Agenda item

(Copy herewith)

Councillor Nunn, as Leader of the Council, elaborated on his report and noted that in response to the public speaker, an ASBO Police Officer had been assigned to assist with issues relating to fly tipping and homelessness. In response to questions asked, Councillor Nunn commented that with regards to the proposed Unitary authority, a working party would share all views and noted the huge volume of work being carried out by the Chief Executive on the issue. He further noted that revisiting the 2 unitary structures with a borough Council was no longer feasible.

Councillor Larratt, submitted his Cabinet Member report and elaborated thereon noting that he would be happy to meet with the Northampton Gymnastics Club to discuss if the Council could assist the club and urged anyone interested to use their Councillor Empowerment fund to support them.  He further commented that there had been poor attendance at recent Councillor Training sessions and urged members to attend.

Councillor Hallam submitted his Cabinet Member report and elaborated thereon. He noted that the environmental services re-provision was in its fourth week of the new contract and noted that the contract was going well. In response to questions asked, Councillor Hallam explained that there had been a number of instances of broken glass on the pavements and explained that this could be attributed to the increase in footfall of some pubs during the football but hoped that there would be a quick response in clearing up any broken glass. Responding to further questions, it was noted that there was a need for a combination of a better service and enforcement to successfully reduce littering and fly tipping.

Councillor Hallam further noted that the new contractors could face penalties should they default on the contract and noted that there had been 2,200 reports on fly-tipping which was a 20% increase on last year and fines issued to offenders had increased 60 % on 2017 figures. It was suggested to Councillor Hallam that some of the work carried out by the Council should include investigating the reasons for fly-tipping and engaging with student and HIMO landlords to ensure compliance with rubbish removal. Councillor Hallam noted that plans need to be put in place to ensure that end of year students were responsible for the disposal of their rubbish. In response to further questions, Councillor Hallam commented that he would give consideration to the reviewing the costs of collection of unwanted items. He noted that since the new contractors had been appointed, 165 fly-tipped mattresses had been collected.

Councillor Hibbert submitted his Cabinet Member report and elaborated thereon. In response to questions asked, Councillor Hibbert explained that he was aware of a number of tents that had been erected around the Town and noted that the outreach team had been working extremely hard to engage with them and explained that a lot of work had gone into engaging with new homeless people, specifically young people, at an early stage.

At this juncture of the meeting, the Mayor advised that the time limited for Cabinet Member reports had been reached and no further Cabinet Member would elaborate on their reports.