Council and democracy
Home > Council and Democracy > Decision details
Decision Maker: Executive Councillor for Climate Action and Environment
Decision status: Recommendations Approved
Is Key decision?: Yes
Is subject to call in?: No
Proceed with new environmental initiatives, campaigns and recruitment.
Matter for
Decision
It was felt that
Streets and Open Spaces is overdue for a review which
would help performance and equip the service for the evolving future. Part of
this review will incorporate the new environmental priorities identified in the
Cambridge City Council Annual Statement, whereby the focus will be on
Education, Engagement and Enforcement.
In Refuse and
Environment there are also important changes identified within the Annual
Statement which include the reintroduction of the Pest Control Team and bulky
waste days.
Decision of Executive
Councillor for Environment, Waste and Public Health
i. Agreed to proceed with the recruitment of the Enforcement Officers and increase the Dog Warden role to a full time equivalent.
ii. Agreed to implement the changes and environmental priorities identified within the Annual Statement and this report.
iii. Agreed to request Officers to continue to investigate improved methods of Efficiency, Engagement, Education and Enforcement.
Reason for the Decision
As set out in the Officer’s report.
Any Alternative Options Considered and Rejected
Not applicable.
Scrutiny
Considerations
The Committee received a report from the Interim Head of Services, Streets and Open Spaces.
The Committee made the following comments in response to the report:
i. Welcomed the focus on education.
ii. Felt restorative justice was an interesting idea. The punitive focus was less favoured as this could have long term criminal record implications.
iii. Queried if people could volunteer to help clean up the city (as they do now), instead of only becoming involved as a result of enforcement action.
iv. Queried how the impact of environmental measures would be evaluated as there was no process in place to do so now (as a benchmark). Also asked what measures would be used. For example, how to measure if streets and open spaces were becoming cleaner.
v. Welcomed targeting services at key times when they were most needed.
vi. It was important to have a clean city in order to attract people to live, work and visit; this affected the economy.
In response to Members’ questions the Executive Councillor for
Environment, Waste and Public Health said the following:
i.
The new
initiatives would do more than just expand on previous ones.
ii.
The
Executive Councillor was looking at ways to improve the service, such as
amending Dog Warden patrol hours to focus on when people were most likely to be
outside exercising their pets. Services would set their operating hours for
best service provision.
iii.
The
timing of Enforcement Officer patrols was key to
getting the best impact. The Executive Councillor asked Councillors and
Officers to feed into the reporting process to evaluate the impact of services
so they could be targeted where needed.
iv.
A future
workshop is proposed to get officer input on how to make services more
efficient. Area Committee Chairs would also be consulted to get Councillor input.
v.
There
were ways of measuring the impact of services. Information would be monitored
and made available to Ward Councillors for use at Area Committees etc to decide how to target resources, hotspots for
enforcement etc.
vi.
Area
Committees would have the discretion to request when services would be made
available as part of ‘Ward Blitzes’.
vii.
Extra
service capacity would enable Officers to target resources where needed, such
as supporting recycling in areas of low take up.
viii.
Restorative
justice would enable people to undertake community work instead of paying fines
for offences. A range of powers would be available for Officers to use.
In response to Members’ questions the Interim Head of Services, Streets and Open Spaces plus the Senior Operations Manager said the
following:
i.
Officers
were working with Keep Britain Tidy to address issues such as dog fouling in
streets and open spaces.
ii.
An
experiment to reduce dog fouling by putting up posters (with pictures of eyes
and a caption saying “you are being watched”) had some success. This experiment
would be used at other locations across the city in future. This would be used
together with other tools such as Dog Warden patrols and dog fouling bins that
could be allocated to wards by Area Committees.
The Committee resolved by 5 votes to 0 to endorse the recommendations.
The Executive Councillor
approved the recommendations.
Conflicts of Interest Declared by the Executive Councillor
(and any Dispensations Granted)
No conflicts of interest
were declared by the Executive Councillor.
Publication date: 29/07/2014
Date of decision: 08/07/2014