Agenda item

The Strategic Lead Housing, Health and Environment and the Service Lead Environmental Health and Car Parks presented the service’s 2022-23 service plan, highlighting the following points:

·        There was a continuing focus for the foreseeable future on supporting businesses and assisting with some community groups including food banks;

·        There was an ongoing focus on environmental protection and ensuring that restaurants comply with hygiene standards;

·        A number of objectives were in place relating to private sector housing, including activities to bring empty homes into use, and securing the safety of private sector tenants by ensuring that private sector housing meets minimum standards;

·        There were risks and challenges arising from resource pressures and the recruitment and retention of staff.  It was noted that with existing resources the team were barely managing to deal with:

o   Antisocial behaviour, of which they had seen an increase;

o   Emergency planning and business continuity;

o   Tackling modern slavery and violent crime;

o   Weather and flooding events;

o   Irresponsible dog ownership including dogs not under control, and dog fouling;

·        There was a raft of new legislation concerning animal welfare and the team did not currently have the resource to properly address this.

The Portfolio Holder for Climate Action and Emergencies commented on the work of the Climate Change Officer who had been in role for 6 months, sharing that she had produced two films to support residents in reducing their energy use and about food waste reduction.  A further aim had been to reduce in-house carbon emissions, and it was hoped that the use of company cars would facilitate this.

Discussion included:

·        Thanks were noted to officers for their hard work;

·        Support was expressed for any measures to deal with irresponsible dog ownership;

·        It was raised that people used bathing waters in all seasons and it was necessary to protect them by ensuring water quality throughout the year;

·        In response to a member’s question, the Service Lead Environmental Health and Car Parks stated that dealing with vacant properties was a work in progress for the team and he would be happy to discuss further how this area of work could be developed;

·        Concern was raised that in the event of fire at electric car charging points in car parks, foam and water could not be used due to the acid in the car batteries. A question was asked whether the Council needed to supply fire equipment in car parks for this eventuality or if there was an update from the fire service.  The Service Lead Environmental Health and Car Parks was unaware of the matter as a specific risk and stated that he would make enquiries into it;

·        Concern was expressed about the impact from charging residents more whilst they potentially experience a decline in the standard of services, and comment was made that any additional revenue from raising car parking charges should be directed into supporting services.

Recommended to Cabinet by the Overview and Scrutiny Committees that the Service Plan 2022-23 for the Environmental Health and Car Park service be adopted.