Council and democracy

Agenda and minutes

Venue: Committee Rooms 2 & 3, Civic Offices, New Road, Grays, Essex, RM17 6SL. View directions

Contact: Kenna-Victoria Martin Senior Democratic Services Officer  Email: Direct.Democracy@thurrock.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

27.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 68 KB

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the Cleaner, Greener and Safer Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting held on 21 January 2016.

Minutes:

The Minutes of the Cleaner, Greener and Safer Overview and Scrutiny Committee, held on 21 January 2016, were approved as a correct record.

28.

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.

29.

Declaration of Interests

Minutes:

No interests were declared.

30.

Fire Authority Consultation Update pdf icon PDF 1 MB

Minutes:

The Acting Chief Fire Officer addressed the Committee and in doing so explained that Essex Fire Authority was half way through the second part of their consultation. He continued to explain they were at their current position within the consultation as:

 

               On the 13 January Essex Fire Authority approved a set of three options for consultation;

               From the 1 February saw the launch of a 12 week consultation which was due to conclude on the 25 April;

               Then 4 weeks of reviewing the results; and

               On the 8 June the Essex Fire Authority will meet to discuss and to make a decision and implementation of the decision will follow.

 

Members were informed that even with an increase in Population by 8% and traffic by 12%, incidents had reduced by 45%. It was further commented the Road Traffic Collisions attend had increased by 14% in the past 5 years with

Dwelling fires in total having decreased by 15%.

 

The Acting Chief Fire Officer notified the Committee that within a 24 hour period 44% of calls were false alarms with only 11% being true incidents. It was explained to Members that operational resources were not spread evenly across the County, with larger areas having 6 plus appliances available in 15 minutes.  It was commented therefore the Fire Authority could make more changes in these areas.

 

The Committee were advised that 7.5 thousand homes in Thurrock did not have a working smoke alarm. The Acting Chief Fire Officer further notified Members that they were looking into a residential sprinkler scheme, to be installed within all high risk and high housing properties.

 

Members were further advised the Fire Authority were:

 

               Working with every school to teach children of all age groups of fire safety. So far 8 thousand children had received the safety talk;

               Working through the Safer Essex Road Partnership with drivers and riders to reduce the number of people killed or injured on our roads;

 

In additional new response standards were to begin at the time of call rather than the time the station is alerted:

 

               To attend 90% of calls in 15 minutes and

               To attend potentially life threatening calls within 10 minutes.

 

The Acting Chief Fire Officer talked Members through the 3 options possible within the consultation. During discussions it was commented that within the options Thurrock was set to lose up to a half of their pumping applications. It was stressed to Members that no matter the decision, the nearest and quickest resource would be sent.

 

Members were notified that with changes to funding and savings by 2020, the Fire Authority would have a deficit of £9.9million, this would include and investment of £3million a year in community safety.

 

The Committee were informed that drop in sessions had been held throughout the County since February 2015, with the Grays drop in on the 21 March.

 

Members queried as to how with the suggested options and Thurrock’s COMAH sites, how if a  ...  view the full minutes text for item 30.

31.

Prevent pdf icon PDF 93 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Head of Residents Services presented the report to Members highlighting the following points:

 

       The Counter Terrorism and Security Act became law on 16 February 2015, the Act placed a statutory duty on all principal councils from the 1 July 2015 to have “due regard to the need to prevent people being drawn into terrorism”. This was known as the Prevent Duty;

       The Prevent duty guidance, published alongside the Act sets an expectation which included that local authorities:

o   Establish or make use of an existing local multi-agency group to agree risk and co-ordinate prevent activity (these multi-agency groups, through local authorities, will be expected to put in place arrangements to effectively monitor the impact of Prevent work).

o   Mainstream the prevent duty so it becomes part of the day-to-day work of the Authority, in particular children’ safeguarding.

 

It was explained that to date the Thurrock Community Safety Partnership (TCSP) had been leading on Prevent since it had originally been brought in. Within the TCSP structure there was currently a Prevent Strategic Group (PSG) who met regularly. Members were informed meetings of the PSG were chaired by the Head of Resident Services.

 

She continued to advise the Committee of the key deliverables of the Strategy which were:

 

       Identify local threat

       Ensure activities in place to respond to it

       To ensure all agencies within Thurrock respond to the local duty

 

It was asked of Members to discuss the Membership of a Working Group into Prevent, following a Motion being agreed at Full Council in 2015.

 

Councillor Hague enquired as to whether there were any cases currently being undertaken. The Head of Resident Services confirmed that there was currently one channel in progress.

 

Councillor Ray raised concerns as he felt should Councillors get too involved they could be targets of such behaviour. It was explained that the suggestion of a working group was proposed and agreed via a motion a Full Council. The Head of Resident Services further explained that the council was working in partnership with Essex Police and other safety groups.

 

Councillor Stone sought as to whether Members would receive training on the topic of Prevent. It was confirmed that training had been offered for Councillors in relation to Prevent, so that Members were able to raise awareness whilst being better informed and to have the knowledge of who to contact.

 

During discussion on setting up the Working Group the Committee suggested there be at least 1 Member from each of the main Political Parties and 1 seat for an Independent Member.

 

RESOLVED:

 

1.    That the contents of the Thurrock Community Safety Partnership Prevent Strategy are noted.

 

2.    That a Working group be established in the new municipal year to address the terms of reference found at Appendix 2 of this report.

 

3.    That the number of Members of the Working group be agreed, following which Group Leaders will be requested to make nominations in accordance with political proportionality.

 

4.    That the scope and terms  ...  view the full minutes text for item 31.

32.

Local Air Quality Management pdf icon PDF 93 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Head of Resident Services introduced the report to the Committee, explaining that an Air Quality Progress Report undertaken in 2014 identified a potential exceedence for nitrogen dioxide at monitored locations in parts of Aveley and along the Purfleet By-Pass.

 

She continued to inform Member that the first location identified was along the main high street within Aveley, Aveley High Street and also part of Ship Lane which was an area mainly comprised of retail and residential premises. The second location identified was a residential development close to the Purfleet By-Pass.

It was discussed that once areas had been declared as Air Quality Management Areas (AQMA’s) the Highways Team would investigate and propose a plan accordingly.

 

Councillor Ray enquired the reason behind the increased population in Aveley, he further queried whether it was linked to traffic on Ship Lane and the closeness to the A13 roundabout. The Head of Resident Services explained that traffic were thought to be a possibility, however Highways were involved and would be investigating the situation.

 

Members further enquired if there were any other AQMA’s within the borough and had they been action upon. It was confirmed that within Thurrock there were other AQMA’s and all action plans in place.

 

It was asked that all details of the cases be included within the report, when presented to the Cabinet.

 

RESOLVED:

 

To recommend that Cabinet approve the declaration of two new Air

Quality Management Area’s along Aveley High Street / Ship Lane and for the Purfleet By-Pass.

33.

Work Programme pdf icon PDF 57 KB

Minutes:

Members discussed the work programme for the municipal year and the following reports were agreed:

 

·         Street Cleaning Performance

·         Waste Refuse Collections

·         DAAT Performance