Council and democracy

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the Cleaner, Greener and Safer Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting held on 3 December 2020.

The minutes of the Cleaner Greener Safer Overview and Scrutiny Committee held on the 8 December 2020 were approved as a correct record.

To receive additional items that the Chair is of the opinion should be considered as a matter of urgency, in accordance with Section 100B (4) (b) of the Local Government Act 1972.

There were no urgent items of business.

Councillor Redsell declared a non-pecuniary interest that she was a member of the Community Safety Partnership.

Michelle Cunningham provided Members with an overview of the report on the review of performance, both qualitative and quantitative, of the Thurrock Community Safety Partnership in 2020 and provided an insight into the priorities for the Partnership for 2021/22. Phil Carver provided Members with an overview of the environmental enforcement team’s items of the report.

The Chair thanked Michelle Cunningham for the very good report.

With no questions from Members, the Chair moved to the recommendations.

RESOLVED

1.         That Cleaner, Greener and Safer Overview and Scrutiny Committee noted the performance of the Thurrock Community Safety Partnership for the year 2020 and support the retention of the five priorities of the Community Safety Partnership for the year 2020/21, which are:

1.    Tackle Violence against Women and Girls

2.    Tackling Violence and Vulnerability

3.    Local Community and Visibility

4.    Tackling Offending

5.    Counter Extremism and Terrorism

2.         That Cleaner, Greener and Safer Overview and Scrutiny committee recognised the changing environment and risks that poses to keeping communities safe. 

3.         That Cleaner, Greener and Safer Overview and Scrutiny Committee recognised the requirement to continue to work collaboratively across Essex on the Police and Fire Crime Commissioners Violence and Vulnerability framework and to deliver on the recommendations within the Annual Public Health Report on Serious Youth Violence.

4.         That Cleaner, Greener and Safer Overview and Scrutiny understood the impact on the Council of the Domestic Abuse Bill.

Michelle Cunningham presented the report that provided Members with the opportunity to review the Councils response to the Counter Terrorism and Security Act 2015, ensured that they understood the local threat and to judge whether the strategy and actions planned would address that threat. Members were referred to the Home Office Prevent Handbook that outlined three key roles for elected Members in shaping and delivering Prevent activity locally and these were Leadership and Direction, Community Dialogue and Scrutiny.

Councillor Redsell thanked Michelle Cunningham for the report and asked for clarification on the Panels being referred to. Michelle Cunningham stated that the Channel Panel formed a key part of Prevent which was a multiagency approach to identifying those individuals who were at risk of being drawn into terrorism, had access to the nature and extent of that risk and provided early support to those identified as being vulnerable to being drawn into terrorism. The Strategic Prevent Board focused on the delivery of the wider aspects such as training, communications and engagement and would be fed up into community safety partnership for their awareness.

Michelle Cunningham stated the Pledge Card had been developed by the Members Working Group and had been aimed at members to highlight the five key points and how to report suspicious activity. Councillor Redsell stated it would be good idea to send this out again to all Members.

Councillor J Kent referred to the training being delivered and questioned who this had been available to, what the take up of this training had been and had the training been available to elected Members. Michelle Cunningham stated this training had been offered by the Learning Development Team to schools, partners and internal professionals and would be happy for this to be available to Members. Councillor J Kent stated that Members should be invited to take part in these training sessions as Members may need to demonstrate that they had completed such training. That there was a misunderstanding on what Prevent was and the intentions of Prevent. This training should be mandatory for all Members and before any decisions were made on the Prevent Committee, Members should be given the opportunity to attend training to ensure they understood what the Prevent strategy was and what that role would be. Michelle Cunningham replied that Members had been offered sessions and would be happy to arrange further sessions.

Councillor J Kent recommended that a further recommendation 1.5 be added to this item in that all elected Members should undertake the Prevent training and to make this a mandatory requirement.Members were in agreement with this and would be added to the report.

RESOLVED

That Cleaner, Greener and Safer Overview and Scrutiny Committee Members:

1.         Noted the increased National risk.

2.         Understood the implications for the Local Authority in relation to the Channel Duty Guidance.

3.         Considered the ratings and actions reported in the self-assessment Preventduty toolkit for Local Authorities.

4.         Supported the Members working group to promote the important role that  ...  view the full minutes text for item 85.

David Kleinberg presented the report that outlined the proposal for the Council to re-tender for the brought-in support services that assist the Council in meeting the objectives to improve the environment and neighbourhoods for Thurrock residents. Phil Carver provided an overview on the performance and required standards of the contract to date and detailed future projections based on known comparatives and requested permission to progress the report’s recommendations to Cabinet.

Councillor J Kent asked for some elaboration on the enforcements of environmental crime. Phil Carver stated that littering was a statutory offence   and that there were processes in place for the Grays Town Centre PSPO which was written by Thurrock Council that the current contractor must abide by.

Councillor Rigby questioned how many contractors there were currently, how often they patrolled and what areas were covered. Officers informed Councillor Rigby there was currently one contractor and officers would be assigned to hot spot areas which may have been based on the number of complaints received from residents. Members were informed that contractors wore body-worn cameras and activated at the start of each interaction with alleged offenders.

Councillor Redsell questioned how many mobile cameras the environmental enforcement team had to which it was confirmed they had four.

Councillor J Kent stated his disappointment in the case being made for the in-house option as it currently did not highlight some of the real positives this could bring to the borough. There was also a lost training opportunity that could be attached to the issuing of fines. For example, for offenders being fined for dropping cigarette butts should be followed up with information or help on how to stop smoking. Councillor J Kent suggested that some flexibility, common sense and some education was required to be in place alongside enforcements.

Councillor J Kent stated that recommendation 2 as it currently stood was invalid and needed to be changed to reflect where the authority of delegation would fall. Members agreed to change recommendation 2 to say the authority of delegation would fall to the Director of Environment, Highways and Counter Fraud.

Councillor Redsell questioned if the service were to be tendered out who would be in charge of tickets and what would come back in house. Officers confirmed that in respect of tickets this would be based on percentage and currently the contractor received £42.50 for each fixed penalty notice.

Councillor Redsell questioned if the service were to go to another contractor how many more officers would there be in Thurrock. Officers stated this would be currently the same as now, one supervisor, four officers and one admin officer.

Councillor Redsell referred to the current contractor already in place and questioned what actual differences would it make in going out for another tender. Officers stated the current contract which had been working very well was due to expire in December 2021 and stated that the Council would be looking at widening the contractors remit to deal with more offences which are absolute offences that  ...  view the full minutes text for item 86.

Members were informed this was the last meeting of this municipal year, the chair thanked Members on the committee and looked forward to seeing everyone again in the next municipal year.