saved them a lot of money by mass buying the bins.

(Chairman / Lead Officer) The Overview and Scrutiny Committee has agreed the Terms of Reference of this Panel. This is attached along with a draft work programme. The Panel are asked at each meeting to review both documents.

Terms of Reference

The Panel noted their Terms of Reference and asked for the Leisure Board Minutes to be included as they had been agreed by the main O&S Committee.

Work Programme

Noted that the Panel would like an update on item 9, recycling in flats and multi-occupational dwellings. They noted that the Council’s House Building Programme should include the need for relevant bin storage areas in their design. Also guidance was being developed for the planning protocols.

Councillor Surtees considered that there were bigger issues on new builds and there could be cause to have standard questions on planning applications. Councillor Stallan noted that a proposal like this should be addressed via a PICK form.

Councillor Neville wondered when the Panel would receive their next update of items 6 and 7, progress against Climate Local Agreement and progress against carbon reduction strategy. Councillor Waller noted that the officer was still work on these items and should be able to provide figures for the next meeting.

It was also noted that any minutes of the Green Working Party and the Waste Working Party should come to this Panel for information.

To note the attached set of minutes for 27 March 2013 and 17 April 2014.

The Panel noted the minutes of the Bobbingworth, Former Landfill Site, Local Liaison Group for 27 March 2013 and 17 April 2014.

Panel members were urged to visit the site now that it was in full flower, it may be that this could be tied into a visit of the new waste sites.

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

There were no particular items to be submitted to the next Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting.

To note the future meeting dates of this Panel. They are:

07 October 2014;

06 January 2015;

24 February 2015; and

28 April 2015.

The future scheduled meetings of the Panel were noted.