Decision details

The Portfolio Holder for Public Protection and Enforcement made the following decisions with respect to the Out of Hours Noise Service:

  The Portfolio Holder agreed that ‘Option Two’ (as outlined in the report) should be run for a pilot period of 12 months with a view to being made permanent if successful.

  Option Two was the plan to change the service offer and rota as described in Appendix 2 and 3 of the report--for a trial period of 1 year.

  The Portfolio Holder agreed that a further report be brought back to Members in September 2022, detailing the impact of the changes, prior to confirming permanent implementation.

The Out of Hours Noise Service (OOHS) was staffed on a voluntary basis by competent Environmental Health or Technical Officers; the pool of available officers had declined, and the ability to provide the service was jeopardised.

The report presented a review of the OOHS, to determine the reason for the decline in available officers, and also presented a revised service that would hopefully encourage the take-up of the shift openings moving forward.

The benefits of the option agreed by the Portfolio Holder were that:

·  The metrics demonstrated that the proposed changes to the service start and finish times would not materially affect the majority of service users.

·  The new service offer would be beneficial to service users, as some barriers to service would be removed.

·  The rota was more attractive to officers, as the rates per shift had increased and they had time to return home and eat a meal, with more rest time between on call periods.

·  The option was within budget.

·  The changes would be set for a 1-year period; a review could be set at the 6 month mark to gauge whether changes needed to be made.

This recommendations within the report remained in line with the current Portfolio Plan for Public Protection and Enforcement, Building a Better Bromley and the Safer Bromley Partnership Strategy.