Issue - meetings

The report of the Director – Neighbourhoods is attached.

The Service Manager – Public Protection presented the report of the Director – Neighbourhoods, which provided an update on the Council’s approach to environmental crime enforcement.

Mr John Dunne and Mr Daniel Edwards from WISE (Waste Investigations Support and Enforcement) attended the meeting, to assist with the consideration of this item.

The Service Manager – Public Protection and Mr Dunne delivered a presentation reviewing the Council’s partnership with WISE, and how WISE operated, which provided details on the following issues, and members of the Group were invited to make comments and observations on the presentation and report:

·        Background and examples of fly tipping in the Borough.

·        Fly tipping data.

·        The Council’s enforcement approach.

·        WISE – history and service overview.

·        Fixed penalty levels.

·        Partnership management.

·        WISE – six month pilot - background and aims.

·        How the enforcement service works.

·        Details of enforcement actions.

·        Fixed penalties and notices by wards and towns/villages.

·        FPN (Fixed Penalty Notice) offenders outside of the Borough and offence locations.

·        FPN processes.

·        Cost of the service.

·        Ad-hoc weekend parks patrols.

·        Examples of positive media.

The Director – Neighbourhoods advised that following a discussion with the Cabinet Portfolio Holder, Councillor Inglis, who was delighted with how the trial had progressed and given the positive outcomes and behaviour change that had been seen, it was proposed to extend the trial for a further 12 months.

The Chairman thanked the Service Manager – Public Protection and Mr Dunne for the excellent presentation and suggested that the Group agree that the presentation, together with WISE terms of reference be circulated to all Councillors, reminding them of the important role that they played as community leaders in spreading the message about incident reporting via the Council’s website.

All members of the Group thanked the Service Manager – Public Protection and Mr Dunne for the informative presentation, which was extremely positive, and looked forward to the trial being extended.

Councillor Healy asked what publicity was being given to the trial and how were areas being identified, was it through requests by Councillors, parish and town councils or simply due to the number of calls logged about a particular incident.

Mr Dunne advised that the pilot itself was focussed on complaints regarding fly tipping, dog fouling and littering, and once a complaint had been received, WISE officers had 24 hours to investigate that complaint.  Whilst in one particular area, officers would also undertake proactive patrolling, and during the six month trial, WISE had initially been given a ‘hot spot’ list from Environmental Health, which it had now added to, through its own work and investigations.

In answer to a question regarding enforcement against littering, Mr Dune confirmed that in order to take any action, a person had to be visibly observed by an officer in the act of littering, and in those cases the standard operating procedures would be followed on issuing a Fixed penalty Notice (FPN).

Councillor Healy concluded by asking if it would be possible for Councillors to be updated on a monthly  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3