Issue - meetings

The Committee received a report from the Community Engagement and Enforcement Manager.

The report outlined an overview of the council’s Streets and Open Spaces, Environmental Health and Shared Waste service activity in the Area Committee area over the past six months.

The Community Engagement and Enforcement Manager noted a typographical error on agenda P26 / P14 of the Officer’s report: Gresham Road, Bateman Street, Lammas Land were not in Trumpington (or the South Area) due to the recent boundary changes. Therefore figures in the report should be lower to omit these areas.

The Committee discussed the following issues:

      i.          Welcomed community payback schemes. Queried who to liaise with to set these up.

     ii.          An abandoned car in Cherry Hinton and how to report it.

   iii.          Church End garages left vehicles parked in local streets causing anti-social parking and perception of abandoned vehicle issues.

   iv.          Fly tipping across the South Area. There were hot spots in Trumpington. Suggested monitoring via CCTV.

    v.          Needle drops in Glebe Road.

   vi.          Lights were not working in parts of Glebe Road.

 vii.          Queried how to better promote environmental work such as community clean-up days as residents were unaware of them.

viii.          Queried if postcard sized information cards be produced for residents to give to neighbours to prompt maintenance action eg if vegetation overhung pathways.

   ix.          Overhanging branches onto public footpaths.

    x.          Poor maintenance of grass in Cherry Hinton.

In response to Members’ questions the Community Engagement and Enforcement Manager said the following:

      i.          Requested councillors and residents contacted officers listed at the back of the Environmental Report about issues.

     ii.          Had no redeployable CCTV cameras for flytipping at present.

Action Point: Community Engagement and Enforcement Manager to review if covert CCTV cameras could be purchased and used to take enforcement action against fly tipping etc, and review relevant legal issues as there were additional legal steps to take to  deploy covert cameras.

   iii.          Clean up days were promoted to residents by fliers. These were targeted at certain roads, not whole wards, as there was limited capacity to take away rubbish. Officers could liaise with Ward Councillors in future to ensure they were aware of issues/arrangements.

   iv.          All fly tipping events were logged by officers to build up intelligence about issues such as hot spots.

    v.          The County Council were responsible for maintenance of overhanging vegetation over public footpaths and highways. They had postcard sized information fliers and an online reporting tool.

   vi.          Welcomed intelligence from residents about fly tipping etc. Needed information as evidence as Officers were unable to take enforcement action based on hearsay.

Action Point: Community Engagement and Enforcement Manager to ask City Council Communications Team to consider issuing statement or similar around how to report overhanging vegetation / branches to the County Council.

 vii.          A Community Protection Notice was good for taking enforcement action against individuals, whereas Public Space Protection Orders  were better to protect (large) areas such as open spaces.