Agenda and draft minutes

The minutes of the previous meeting held on 5 February 2026 were agreed and signed as a true record.

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The Economic Development Manager presented this report which gave an overview of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) funded activity for 2024/25 and the key recommendations emerging from the Year 3 evaluation work.

Discussion and clarification included the following points:

·         Members thanked officers for their work with the UKSPF funded activities and were disappointed that local growth funding was ending in East Devon from 2026/27;

·         There had been a focus on using the funding to help disadvantaged groups; for example, ensuring a good leisure offer for young adults with busy working lives and parenting responsibilities;

·         Organisations which received grant funding to decarbonise were provided with professional support and advice to carry out carbon assessments before and after the decarbonisation initiative, to accurately measure the savings in carbon emissions;

·         EDDC passed funding through to Devon County Council to set up employment hubs but records were not available for the numbers of people sustaining employment, as there was no funding beyond year 1 to measure this. 

The Scrutiny Committee i) noted the progress made on the actions identified in the January 2025 UKSPF Evaluation Report and; ii) noted the UKSPF evaluation undertaken for the 2024/25 financial year along with the challenges identified and recommendation for future project management process.

The Assistant Director – Environmental Health presented this report which outlined the activity of the East & Mid Devon Community Safety Partnership during 2025 and related community safety activity within East Devon District Council.

Discussion and clarification included the following points:

·         In a correction to the reported figures, it was clarified that 45 Community Protection Warnings (CPWs) were issued during 2025/26;

·         CPWs formed part of the enforcement powers to deal with antisocial behaviour and whilst they carried no legal weighting on their own, they were a necessary part of the escalation process prior to issuing a Community Protection Notice (CPN);

·         The aforementioned enforcement powers were a relatively new area of work for the council and there had been challenges and ongoing learnings for officers, particularly around the wording of notices and a need to explore alternative means of dispute resolution;

·         Members would like to see data presented in graph form, in order to identify the trajectory, and trends;

·         Street marshals as part of the Hotspot Policing project had been well received in Exmouth and officers were considering how the service could continue going forward given that funding from The Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner had reduced significantly from £30,769 for 2025/26 to approximately £9,000 for 2026/27;

·         The Community Safety Partnership recognised that in addition to dealing with antisocial behaviour, it was necessary to explore preventative measures and improved provision of youth services.  The Assistant Director indicated there was potential for interventions through a public health approach, and outlined examples of collaboration with Exmouth Community College and officers at Devon County Council;

·         Examples were offered of how some towns had intervened to engage children and young people in clubs, sports and activities;

·         The district’s six Community Safety Groups were now operating with a mix of District and Town Council organised meetings.  They were a forum for local communities to discuss antisocial behaviour problems in their area at an early stage and to understand relevant work being done in their locality.

The Scrutiny Committee noted the activity that had been taken with regards to Community Safety Activity for 2025.

The Committee considered a scoping report concerning planning enforcement.

Following discussion at length, Members agreed that instead of a formal report to the Scrutiny Committee, the Assistant Director – Planning Strategy and Development Management would:

1.    Deliver a presentation in a Councillor briefing, and separately to Town and Parish Councils, outlining how the enforcement process works and setting out some high level statistics; and

2.    Prepare an article for the Councillors’ Newsletter outlining how the enforcement process works and with a hyperlink to the published Enforcement Plan.

This would serve the purpose of educating Councillors who in turn could explain to concerned residents how the planning enforcement process worked and why there were limitations.

The committee considered and agreed the work programme.