Venue: Committee Room 1, Civic Offices, New Road, Grays, Essex, RM17 6SL. View directions
Contact: Jenny Shade, Senior Democratic Services Officer Email: Direct.Democracy@thurrock.gov.uk
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To approve as a correct record the minutes of the Cleaner, Greener and Safer Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting held on 7 February 2019. Minutes: The minutes of the Cleaner, Greener and Safer Overview and Scrutiny Committee held on 7 February 2019 were approved as a correct record. |
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Items of Urgent Business 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. Minutes: There were no items of urgent business, but the Chair informed the Committee that Item 7 of the agenda was being brought forward and would be heard first. |
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Declaration of Interests Minutes: There were no interests declared. |
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Thurrock Active Parks Programme Update PDF 92 KB Minutes: The Chair asked Mr. Rob Groves,
the Chief Executive of Hardie Park to
come to the table and read his statement: I would like to
challenge the decision to forge ahead with the project to employ
Parks Engagement Officers at the cost of £300k, (which are
S.106 funds) over the next three years. It is
my opinion, which is shared by other active citizens, that have
been engaged with taking ownership of their local parks and open
spaces, that this project is inconsistent with the partnership
between the Council and Friends of Hardie Park, which should be one of cooperation
with and support of local grassroots led initiatives that model
Hardie Park as a mechanism of
transforming parks, with little or no public funds. My
current experience is that the partnership does not have the full
support of Council officers with communications, including emails
sometimes taking weeks or months to be
replied to, or in some instances are ignored altogether. I
feel deeply disappointed and hurt at the way the Council have not
engaged residents in this decision and delivery of this project, at
the cost of desperately needed funds earmarked for direct
investment into communities bearing the
brunt of developments. |
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Waste Strategy For Thurrock PDF 102 KB Minutes: The Director of Environment and
Highways introduced the report and stated that in December 2018
Central Government issued their waste strategy for England with a
focus on re-use, recycling and reducing packaging. She added that
the Telegraph recently ran an article stating that “recycling
rates have stalled at 45% since 2017”, with an impact
assessment by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural
Affairs accepting the UK will miss its target of 65% waste recycled
by 2035. She added that Thurrock’s recycling rates had
stagnated in the last few years at 36/37%. The Director of
Environment and Highways requested that the Committee agree a sub
working group be established to consider opportunities available
and produce a vision statement by December 2019, enabling officers
to draft a new waste strategy in the first quarter of the calendar
year, with consultation and adoption of the strategy to follow. She
added that in December 2020 the waste disposal contracts were up
for renewal, with an option to extend, and felt it was essential
that the new strategy inform future contract procurement. |
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Tree Planting Strategy - Update Report PDF 67 KB Additional documents:
Minutes: The Strategic Lead –
Clean and Green stated that this report was an update on the Tree
Planting Strategy. He stated that the Tree Officer was now working
with residents and councillors to facilitate tree planting across
the borough, and planned to plant 10-12 fruit trees in Elm Road. He
stated that the Tree Officer was also working with the transport
team to identify areas where trees could be
planted. He added that in December 2018, the Committee had
agreed the Tree Planting Strategy, which had
been agreed by Cabinet in February 2019. He clarified that
the Strategy had agreed 66 new trees to be
planted in three years at a cost of £9900, and now
Members were being consulted when trees were removed in their ward.
He added that since the Strategy had been
agreed, 32 new trees had been planted, with the remainder to
be planted in the autumn, when they had the most chance of
survival. He drew Members attention to Appendix 1 that outlined the
list of trees that had already been planted, and mentioned that
once the location of trees to be planted in Autumn had been agreed, this would be shared with
Members. He commented that an arborist apprentice was now employed
by the council, and once they had
completed their training they had the potential to become a
full-time arborist, to fulfil a vacant post, and another arborist
apprentice could be recruited. He added that a new water bowser had
been purchased to maintain the trees, and a new electronic system
for monitoring trees was also being
implemented. He summarised that the council rarely removed healthy
trees, and were always looking for more funding sources so trees
could be purchased. |
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Environment Enforcement Update PDF 120 KB Minutes: The Strategic Lead –
Enforcement and Community Protection introduced the report and
stated that the council now employed four Environmental Enforcement
Officers, and one senior Environmental Enforcement Officer. He
added that these officers were now undertaking a new accreditation
from the Essex Police Commissioner so they had increased devolved
powers, as outlined in 2.3.3. He stated that these powers included
stopping cycling on the footpath, stopping underage possession of
alcohol and tobacco, and stopping idling car engines, and would be
well publicised so residents were aware. He stated that new
legislation could be enforced through
criminal courts, as well as residents receiving a fixed penalty
notice. He outlined a recent issue that had
been found with the enforcement contractor issuing fixed
penalty notices through an automated system, which had recently
been reported in the media. He advised that the council was dealing
with this through the contract default process. |
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Community Safety Partnership Report on Prevent PDF 127 KB Additional documents:
Minutes: The Thurrock Community Safety
Partnership Manager opened the report and stated that it was a
statutory duty for local authorities to have due regard to Prevent
and link it to the wider duty of safeguarding children and adults.
She explained that the terrorism level had been at severe since
2014, which was the second highest level, and had only escalated in
2017 directly after the Westminster attacks. She described how the
terrorism threat in Thurrock was no greater than anywhere else in the region, and a profile was
received quarterly which outlined specific threats, but this was
not available to the public. She discussed the greatest threats to
Thurrock, and how the Prevent meeting looked at various strategies
and action plans to target this. She stated that Prevent was an
Officer group led by the Assistant Director Housing, and that they
had recently completed the Home Officer Prevent toolkit. In
addition, she spoke about the Member working group and encouraged
attendance. She added that there was also a new escalation route
for the Channel Panel as they now met monthly, rather than when a
case was referred. She stated that this
process would be reviewed in October.
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Minutes: The Director of Environment and Highways stated that Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Committee had asked the Cleaner, Greener and Safer Overview and Scrutiny Committee to focus on the missed Key Performance Indicator (KPI) regarding bin collection. She stated that since October 2018 this KPI had met target, barring March due to climate issues but this had only been missed by 0.03%. She stated that to meet Corporate Overview and Scrutiny’s request a verbal update would be provided on a quarterly basis to keep Members aware. The Chair and Members agreed to these updates. |