Agenda item

ES 18046

The Enforcement Activity Update report was written by Joanne Stowell (Assistant Director for Public Protection).

The report had been drafted to advise Members of the enforcement activity under delegated powers that had been undertaken by the following divisions:

·  Public Protection Division

·  Planning Enforcement

·  Neighbourhood Management

·  Parking Enforcement

Members were being requested to note the report and to agree to receive reports every six months that would provide updates on the service areas identified in the report.

Mr Davies explained that the written report, backed by verbal updates from relevant officers was designed to pull together the various enforcement strands. Portfolios would need to be untangled and an overview provided to Members. Clarity was required concerning how the various strands should be scrutinised in the future.

Mr Toby Smith (Head of Street Enforcement) attended to provide a brief overview of his area of enforcement responsibilities—these included:

•  Abandoned vehicle removal

•  Investigation, enforcement and prosecution of all fly tipping incidents on public and private land

•  Issuing of FPN’s for Dog Fouling, littering and fly tipping on the Borough’s streets

•  Enforcement and removal of illegal Traveller incursions from all Bromley owned land and all 160 parks.

Mr Smith’s division did not deal with parking enforcement, but did manage the Ward Security contract.

Beverley Pharo (Customer and Communications Officer—Shared Parking Services) attended the meeting to brief the Committee with respect to parking enforcement.  The Committee was informed that a shared parking service had existed with LB Bexley since 2014. There were three primary areas of enforcement that the division focused on:

·  PCNs enforced under the Traffic Management Act 2004

·  Blue Badge Enforcement

·  Debt recovery enforcement using enforcement agents

The Chairman stated that it was his intention to scrutinise parking enforcement and wondered if there was a FPN (Fixed Penalty Notice) Strategy, especially with respect to parking near schools. The Vice-Chairman highlighted the problem of huge lorries waiting to unload outside of builders’ merchants, and asked if concerns around this could be passed on.

Mr David House (Neighbourhood Watch) queried if parking was being enforced after 6.30pm in Orpington High Street. He stated that after 6.30pm there seemed to be a lack of enforcement that was causing a problem for buses trying to drive through the High Street. 

Mr John Stephenson (Planning Enforcement Manager) explained that his section dealt with breaches of planning control. The section dealt with around 750 to 800 enquiries per year. They issued planning enforcement notices, and some of these would be appealed. Many issues could be resolved via negotiation and so it was just in approximately 10% of cases that full legal action may be required.

A Member expressed the view that in terms of enforcement, Planning was a complaints led service where people were not adhering to planning permission. She asked if the Planning Department could take a more pro-active stance. Mr Stephenson responded that Planning Enforcement was a small team that did not have the requisite resources to adopt a more pro-active approach.

At this point the Chairman expressed some concerns that he had in terms of possible overlaps in scrutiny with other committees such as Development Control and Environment PDS. Because of this, it was the Chairman’s intention to set up a Task and Finish Group to specifically identify the enforcement role of the PP&E PDS Committee. To this end he suggested adding a new recommendation to the report which was to set up a Task and Finish Group. This suggestion was endorsed by the Committee.

The Chairman asked if any of the Members present would like to sit on the Task and Finish Group. Councillors Alexa Michael and Kathy Bance expressed an interest in doing so.

RESOLVED that:

1) The report is noted

2) The Committee receive updates every six months on the service areas identified in the report

3) A Task and Finish Group be set up to identify the particular areas of enforcement responsibility that the Public Protection and Enforcement PDS Committee should focus on.   

4) The problem of huge lorries waiting to unload outside of builders’ merchants be highlighted to parking enforcement