Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor North. 

At this point Members must declare whether they have an interest, whether personal or prejudicial, in any of the items on the agenda. Members must also declare if they are subject to their party group whip in relation to any items under consideration.

No declarations of interest were made.

The minutes of the meeting held on 10 March 2011 were approved as a correct record.

The decision notice for each decision will bear the date on which it is published and will specify that the decision may then be implemented on the expiry of 3 working days after the publication of the decision (not including the date of publication), unless a request for call-in of the decision is received from any two members of a Scrutiny Committee or Scrutiny Commissions.  If a request for call-in of a decision is received, implementation of the decision remains suspended for consideration by the relevant Scrutiny Committee or Commission.

There were no requests for call-in to consider.

The Social Inclusion Manager introduced the report which provided an update on work undertaken at the Norwood Lane Caravan Park and specifically in relation to fly tipping. The Committee were informed that a security company had been engaged for a few hours a day to monitor fly tipping.  The security company had used a personal camera to obtain photographic evidence of fly tipping and as a result enforcement action had been taken.  None of the people caught had been from the Caravan Park.  As a result of clearing the lane the travellers from the Park were now engaged with the Neighbourhood Officers to work on initiatives to clear up and enhance the rest of the park and were keen to get involved in community work.  Further work would continue to be delivered at the Park and would be implemented in partnership with Community Payback, travellers from the Park, Neighbourhood Officers, Fire and the Police to renovate, regenerate and make safer the lane on and around Norwood Lane Caravan Park.

Questions and observations were raised around the following areas:

·         Members who had visited the park had noted how much cleaner Norwood Lane was and that it was now a pleasure to look at. 

·         How will the extra work be resourced?  No funding was available for any works. There were people with skills who had volunteered to help and an appeal had been made on radio Cambridge for building materials.  Community Payback would be involved with this work.

·         Members commended the Social Inclusion Manager and the team involved on the excellent results achieved from the clean up operation.

·         How much did the clean up operation cost.  A figure of £52,000 per annum had been quoted but it would be much less now.  There was also funding available for covert CCTV operations.

·         What information have you gathered from this exercise to help reduce fly tipping in other areas?  Enforcement had been the key to stopping fly tipping but other lessons could be taken from the exercise and this would be looked into further.

·         Do you know where the fly tippers that had been caught came from?  The majority of fly tippers were people who were emptying houses, or doing work on houses. They had mostly come from Wisbech, Corby and Lincolnshire.  Householders would be responsible for items disposed of illegally. It was therefore important that they checked that the company they used had a licence. If evidence was found that a company had been fly tipping then enforcement action would be taken against them.

·         Members felt that the Magistrates needed to take hard action against the companies who were caught.

ACTIONS AGREED

To note the report and commend officers on the work that had been undertaken to achieve the excellent results in the clean up operation of Norwood Lane.

The report provided information on the work undertaken by the Committee during 2010/2011 and recommendations made.  The Committee were asked to identify items for monitoring during 2011/2012 and any new items for the work programme.

Items identified for inclusion into the work programme were:

·         Six monthly monitoring report on recommendations made by the Committee.

·         Tree Pollarding – monitoring of the recommendation on longer tree pollarding regime.

·         Environment Capital – progress report.  Members were advised that this would be presented at the July meeting.

·         How sustainability fits in with the Councils Capital Asset Policy and what was the Councils policy on Green Leasing.

·         Energy Supply Company (ESCO).

·         Council’s policy on renewable energy.

·         Enterprise contract – contractual requirements in particular landscape management.

Members also requested information on the following:

• The name of the new wild life officer.
• Confirmation that the Biodiversity Strategy had been approved at Full Council?
• An update on the Open Space Strategy?

ACTION AGREED

That the Senior Governance Officer would contact the relevant officers to schedule reports into the work programme for the identified topics.

The latest version of the Forward Plan, showing details of the key decisions that the Leader of the Council believed the Cabinet or individual Cabinet Members would be making over the next four months, was received.

ACTION AGREED

The Committee noted the latest version of the Forward Plan and requested a briefing note on the Refuse Derived Fuel Decision Notice.

Councillor Sandford wished it noted that he had concerns about the reduction in officer support for the Scrutiny function.

Thursday 14 July 2011 at 7.00pm