Agenda and minutes

There were no Declarations of Interest made at this meeting.

There were no questions from members of the public or the press.

Members of the Select Commission placed on record their appreciation of the services to this Council of the Director of Streetpride, Mr. David Burton, who would be retiring in the near future.  Members wished Mr. Burton a long and happy retirement.

Resolved:- (1) That the minutes of the previous meeting of the Improving Places Select Commission, held on 20^th January, 2016, be approved as a correct record for signature by the Chairman.

(2) That, with regard to Minute No. 38 (Rotherham Town Centre Masterplan), the draft Masterplan be reported to the next meeting of this Select Commission.

Further to Minute No. 39 of the meeting of the Improving Places Select Commission held on 20th January, 2016, consideration was given to a report, presented by Councillor A. Atkin (Chair of the Task and Finish Group), concerning the work of the Litter and Fly Tipping Task and Finish Group, which had now completed its review of the problem of the increase of litter and fly tipping within the Rotherham Borough area. The review was one of a number of reviews of service areas within Environment and Development Services, identified by the Commissioners and Elected Members as priority scrutiny reviews to take place during 2015/2016.

The report stated that the review had been undertaken against a background of annual revenue budget reductions for both street cleansing and enforcement duties and also the perception that enforcement was not necessarily effective in changing behaviour in respect of reducing littering and fly tipping.

Members considered the contents of the full report of this scrutiny review and its recommendations.

The Select Commission’s discussion of this item highlighted the following salient issues:-

: the proposal to establish an officer post of ‘Love My Streets’ Co-ordinator is now the subject of further consideration (after one unsuccessful attempt to fill the post); the post has an available budget and is to be considered further by the Chief Executive; the role of the post will be wide-ranging and will include the development of partnership working;

: there is scope for the further development of partnership working between the Borough Council and Parish Councils and the avoidance of duplication in dealing with the problem of litter; the possibility of Parish Councils employing their own litter wardens who would be trained in the role and authorised to issue fixed penalty notices to people who deliberately drop litter;

: the current review of enforcement by the Borough Council and the possibility of deploying more multi-skilled enforcement officers at street level; such a role was not considered to be appropriate for the Police Community Support Officers;

: the suggestion that elected members (either Borough or Parish) should be trained and authorised to issue fixed penalty notices would not be progressed;

: the street cleansing revenue budget for 2016/17 (which is subject to Borough Council approval on 2nd March, 2016) may essentially be the same as that for 2015/16, but may have a slight reduction;

: whether there is scope to reduce the fees charged to the licensed private sector housing landlords (ie: within the Council’s selective licensing areas) for the collection and disposal of bulky waste items; there was some evidence that fly tipping may increase whenever there are changes of tenants and furniture, materials, etc. have to be disposed of; a fee reduction may possibly serve to reduce the incidence of such fly tipping on these occasions; it was noted that there was currently no budget subsidy available, within the Council, to meet the cost of any such reduction in fees;

: the selective licensing (of private sector housing  ...  view the full minutes text for item 44.

Discussion took place on the draft work programme for the Improving Places Select Commission for the 2016/2017 Municipal Year. The following suggested topics were discussed:-

(a) a broad theme concerning the commercialisation of some of the Council’s services, including income generation (eg: business rates);

(b) a scrutiny review of RIDO (the Rotherham Investment and Development Office);

(c) Air Quality throughout the Rotherham Borough area;

(d) a cross-cutting review of the contribution of the scrutiny function to the achievement of the outcomes in the Council’s improvement plan;

(e) a cross-cutting review of the impact of service changes and budget reductions on specific Council services, highlighting the way in which services may operate in the future (eg: the youth service);

(f) the possible re-establishment of the Recycling Group (a working group of Elected Members considering the wider benefits of and encouraging increases in the recycling of waste materials).

Members acknowledged that the use of the Task and Finish Groups by this Select Commission, during 2015/16, had been successful and ought to continue.

Resolved:- That, taking into consideration the suggested topics now discussed, a further report on the 2016/2017 draft work programme be submitted to the next meeting of the Improving Places Select Commission.