Agenda item

The Portfolio Holder took the opportunity to express her thanks to various officers and departments for the work that had been undertaken during an unprecedented time in the country’s history. 

The Portfolio Holder expressed her thanks to Rob Vale and the Trading Standards and the Food Safety Teams. There had been a plethora of new legal regulations for businesses during the pandemic that had to be interpreted and enforced across the borough. It had been an immense task to interpret and enforce rules that were constantly changing. Additional work had been required to check on thousands of businesses and in replying with advice to many  requests for clarification and following up reports from the public reporting non-compliance.

The Trading Standards Team had also been informing the public about the many new scams that had arisen related to the pandemic, and had also been required to deal with a significant increase in new food business registrations for home bakers and small catering set ups--many of whom seemed worryingly unaware of the food regulations that were required.

Thanks was also expressed to Tony Baldock and his Community Safety,

Environmental Health and Licensing teams. Again, these teams had been

working around the clock, enforcing the new licensing rules, particularly to

pubs, working in partnership with the Police Licensing Team to ensure rules

were being followed. They had also been required to manage (with the police), issues of ASB that had resulted from people taking drinks into public spaces when they weren't physically allowed in the pubs. Mr Baldock had also been overseeing the review of the Public Space Protection Orders which was part of the evening's agenda. This had been a mammoth task and the Portfolio Holder was pleased that new improved controls would be in place in time for Spring next year.

The Portfolio Holder expressed her thanks to  Amanda Mumford who had taken over running the Community Impact Days, and these had continued over the last few months. Although tweaks had to be introduced to account for the social distancing rules, the Impact Days had got bigger and better than before and the feedback from all involved and residents had been very positive.

Thanks were also expressed for the work undertaken by Toby Smith and his Enforcement Team. Although ‘Traveller’ incursions had reduced compared to previous years, the Council had experienced difficulties in the Cray area with quad bikers and off-road motorbikes. The Star Lane raid had helped with the quad bikes (as some were seized and the message was successfully sent out that they would not be tolerated), but the problem of motorbikes remained. To this end, and to also tackle the increased levels of fly-tipping, Mr Smith had been very busy arranging for all kinds of railings, posts, concrete blocks and obstacles to be put in place to hinder their access to Council land, and he had also been working well with local farm owners to do the same, and had also been working with police to undertake targeted operations and patrols.

The Vice Chairman thanked Mr Smith and his team for the excellent work that they had been undertaking in Cray Valley East.

The Portfolio Holder expressed her thanks to John Stephenson and the Planning Enforcement Team. They had been hindered by not being able to access properties and delays with court cases. Mr Stephenson had experienced a testing time, managing multiple staffing changes, including having two of his most experienced officers retire, and training new starters remotely which was not ideal.

The Portfolio Holder expressed her thanks to Chloe Wenbourne and the Parking Enforcement Team. Parking enforcement had reduced due to there being less cars on the road, but Ms Wenbourne had been working with the Council’s contractor to explore new initiatives, and had overseen the new ANPR parking system at the Civic Centre car park which was now fully operational and working well. An application had also been sent to London Councils to start the enforcement of Moving Traffic Contraventions. Officers had highlighted 12 locations (11 box junctions and one banned turn) where camera enforcement would help to ease traffic flow and stop congestion. The team had also processed over 2000 key worker parking permits to NHS workers and volunteers who were carrying out crucial work during the pandemic. 

The Portfolio Holder expressed her thanks to Steve Wood (Committee Secretary) for keeping everyone informed and up to date, and also to Andrew Rogers (Communications Executive) who had been outstanding at communicating the Council’s many key safety messages to residents during this time.

The Portfolio Holder expressed her thanks to all of the Council’s partners, in particular the Police, Ambulance Service and the Fire Brigade, who everyone had stood outside their houses for, and applauded them for their extraordinary work. 

Finally, the Portfolio Holder expressed her thanks to Joanne Stowell for overseeing the whole process and the work of the various public protection departments of the Council. The Portfolio Holder described Ms Stowell as ‘an absolute rock’ during this incredibly demanding time.

Ms Stowell had to cope with receiving numerous emails daily from the Portfolio Holder and the Leader asking her questions about the Council’s COVID response, but she had always answered them fully and within mere minutes of the questions being asked. 

Lucy West (Senior Performance Officer) attended the meeting to provide the performance overview update and to answer any questions.

The Chairman asked Ms West to concentrate on the indicators detailed on the report that were rag rated as red. It was noted that the performance overview contained six months of data from the start of the year. The first issue that was discussed was item 2a, this was awareness of raising events and training to groups and partners, along with test purchase operations to detect the sale of age restricted products. These actions had been unable to be completed because of restrictions imposed by the pandemic. The Committee was pleased to note that some events had been completed successfully online using Zoom.

The Chairman commented that shops were now open and so LBB should be able to undertake test purchasing. The Chairman asked for an explanation concerning issues that had been identified with the Windows 10 laptops. Ms West explained that there had been some issues regarding the rollout of the laptops and the system used by the Public Protection Team which was ‘Uniform’, and this had caused some delays in reporting. Improvements were expected concerning this going forward. 

The next indictor that was discussed was the matter of issuing licences to HMOs. Again, there had been a delay in processing the applications because of the pandemic. It was felt that the backlog was not significant. It was anticipated that all outstanding licences would be issued by the end of the financial year.

RESOLVED that the Portfolio Holder update and the update on the Portfolio Plan be noted.