Agenda item

Angela Bartlett, Secretary, WASPRA, addressed the Scrutiny Committee.  Ms Bartlett commented that in her opinion she felt that some of the completion actions from the Action Plan were not completed. She referred to two key issues being some of the town centre, Kettering Road, some back streets and the lift in St Michael’s car park. Ms Bartlett had forwarded photographs to the Leader of the Council.  She went on to refer to the road that she lived in and the concern of rubbish on the grass verges and the problem with certain doorways. Ms Bartlett advised that she would be lobbying MPs and Leaders regarding this.  Ms Bartlett felt that actions 9 and 19 were key in the Action Plan. Ms Bartlett commented about fly-tipping and the need for a detailed, long term Action Plan. The Committee was referred to the state of some alleyways, the gathering of leaves in some kerbs and pavements and littering.

Mr Tom Appleyard addressed the Scrutiny Committee.  He asked the Committee to imagine being an American Tourist and arriving at Northampton via Junction 15 of the MI. They would be greeted by broken bottles, littering and a number of other unsightly things.    Mr Appleyard went on to speak about the Grosvenor Centre, and accessing it onto Abington Street. There are a number of dropped cigarette butts, chewing gum and in his opinion dirty shop fronts.  He referred to the Committee to a number of dirty alleyways in the town centre.  Mr Appleyard spoke about the number of Fixed Penalty Notices for littering that had been issued.  In 2011 there had been 207, in 2014, 206.  A number had not been paid.  Mr Appleyard, felt that the same area was cleaned time after time at a cost of £400,000.  He commented that, in his opinion, people were under the impression that they could get away with littering and that this Action Plan would make no difference.  He went on to comment on swans and cygnets that were dying in parks.    Mr Appleyard suggested the need for coordination of the Action Plan.

Ms Bartlett and Mr Appleyard were thanked for their addresses.

Councillor Mike Hallam, Cabinet Member for Environmental Services, Ruth Austen, Environmental Health and Licensing Manager and Sharon Henley, Northants Police, presented the Action Plan to the Committee.

Councillor Mike Hallam reported:

·         An eight month trial of a private company had taken place. The Company had been charged with issuing and dealing with Fixed Penalty Notices.   Over the past eight months, 1,500 fixed penalty notices had been issued.  A meeting was scheduled regarding the way forward.

·         The Committee was referred to an incident of flytipping in Weedon Road. This had been picked up, first thing on the Monday morning and evidence found in the bags.  A Section 46 notice had been issued.

·         Junction 15 is the responsibility of the Highways Agency and Officers of NBC would liaise with them.

·         Morrison’s had now re-introduced “return the trolley for £1”

·         Community clean ups work very well.

·         Technology is being utilised more, for example, body cameras

Councillor Jamie Lane, Chair, advised the meeting that the report:  Keep Northampton Tidy had been completed in 2015 and this action plan was a monitoring document of the accepted recommendations contained within the report.  The Chair congratulated the Cabinet Member and officers on the production of the Action Plan

The Committee asked questions, made comment and heard:

·         An issue with the report it app. when reporting leaves was brought to the attention of the Cabinet Member

·         Most reports do come in via mobile ICT devices.

·         The value of Councillors accompanying Environmental Services Wardens on walkabouts was highlighted.  It was confirmed that such walkabouts still take place and the number of Wardens has not decreased.

·         Concerns were raised regarding abandoned trollies in the Eastern district; Officers undertook to liaise with Tesco’s.

·         In response to a query regarding flyposting, Ruth Austen advised that a range of tools are used to deal with this effectively.

·         The Committee heard that litter picking and clearing fly tipping does take up a lot of the budget

The Chair suggested that further monitoring takes place at the September 2017 meeting of the Committee.

AGREED:  That further monitoring takes place at the September 2017 meeting of the Committee.