Issue - meetings

The Community Safety Manager presented the Enforcement Outcome Monitoring Report for 1st October to 31st December 2012 and informed Members that where enforcement action had been taken it was usually due to either public reports of offences or there was intelligence available which provided an opportunity to take further action if the perpetrator had been identified.   The Community Safety Manager provided details of the different types of environmental crimes committed and informed Members that enforcement could be carried out at any level at the officers’ discretion and that it was not an incremental process.

Members discussed the following areas in detail:

• The particular circumstances of the 2 duty of care cases which had been investigated and fixed penalty notices which had been issued.
• Graffiti – Members complimented officers on the speed at which this was removed in many cases.  Officers provided detailed information on the circumstances when this was more difficult, for example when the graffiti was on private land and the work of the cleansing team.
• The role and powers of the Community Safety Officers
• Car parking and a recent issue in respect of a private car park within the district.
• The Regulations in respect of un-adopted roads.
• Officers encouraged Members to report any incidents or “hot spot areas” in order that action could be taken quickly.

Members discussed the issue of dog fouling in detail and were concerned that this was a huge problem in certain areas throughout the district.  Officers provided a full explanation in respect of the difficulty in taking action unless the incident had actually been witnessed and the importance of Members reporting such issues to officers.  This problem was being tackled from an education point of view and there had recently been a specific campaign “mucky pup” aimed at dog fouling.  Members requested information on whether the success of this campaign could be equated against the costs.  The Environmental Services Manager confirmed that this would be difficult as the aim of the campaign was to change people’s behaviours, however consideration would be given to how this could be done and further information provide if available.