It was noted, Councillors Paul Arnold, Roy Jones and Sue Shinnick had sent their apologies along with Sue Hodgson.  It was further noted Councillors John Fox and Ryan Polston were in attendance as substitutes.

To approve the minutes of the Place Overview and Scrutiny Committee held on the 10 September 2024.

The Minutes of the Place Overview and Scrutiny Committee held on the 10 September 2024 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.

The Chair expressed his dissatisfaction of reports being removed from the proposed Agenda and not replaced with alternative reports, in particular the Chair was disappointed the Waste and Recycling Policy had been removed from the proposed Agenda for this meeting, which had left only one substantive report being heard. The Chair advised the committee he, along with the vice chair, had been invited to an informal briefing session on 30 October 2024 to discuss the Waste and Recycling Policy and invited members of the committee to the briefing.

The Chair questioned why it was taking six months to obtain information on where Section 106 monies were being spent.  He further expressed his concern regarding the recruitment of a section 106 officer.

The Chair advised the committee that he had requested a briefing to be given to the committee on the glass partition in the Chamber, however, had been advised by the Monitoring Officer this would not be on the agenda.

There were no declarations of interest.

The Assistant Director of Counter Fraud, Enforcement and Community Safety presented the report.  The Assistant Director advised this was a new policy that explained when and how Thurrock Council utilise legislation and the process of enforcement.  The policy would be an overarching policy that would be referred to for specific enforcement policies that were designed by individual service areas.  The Assistant Director further advised, the policy helped guide those creating their specific enforcement policies to ensure there was a consistent approach to how the Council deal with matters of enforcement, be it criminal or civil.  It was advised the Policy highlighted how the Council would treat people, how it would embark on the enforcement process and how professionalism, fairness and consistency were the driving force behind the policy.

The following key points were highlighted by members:

• Members questioned the fly-tipping around the Borough and asked what could be done to prevent this.  The Assistant Director urged everyone to report any incidents to the team and advised all incidents are triaged and dealt with as quickly as possible.

• Members questioned if the policy had been developed in consultation with all enforcement service areas of the Council.  The Assistant Director advised that an enforcement board within the Council had been set up for all senior practitioners across the council with enforcement functions, who met monthly, and shared working practices and intelligence.  The Assistant Director confirmed this paper was shared with the enforcement board so all service areas who participated had an opportunity to comment and add to the policy.

• Members questioned the Council’s relationship with the police regarding enforcement.  The Assistant Director advised he could not comment on any specific incident, however, he did confirm the Council had a very good working relationship with the police.

• Members questioned if there were appropriate levels of staffing across all enforcement service areas.  The Assistant Director advised, each service area manage their own staffing levels and therefore this would vary depending on each enforcement team. However, the Assistant Director confirmed he was comfortable with staffing levels within his service area and felt they were able to cope with the level of referrals that were received.  The Assistant Director invited members to contact him with any ideas the committee may have to improve the service.

• Members questioned if, in the future, they could have last years’ accounts, this year’s budget and/or structure charts to obtain a better overall feel of the enforcement services that the Council provide and to scrutinise effectively against such policies.   The Assistant Director advised that enforcement was broken down into different service areas so budgeting was not something any one person would have control over.  Each service area produced their own annual reports, but this was not something that was collated together under “enforcement function”.  The Assistant Director advised he would look at this further with the possibility of adding this to a future agenda for consideration by the enforcement board.

• Members questioned the sustainability of using outside contractors to remove fly-tipping  ...  view the full minutes text for item 21.

The Scrutiny Officer presented the Work Programme.

Members were advised since publication of the Agenda the quarterly finance updates had been added to the work programme, with Quarter 2 finance update coming to committee in January 2025 and Quarter 3 later in the municipal year. Members requested that the Quarter 1 finance update be added to Decembers’ agenda. 

Members requested an update on the item raised at the last committee meeting in relation to Dust in Tilbury.   The Scrutiny Officer updated that a meeting had been held with the Environmental Health Team and Air Quality Officer and they were planning on setting up a cross directorate officer group to draft a report on dust and mortality in Tilbury. There were no current timescale on when the report would be finalised as data was currently being collated.  The Scrutiny Officer advised she would provide updates to the committee.

Members questioned the agenda and expressed their disappointment at the lack of agenda items for this meeting.

A full recording of this meeting can be found from the following link –

Place Overview and Scrutiny Committee - Wednesday 23 October 2024, 7:00pm - Thurrock Council committee meeting webcasts