Agenda and minutes

Councillor Azad Choudhry – on leave

Councillor Georgina Culley – unwell

Councillor Sue Johnson – personal reasons

Councillor Marcia Watson – personal reasons

None.

To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 5 July 2017

Subject to the inclusion of Councillor Gul Khan’s apologies, the minutes of the meeting held on 5 July 2017 were confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

Report of the Head of Legal and Governance

Councillor Toby Neal, Portfolio Holder for Community and Customer Services, updated the Committee on his priorities and budget challenges, highlighting the following:

(a)  Council Plan targets to cut the level of crime by a fifth and to reduce the number of repeat victims of hate crime by 20% are unlikely to be met. The rise in crime generally could be due to the reclassification of crimes by the Police. Hate crime incidents in the city have increased, possibly because more is being reported, but possibly also due to Brexit;

(b)  aggressive begging is an issue, which could be down to an increase in homelessness and poverty, but could also be attributed to the loss of the City Division of the Police. Lots of work is being done to combat it and ensure that it doesn’t get displaced to neighbourhoods;

(c)  the selective licensing scheme for landlords is currently awaiting decision but, if it is implemented, it will be enforced by Community Protection and will make a significant difference to the quality of rented accommodation in the city;

(d)  Nottingham Together is a programme working with local groups to make sure that the city’s diverse communities remain cohesive and stable;

(e)  new terms and conditions have been introduced for council employees which most are now satisfied with. There has been a stabilisation of the lower wages and the new system is more effective for the changing nature of demands and commercialisation;

(f)  opportunities for joint working on Human Resources, IT and Community Protection is being explored with other authorities. Joint working on Community Protection with Derby City Council is already in place.

The following answers were provided to questions from Committee members:

(g)  more effective joint working with the police will help to tackle city-wide problems such as drugs, alcohol and anti-social behaviour. The council is lobbying for a return of the city police division and a proper joint strategy so that everybody is accountable;

(h)  some of the rise in hate crime could be down to improved confidence and reporting systems, however there does seem to be an actual rise. There will be meetings soon with grass roots groups to look at tackling hate crime. Hate crime should not be tolerated, but care must be taken as Nottingham’s communities are generally well integrated already;

(i)  enforcement of fly-tipping and littering can be difficult as evidence is required in order to prosecute. Additional powers for Community Protection Officers would be useful, and the city is lobbying for this along with other core cities;

(j)  the number of evening anti-social behaviour complaints against students has reduced. The council tries to engage with students as much as possible around safety, crime and antisocial behaviour, including a welcome campaign which emphasises the area’s community that students will be joining.

RESOLVED to thank Councillor Neal for the information provided.

Report of the Head of Legal and Governance

John Marsh, Head of Street Scene and Grounds Maintenance, and Richard Antcliff, Chief Licensing, Trading Standards and Anti-social Behaviour Officer, gave a presentation on how the Council’s waste services work together to combat fly-tipping highlighting the following:

(a)  the city has around 135,000 households from which it collects 113,192 tonnes of waste a year. This includes around 8,000 tonnes of fly-tipping and street waste;

(b)  everybody has a duty of care to dispose of their waste properly. Nottingham City Council has no policy on side waste and will collect this with wheelie bins on collection day. However, side waste goes straight to landfill and makes vehicles run heavier;

(c)  the council has a target to collect fly-tipped waste within 48 hours of when it is reported. The number of fly-tips has reduced annually, which may be down to improved knowledge of citizens on the subject or the free bulky waste collection that the council offers;

(d)  the recent Keep it Clean campaign has seen a 4% drop in fly-tipping and an 11% drop in dog fouling;

(e)  the majority of fly-tips are small scale, for example a single black bag or a single fridge. However, some can be on a much larger scale and require considerable council resources;

(f)  there are four routes of prosecution for fly-tipping: warnings, fines, fixed penalty notices or prosecution. Citizens can be fined if they pay somebody unlicensed to remove waste;

(g)  when a Community Protection Officer discovers a fly-tip, they should photograph it, examine it to see offenders can be identified, knock on doors and examine CCTV footage. There must be proof beyond reasonable doubt to prosecute an offender, with hearsay not being adequate;

(h)  Operation Cleansweep happens once a quarter and is a multi-agency operation targeting unlicensed vehicles transporting trade waste illegally.

The following answers were given in response to questions from Committee members:

(i)  the city no longer runs a textile collection service as this was trialled but suspended a number of years ago as collection vehicles are unsuitable;

(j)  the city collects trade waste outside the city as a commercial enterprise;

(k)  if there is to be a prosecution for fly-tipping then physical proof is required which can be difficult to obtain;

(l)  nationally the levels of fly-tipping are increasing. In Nottingham the levels are already high but reducing. The majority tends to be in areas around the city centre such as Arboretum, St Anns and Radford;

(m)councils are not legally allowed to use covert CCTV to identify offenders.

RESOLVED to

(1)  thank John and Richard for their presentation;

(2)  delegate authority to the Chair to decide the focus for the fly-tipping review to continue at the October meeting.

Report of the Head of Legal and Governance

Laura Wilson, Senior Governance Officer, introduced the report setting out the Committee’s work programme for 2017/18.

RESOLVED to

(1)  note the work that is currently planned for the remainder of the 2017/18 municipal year;

(2)  consider including public transport and the tram to the work programme for a future Committee meeting.