Agenda and minutes

We elected County Councillor B. Strong as Chair.

We appointed County Councillor R.J. Higginson as Vice-Chair.

There were no declarations of interest made by Members.

The minutes of the Licensing and Regulatory Committee dated 11^th April 2017 were confirmed and signed by the Chair.

We received the annual performance report for Public Protection services. The Public Protection division comprises of Environmental Health, Trading Standards and Animal Health and Licensing.

In doing so, Members were informed that Cabinet had approved a report in March 2014 recommending budget reductions to Public Protection services for 2014/15 and subsequent years. In January 2015 Cabinet had asked for Public Protection performance to be reviewed regularly to assess any negative impacts.

As a consequence, six monthly reports have been provided to Strong Communities Select Committee, together with annual reports to the Licensing and Regulatory Committee.

Performance over the twelve months of 2016/17 was identified and the following issues had been noted:

·         The four service teams, for the vast majority of the services they deliver, meet the Authority’s legal obligations in relation to Public Protection services.

·         There have been some notable successes in 2016/17, for example, improving food safety and animal feed compliance, supporting major developments (A465) and events such as the Eisteddfod and Abergavenny Food Festival.

·         Most proactive and reactive work is being undertaken professionally within prescribed response times. There are only a few exceptions, due

to increased demand, such as some slippage in housing and private water inspections, which will be improved for 2017/18.

·         Annual reports will continue to be made to this Committee to assess performance over time and help inform future priorities noting the competing demands.

·         Services might struggle to take on any new statutory duties that protect the public and the environment. Therefore, funding must be sought to support any new work. In addition, where work is onerous on officer time, funding will be pursued from major developers.

·         Future strategies for sustaining Public Protection services will be developed (to include further income generation and collaboration) locally, regionally and nationally.

Having considered the report, the following points were noted:

·         In response to a question raised regarding the potential for the Authority to make money by providing pest control, it was noted that some authorities in the past did employ pest control officers (PCO’s). The position in Monmouthshire County Council, however, was that these services were contracted out many years ago, therefore there are no former PCO’s to provide a private service on behalf of Monmouthshire County Council.

·         A Committee Member stated that a resident within his ward kept poultry which was attracting rats to the property.  He had reported this matter to Environmental Health.  It was noted that this matter would be investigated from an animal welfare perspective and also via a nuisance perspective.

·         In response to a question raised regarding abandoned vehicles, it was noted that these matters would be raised with Gwent Police with a view to expediting a solution.

·         With regard to an issue raised regarding dog fouling, it was noted that Usk Town Council had taken on the issue of addressing dog fouling in the town, which was proving to be successful.  Reliance on the community and the use of CCTV was a positive way of addressing this issue and a way of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

The next meeting will be held on 18^th July 2017 at 10.00am.