Agenda, decisions and minutes

1.1   Apologies for absence were submitted on behalf of Cllrs Hercock, Coban Williams and  Hanson.

2.1  There were no declarations of interest. 

The  minutes of the meeting held on 3 June 2019 were approved as a correct record.

3.1  RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting held on 3 June 2019 were approved as a correct record.

Matters Arising

To note the annual performance report for the service.

4.1  Gerry McCarthy introduced the report setting out the annual performance report across the environmental enforcement remit for the 2018/19 financial year.  Mr McCarthy stated that the service had been split into the North and South Teams each headed by a Team Leader. Enforcement Officer interactions were usually for one–off offences and dealt with at the time of the offence. More complex and ingrained activity were passed to the relevant ward based Principal Officer and the teams worked very closely with the Intelligence Hub and other statutory services throughout the Council.

4.2  Mr McCarthy highlighted the work undertaken by the service against its wider outcomes as follows:

·  A-Boards There were high levels of compliance with the A-Board policy once businesses became aware of the Councils approach.  Transport for London (TFL) was responsible for the red route areas in the borough and uniformed officers periodically visited these areas and took enforcement action when required. The TFL A- Board policy mirrored the process currently in place at Hackney.

·  Unregulated Waste - The main objective of the unregulated waste programme had been to deliver positive behaviour change amongst residents and businesses.  The project had targeted the main roads with the highest volume of unregulated waste, such as the A10 (Kingsland Road through to Stamford Hill), Shoreditch, Stoke Newington High Street, Broadway Market and Chatsworth Road and it had been successful in reducing unregulated waste.  Targeted patrols were also being carried out and advisory leaflets had been issued to tackle this issue.  Failure to comply with any informal enforcement approach would result in a second visit followed by a warning letter and formal action as a final recourse. Officers were also undertaking visits with the Waste Operations team to minimise the impact of unregulated waste and two Waste Enforcement Officers were embedded in the Waste Operations service at Millfields Depot.

·  Seamless Public Realm -A number of enforcement actions had been carried out on estates across the borough including a number of advisory notices issued to offenders under the Environmental Protection Act 1990.

·  Service Managers were sharing intelligence through partnership tasking informing other services regarding protocols, best practice and the resources and support available in Hackney’s Night Time Economy (NTE) areas.

·  Legislative Considerations - The Regulators Code had aimed to improve the way regulations were delivered at front line level and to ensure the Council’s process for issuing Fixed Penalty Notices (FPNs) was transparent and any representations against a FPN.

·  Service Performance - Highway obstructions accounted for 45% of all external service requests followed by fly tipping at 27.9% and littering accounted for 6.29%.  A comparison between external and internal service requests received in 2018/19 highlighted that highway obstructions had received the highest request followed by fly tipping on public land.  The majority of requests were received by e-mail and the Council was continuing its work on automating the process for the highest volume requests such highway obstructions. Following the implementation of service improvements those issued with a FPN could now pay their fine  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

To note the contents of the report.

5.  The Chair introduced the bereavement leave update and the marginal increase in bereavement leave since the implementation of the Council’s policies in July 2018.  This increase had been expected and was reasonable bearing in mind the policy changes.

5.2  Cllr Fajana – Thomas sought clarification regarding the definition of ‘close relative’.  The Chair reminded Members that Mr Paul had advised at a previous meeting that each individual case would be considered.

RESOLVED to note the contents of the report.

6.1  Cllr Stops referred to the update on the work being done on policies for consultation on tables and chairs and terms and conditions for licence within the work programme and requested that Mr Cunningham, Daniel O’Sullivan and Ian Rae be invited to the next meeting to discuss enforcement of  removal of obstructions on the highway. 

7.1  There was no other urgent business.