Council and democracy

To approve as a correct record the minutes of Cabinet held on 5 April 2017.

The Minutes of Cabinet, held on 5 April 2017, 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 items of urgent business.

There were no declarations of interest.

The Leader addressed Portfolio Holders and in doing so offered his condolences to all of those affected and involved in the tragic incident at Grenfell Tower. 

He informed Members the Council was working with the Fire Service to complete spot checks of all tower blocks within the Borough and a review of all properties had also been completed.

Housing Officers were working hard to assure residents that there were no similarities to any of the tower blocks in Thurrock. He continued by notifying Members that letters had been delivered to tenants and tenant meetings were being arranged to which Ward Members would be invited.

The Leader explained that following the General Election, work was back to normal, with Clean it, Cut it, Fill it having high priority and an update would be given at the July meeting of Cabinet.

Councillor Gledhill advised, a public awareness campaign around fly-tipping was about to begin, to remind residents to use council services for bulky waste collections or licensed companies to take away their waste. He continued by stating, if a resident’s rubbish was found to be fly-tipped they could be fined and not the unlicensed company who removed the rubbish on their behalf.

The Leader then invited all to join him on Monday 26 June for Armed Forces Day where the flag would be raised in support of all service personnel.

Councillor S. Little thanked the Leader and the Chief Executive for their quick response in light of the Grenfell Tower tragedy in London and for speaking to residents offering them assurances.

Councillor Gledhill offered his thanks to all Housing Officers for their hard work over the last week.

There were no items on Policy, Budget or other issue reported to the Cabinet.

There were no petitions submitted.

The Leader of the Council advised that no questions had been submitted from Non-Executive Members.

The Leader of the Council informed Members that no matters had been referred to the Cabinet by an Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

Councillor Gledhill, the Leader of the Council, briefly introduced the report which outlined the nominations made by Cabinet to Outside Bodies, Statutory and Other Panels for those appointments.

The nominations to Outside Bodies, Statutory and Other Panels were as follows:

RESOLVED:

That the nominations to Outside Bodies, Statutory and Other Panels be approved.

Councillor Gledhill, Leader of the Council, presented the report and informed Members that the programme required re-procurement of its contract package from year’s six to eight in line with the current Transforming Homes programme.

He continued by mentioning he had visited residents who had received adaptions or works to their homes. The Leader stated he was pleased to hear that residents were happy with the service and work they had received, including praise given to contractor’s completing the work.

The Leader commented it was not just new homes receiving improvements but also making current Council homes fit for purpose and to improve the living conditions for residents.

Councillor S. Little stated that she had visited a number of properties and echoed the Leader’s comments that residents were very pleased with the service they had received.

The Leader informed Members that 83% of residents had rated contractors as good or excellent within the Customer satisfaction survey and 85% of residents had rated the overall delivery of the programme as good or excellent.

RESOLVED:

That Cabinet:

1.         Approve the re-procurement of two contract packages for the delivery of major works as set out in the report

2.         Approve the re-procurement of one contractor to provide strategic support and cost management of the Housing Capital Programme as set out in the report

3.         Approve delegated authority for award of the above contracts to the Corporate Director of Adults, Housing and Health in consultation with the Portfolio Holder for Housing.

Reason for Decision – as stated in the report

This decision is subject to call-in

The Leader introduced the item on behalf of Councillor Tolson; he notified Members since the start of the Environmental Enforcement Service pilot in December 2016, 1208 Fixed Penalty Notices (FPN) had been issued, of which 830 were paid on time. He continued by informing those present that the income from FPN was £62,250, this meant there was no charge to the residents of Thurrock.

Councillor Gledhill commented that moving forwards the early repayment discount was to be removed from the service. He further stated that following a change in legislation the FPN were to be increased to their maximum permissible amount.

Members were asked, as part of the recommendations, to approve the use of Media outlets to publicise successful prosecutions and (to use such outlets) to find those committing offences when identities were unknown or false identities were given.

The Leader further mentioned that as part of the recommendations Members were to agree delegated authority from the DVLA to recover abandoned vehicles and to enforce against untaxed vehicles.

Councillor MacPherson commented she was pleased to see the removal of the early payment discount relating to FPN and queried if the Leader had any updates on the prosecutions to date.

Councillor Gledhill, informed Members since the start of the Environment Enforcement Pilot there had been:

·         21 Prosecutions;

·         £5,547 Total fines awarded;

·         £5,654 Total costs awarded and;

·         £11,915 Total of all costs, fines and surcharges.

Councillor Hebb, echoed Councillor MacPherson in that he too was pleased to see the early payment discount removed. He continued by stating it was agreed in June 2016 that the Administration would clean up the Borough and  there were only so many times you could ask people do something before action was needed.

The Leader thanked Members for their comments and further informed them that under the contract other enforcement actions would include Littering and Dog Fouling Enforcement Patrols, action taken against Fly-posting, Graffiti and Fly-tipping.

RESOLVED:

1.         To delegate authority for the tender and subsequent award of a contract for enforcement services on a payment by results basis to the Corporate Director of Environment and Place in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Environment for a period of up to 4 years, to the value of approximately £960,000.

1a.       Cleaner, Greener and Safer Overview and Scrutiny Committee on 11 May 2017 recommended to Cabinet that the following amendments are inserted into recommendation 1.;

a.         That the enforcement activities will be across the entire borough according to need,

b.         That the contract is structured in such a way to not expose the Authority to undue financial risk, and

c.         That an adequate break clause or other means of exiting the contract be included in the agreement.

2.         To remove early repayment discounts for fixed penalty notices issued for environmental crime offences as detailed in 4.3.

3.         To set the value of fixed penalty notices to the maximum permissible amount for environmental crime offences as detailed in 4.3.

4.         To set the minimum age that formal enforcement action,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 11.