Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Nicola Brightman and Councillor Kerri Price, with Councillor Simon Arnold and Councillor Stuart Mathers substituting.

There were no declarations of interest.

RESOLVED: That the minutes of the meeting held on 11 October 2018 be agreed as a correct record.

It was confirmed that all items marked as Part I would be heard in public, and all items marked as Part II would be heard in private.

The Service Manager for Community Safety and Anti-Social Behaviour and Environment Manager were in attendance to address the meeting regarding combatting anti-social behaviour (ASB) in the Borough under the new policing structures.

The Anti-Social Behaviour and Environment Manager informed the Committee that the team that he was responsible for was essentially an enforcement team and an extended arm of the “policing family”, that worked under the same rules as the police in the vast majority of cases.

Members heard that the Anti-Social Behaviour and Environment Team (ASBET) were responsible for anti-social behaviour, waste management issues ranging from rubbish that was put out on the wrong day to large fly-tipping instances that were tackled alongside the Environment Agency, tenancy management breaches, noise, dust and odour nuisance, abandoned vehicles, and oversaw services such as animal welfare and pest control that were looked after by contractors. The team is also involved in “action days” alongside environmental enforcement officers and ASB officers.

Councillors were informed that ASBET had a very strong working relationship with the Community Safety Team (CST), particularly after the move to a Tri-Borough policing structure, as weekly meeting were held with CST to discuss concerns, successes, and areas of crossover between the two teams. In addition to this, fortnightly meetings were held with the Police Tasking Team, where officers could submit tasks for the police to complete, such as combatting ASB reported to the Council by residents in the area affected, including, but not limited to, street-drinking, harassment, drug use, drug dealing and intimidation.

The ASBET Manager stated that, when the assistance of the Police was required, this assistance could be arranged with the help of the Service Manager for Community Safety and CST, and on these occasions, support from the Police was received very regularly, considering the limited resources that the Police were working with. When urgent requests were needed to be made to the Police, the Service Manager for Community Safety was able to pass these on directly.

The Committee heard that there was a very strong working relationship between the ASBET and CST, as a lot of the teams’ work was interlinked. Prior to the new policing structure, ASBET officers approached police officers in the Safer Neighbourhood Teams (SNT) directly with issues that led to varying degrees of success. Some SNT officers were keen to be involved in issues, while others were less enthusiastic. The new arrangements make it much easier to pass on information to the police and get issues dealt with, courtesy of the bi-weekly tasking meetings, and responses to tasks are more positive.

Responding to questioning from Members, the ASBET Manager stated that if there was persistent dumping of rubbish, ASBET would work closely with Waste Services to identify potential “hotspots”, and visit the site throughout the week, collecting materials and searching through the refuse for evidence, before taking appropriate action. However, due to the increased public awareness of fraud, and anti-fraud measures, such as removing names and addresses from letters, it is now more  ...  view the full minutes text for item 40.

RESOLVED: That the forward plan be noted, and responses be requested on the following issues:

1.    What are the requirements and thresholds requested in the Playground Refurbishment Programme contract, and does this include playgrounds on housing land or does it refer to just open spaces?

2.    How is it decided who to sell land to when the Cabinet consider the disposal of land?

RESOLVED: That the work programme be noted.

­­This item is included in Part II as the authority believes that the public interest in withholding the Information outweighs the public interest in disclosing it (exempt information under paragraphs 3 and 5 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Local Government (Access to Information) Act 1985 as amended).