Agenda and minutes

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

The Panel noted there were no substitute members.

To agree the notes of the last meeting held on 7^th October 2014.

The notes of the 7 October 2014 meeting were agreed as a correct record.

(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.

(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

Noted that item 4, to review the Climate Local Agreement needed to be updated in line with the recent changes to the work programme.

Work Programme

The Panel noted their Work Programme.

(Director Communities) To consider the attached report.

RECOMMENDATION:

To consider, comment on and note the progress on the CCTV three year Action Plan up to December 2014.

Adrian Petty, the Council’s CCTV Operations Officer updated the Panel on the CCTV three year action plans. He noted that the use of CCTV had helped in the investigation of some unpleasant crimes, including a violent assault on a taxi driver in Epping. A lot of these investigations had led to arrests directly attributable to the use of CCTV.

Relevant CCTV footage was made available to the Police and other responsible authorities. He noted that as a rule, the police did not give as much feed back on the results of the use of CCTV as would be liked. This was also a national trend.

Mr Petty noted that Channel 5 had asked us to participate in a documentary on the use of CCTV and they were impressed with the quality of our images. But unfortunately due to ongoing police action our footage could not be shown.

He noted that:

·         Loughton High Road now had high definition cameras installed along its length and this had proved useful so far;

·         The museum in Waltham Abbey  will have high definition cameras installed and the current system at North Weald Airfield would also be improved;

·         Officers were looking to stream the live CCTV footage back to the Civic Offices so that they could be monitored in real time;

·         There were now about 450 cameras across the district, with the police asking for about 253 downloads of incidents last year;

·         There was a new CCTV Surveillance Commissioner who was looking to have more transparency in the use of CCTV;

·         The Council has recently completed a self assessment on its CCTV services and has found itself to be in good shape as an authority. The Panel asked if they could each receive a copy of the self assessment form, Mr Petty agreed to supply them with copies;

·         The Council was now receiving more and more requests from insurance companies for CCTV footage and officers have now started charging for these images. Last year they made about £1200 in total. This would just about cover costs for the service provided. He noted that these requests would grow year on year;

·         For any operations using covert surveillance, magistrate’s authorisation would have to be sought. The Council had also developed its own policy for this. A recent success for the use of covert surveillance was the catching of a long term fly tipper;

·         Officers were updating the way people could request CCTV footage by using the council’s website. This was now a clearer and quicker way to request footage by way of a web form and a generated unique reference number;

·         He would be giving a presentation in a few weeks time to all Essex Police Licensing Officers on how premises holders, especially nightclubs, should set up their CCTV systems; and

·         He would also be helping Waltham Abbey Town Council with their CCTV systems during the coming year.

Councillor Surtees was interested to note that the Police did not offer any feedback on the images they were given.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 31.

To consider the attached report.

Mr Macnab introduced the update on enforcement activities. The first page was a statistical return, noting that the codes used would not appear again as they were essentially meaningless to members. The figures remained fairly constant over the periods shown, fly tipping remained an ongoing problem and the council tended to publicise successful prosecutions to act as a deterrent. The report detailed some of the more successful prosecutions.

Councillor Jennings asked about fireworks legislation and did we investigate these. Councillor Surtees wanted to know if there were time restrictions when they could be let off. The Panel noted that the amount of warnings issued for fly-tipping was the lowest so far and that only three people were prosecuted for dog fouling in Debden. Mr Macnab said he would ask Mr Gardiner to provide some background on these items.

After the meeting officers provided the following information on fireworks and the law. There are restrictions when they can be used, mainly between 11pm and 7am. There are exceptions for Bonfire Night, New Year’s Eve, Diwali and Chinese New Year. The regulations are enforced by Trading Standards Officers at the County Council.

RESOLVED:

That the update on enforcement activities up to September 2014 be noted.

To consider the attached report.

Lyndsay Swan introduced the progress report on the Green Working Party. It was noted that an updating report went to the last meeting of this Panel when they agreed to update their terms of reference and remove the outdated term of Climate Local Agreement from item 4.

The working Party’s terms of reference was appended to this report and the Panel was asked agree this. Their work programme was also appended and would be considered at the Panel’s next meeting.

It was noted that the working party would have to consider what the council would want to do to for a corporate energy strategy (N9 of the work programme). The Panel asked that they receive a report on this at their next meeting stating the options available.

