Minutes:
Jill Griffiths, Community Safety Team Leader; Adam Bailey, Housing and Cohesion Officer; and John Partridge, Community Safety Officer, were welcomed to the meeting.
The Community Safety Team Leader made Members aware that she had only started in the position on 1st April, 2020. Members heard of the increase of anti-social behaviour (ASB) and environmental crime during lockdown.
During the whole of the lockdown period officers had still been out in the area, undertaking not only their role, but they had also been called to assist other teams where necessary.
The team had been proactive, but had also responded reactively to intelligence, taking forward enforcement where necessary.
John and Adam had reported significant amounts of fly-tipping and waste in the Central area and they had working closely with other Council officers, this included taking forward legal action for breaches of CPNs.
With regards to numbers of fines, Members noted that the role of officers was largely advisory, with a move to issuing fines only where non-compliance was seen. This would be escalated to court should fines not be paid. The pressure on the court system, due to it being closed for a number of months, was noted.
It was noted that targets had not been set in the Service Level Agreements (SLAs) agreed as the services were new and had no benchmarks for comparison.
Members were reminded that the current SLAs ended in November, 2020, but that a previous meeting of Central Area Council had agreed to extend both SLAs. This offered an opportunity to reconsider the detail of each SLA in line with more up to date intelligence and data. It was suggested that a workshop be convened for Members to discuss this.
Praise was given for the work of John and Adam and the whole of the Safer Neighbourhood Service, who had assisted in addressing the issue of ASB in a number of areas, working well with partners such as Berneslai Homes.
It was noted that officers were available to attend ‘walkabouts’ with Members around Wards to identify issues and look at solutions.
Prevailing issues of fly-tipping, side waste and provision of bins were discussed. Members were reminded of previous discussions around piloting a project where replacement bins with address details embossed were provided free of charge. Here issues would be monitored, with a hope that stealing of bins would reduce and correct usage would increase. It was noted that for this to have an impact bin collection would also need to be reliable. It was suggested that this project could again be discussed with colleagues in Waste Management.
RESOLVED:-
(i) That thanks be given for the attendance of officers and their continued hard work in the area;
(ii) That a workshop be arranged in order to consider data and intelligence to inform the detail of revised SLAs for services to reduce household fly tipping and to support new tenants in the private rented sector;
(iii) That discussions be revisited with officers in Waste Management in relation to piloting a project to increase correct use of bins and reduce side waste and fly-tipping.