Agenda item
Statements by the Leader
Minutes:
The Leader began his statement
by wishing everybody a Happy New Year and discussing a major power
outage that had occurred on New Year’s Eve at Collins House,
during which all 38 residents had to be
temporarily relocated. He stated that all residents
had been moved out and back in quickly
once the power had been restored. He thanked the residents,
families, and staff who had managed the incident, and felt that
everybody, particularly residents, had kept their spirits high
during the difficult time. He also discussed a second major
incident that had occurred on 6 January during which 415,000 litres
of sulphuric acid had been spilled. He
thanked the emergency services who had attended, and had received
minor injuries, and thanked every officer and department who had
worked throughout the night to manage the incident. He stated that
the gas cloud had dispersed naturally, but schools had been closed quickly to minimise the impact, and
again thanked everyone for their management of the situation.
The Leader moved onto discussing two recent inspections that had
occurred of Thurrock’s vulnerable people services which had
come back positive, as well as the recent OFSTED inspection, during
which Thurrock had received a ‘good’ rating. He
elaborated that Thurrock had narrowly missed the
‘outstanding’ rating, but this was due to timing. He
thanked everyone for the effort they had
put in to make the inspection a success, and for their continued
hard work throughout the year. He stated that Thurrock’s care
homes had also recently had an inspection by the Care Quality
Commission, and these services had also
been rated ‘good’, which was an improvement on the
previous inspection. He clarified that these services were also on
the path towards an ‘excellent’ rating, and felt that
many people had worked hard for this.
The Leader then mentioned the recent Keep Britain Tidy (KBT) scores
that had improved since the last inspection, and mentioned that
Thurrock had previously inspected themselves, but had moved this
responsibility to Keep Britain Tidy, as they were independent. He
felt that although there was still room
for improvement, the directorate was moving forward and had
numerous plans in place to improve the KBT scores. He highlighted
that the Environmental Enforcement team had recently been
shortlisted for an award by KBT, and wished officers good luck. He
clarified that last year the environment directorate had doubled
their street cleaning capacity, installed 600 new bins, 4 new road
sweepers, and had improved the old road sweepers, which had made an
impact across the borough. He also highlighted that the Civil
Enforcement team had received devolved powers from the police, so
they could now enforce certain laws such as underage possession of
alcohol. He stated that additionally Thurrock had received the
powers of injunction to remove illegal encampments, which
was already being used where necessary,
around the borough.
The Leader then talked about housing and the work Thurrock was
doing to tackle rogue landlords and the
successes that had been seen in court. He described how a review of
Houses of Multiple Occupation (HMO) had been undertaken, during
which 100 HMOs had been visited, 7 of which were found to be
unlicensed, which Thurrock were taking action against. He stated
that Thurrock had £27,000 to tackle criminal landlords who ran unlicensed care homes for
vulnerable people, and this work was being discussed around Essex
and London. He added that if residents knew of any potentially
unlicensed HMOs, they could contact the council who would
investigate.
The Leader then discussed £36million town centre funding,
which had been granted for the improvement of
Grays and Tilbury, and stated that Grays had also been one of only
50 towns nominated for the Future High Street fund, which was a
share of £1billion to attract businesses and people to the
area. He added that £200million of private investment
had also been granted to improve Grays
town centre and the Thames, which showed that private companies
were willing to invest in the town.
The Leader highlighted the work of the Trading Standards team,
which had seized 120,000 counterfeit cigarettes worth
£170,000 from 120 shops across the borough, with the help of
sniffer dogs. He stated that one shop had been fined £13,000
for the possession of 17,000 illegal cigarettes in his shop, and
although the Leader felt there was more to do, he felt glad that
the number of prosecutions had risen since 2016. He added that the
Trading Standards team were working closely with the police, and
were now going after the suppliers of illegal cigarettes, as well
as the shops that sold them.
The Leader detailed the work of the Civil Enforcement team as part
of his statement and outlined a recent success whereby Civil
Enforcement officers had found a marijuana growth site whilst
tackling a fly-tip in East Tilbury. He felt that this showed the
teams were not just focussed on one
issue, but were working collaboratively. He stated that 15 Fixed
Penalty Notices had been issued for fly-tipping, and 15 had been issued for anti-social
behaviour, as well as 1 arrest for possession of drugs. He added
that 10 community protection notices had issued for possession of
marijuana, and 30 had been issued for
anti-social behaviour including the use and disposal of nitrous
oxide canisters. He added that these schemes would be extended in the new municipal year, and
would have a wider scope of powers.
The Leader summarised and finished with the Clean It, Cut It, Fill
It update and stated that since April 2019 156 potholes had been
filled, 99% within target timeframes; 927 fly-tips had been
cleared; 2720 tonnes of waste had been removed; 3213 Fixed Penalty
Notices issued; and 3 illegal
encampments moved. He added that 208 £400 fines had been
issued for fly-tipping, and 268 people
had been prosecuted for failure to pay fines.