The meeting also noted that the Civic Offices had automatic light sensors in all the offices which saved electricity by switching themselves off when no movement had been detected after a certain amount of time. Not all public areas in the offices had this facility and the facilities manager would be consulted to see if it could be extended. It was also noted that the Civic Offices was having a lot of remedial work to upgrade them and make them more energy efficient.

Councillor Breare-Hall said that it would be useful to have objectives as well as targets listed on the work programme as it would be useful to know why things were being done.

It was noted that the letters next to the numbers on the work programme denoted the directorate the actions came under e.g. ‘C’ = Communities. ‘A’ stood for All.

RESOLVED:

That the Green Working Party Terms of Reference be endorsed.

To consider the attached report.

The quarter 2, Key Performance Indicators 2014/15, appropriate for this Panel were noted. No particular concerns were raised except for the household recycling figures (NEI 002) which were slightly under this quarter. This could be due to the change over from Sita to Biffa in November 2014. Despite this we were still listed at ninth or tenth in the whole country and second in Essex for this indicator. The figures should pick up over the next two quarters.

It was noted that the overall position with regard to the achievement of target performance for all of the KPIs at the end of the second quarter (1 July to 30 September 2014) of the year, was as follows:

(a)       25   (69%) indicators achieved the cumulative second - quarter target; and

(b)       11 (30%) indicators did not achieve the cumulative second-quarter target, although 2 (5%) of these KPIs performed within the agreed tolerance for the indicator.

(c)       30   (83%) are currently anticipated to achieve the cumulative year-end target.

Nine of the Key Performance Indicators fell within the Safer, Cleaner, Greener Scrutiny Panel areas of responsibility. The Panel noted the overall position with regard to the achievement of target performance at the end of the second quarter of the year for these nine indicators, as follows:

(a)   8   (89%) indicators achieved the cumulative second quarter target, and

(b)   1   (11%) indicators did not achieve the cumulative second quarter target,

(c)  8  (89%) are currently anticipated to achieve the cumulative year-end target.

Councillor Surtees wanted to know the amount as well as the percentage of the fly-tipping figures for NEI 006, 007 & 008. Subsequently, officers agreed that they could include the raw figures as well as the percentages and would from now on.

RESOLVED:

That the Key Performance Indicators within its area of responsibility were noted.

To note the draft minutes of the meeting held on 3 September 2014.

The Panel noted the draft set of minutes from the meeting held on 3 September 2014 of the Bobbingworth Former Landfill Site Local liaison Group. They noted that the site had a significant problem with rabbits. Mr Macnab said that there was a rabbit control officer based at North Weald Airfield and would ask if they could look into this.

Please find attached two sets of minutes from the NEPP meeting held on 16 October 2014; one for Off-Street Parking and one for On-Street Parking.

The Panel noted the minutes of the North Essex Parking Partnership (NEPP) Joint Committee for on-street and off-street parking, held on 16 October 2014. They were told that it was not the most recent minutes as a meeting was held at EFDC recently.

Councillor Waller noted that a significant item that was considered by the Cabinet was on redundancies following the outsourcing of cash collection service and what our share of this would be. It may be that the County Council could cover the payments as the NEPP was not as financially buoyant as its southern counterpart.

The Cabinet has called for a review of NEPP by the Overview and Scrutiny Committee and that the NEPP was also conducting its own review on the problems that they face.  Initially they were set up for three years along with SEPP and it was now coming to the end of that time scale. Mr Macnab said that the County review was due to conclude by the end of June. NEPP had also just appointed a new manager for the west area. Councillor Waller said that they had noted that their performance in the Epping Forest District was worse than in other areas.

Councillor Sartin noted that a lot of the schemes listed seemed to have been deferred.  Councillor Waller replied that these would be reviewed. A lot of the schemes were initially proposed by members of the public and would have to be reviewed and consulted on in any case and if need be, removed. He also noted that there was a long time span from the time a scheme was approved at a meeting to implementation. This could take up to a year.

Councillor Surtees noted that in the past the lists of projects were sent to the local Town and Parish Councils. Did this still happen and could ward councillors be emailed the list as they needed the information? Councillor Waller replied that they were in the process of updating the list and would consult about any schemes that were to be implemented.

To note the remaining dates for this Panel’s meetings. They are:

24 February; and

28 April

The future meetings of the Panel were noted.