Agenda item

Report from the Strategic Director for Regeneration and Environment. 

Recommendation:

1.    That Cabinet approves the designation of a new Public Spaces Protection Order in the Borough as detailed in Appendix 1, for a period of one year. 

Consideration was given to the report which detailed the proposals to redesignate the Borough-Wide Dog Fouling Public Spaces Protection Order. On 21st September, 2020, Cabinet had agreed to implement a new Dog Fouling Public Spaces Protection Order to come into effect from 1st October, 2020. Such an Order could only be in place for 3 years, meaning the Council had to consider whether to make a further Order.

A public and stakeholder consultation took place between 26th June, 2023, and 6th August, 2023. This took the form of an online public consultation via the Council’s website, and direct invitations to key statutory agencies, such as the Police and Community groups and RotherFed. Consultation on any proposed Order was a statutory requirement and, following a review of the level of feedback received, it was decided a further period of consultation should be delivered in order to increase responses. This also included additional face-to-face engagements and took place between 2nd-16th October, 2023.

Appendix 2 provided an overview of the Consultation responses. In total:

·       103 responses were received.

·       43% of respondents were in support, with 17% preferring not to say. This meant there was a majority of respondents in support of the proposed Order.

·       When asked if the proposed conditions were aligned to respondents priorities, 83% agreed.

·       Comments received suggested that dog fouling remained a key community concern.

·       Some responses alluded to issues with resourcing and visibility of officers enforcing the Order.

Following the review, it was recommended that the new Order be on the same terms as the previous Order which was to make it an offence for an individual to fail to remove dog faeces if they were in charge of the dog.

It was acknowledged that levels of enforcement were lower than desired, and this needed to be further considered as it could directly impact the effectiveness of any Order and any potential scope to increase the number of offences covered by the Order. As a result of low levels of enforcement across PSPO’s in general, officers would lead a review of the enforcement capacity and capability as it related to PSPO’s in order to inform future orders. In light of this, it could be appropriate to deliver a shorter duration PSPO to allow for enforcement to be reviewed and any further conditions to be properly considered.

Appendix 1 to the report was the draft final Order for the Borough-wide PSPO. Prior to the meeting, it was confirmed that the incorrect map had been included in Appendix 1 and did not show the correct location for the designation. The correct map was circulated during the meeting and Members made their decision based on this map which showed the designation as covering the whole Borough.

Resolved:-

1.    That Cabinet approves the designation of a new Public Spaces Protection Order in the Borough as detailed in Appendix 1 (as corrected during the meeting), for a period of one year.