Agenda and draft minutes

To confirm the minutes from the previous meeting

The minutes of the Housing and Community OSC meeting on Wednesday 8^th December 2015 were agreed by Members and signed by the Chair.

To receive any apologies for absence

No Apologies were received. The Chair has kindly asked that if Members are unable to attend could they please send their apologies.

To receive any declarations of interest

A member with a disclosable pecuniary interest or a personal interest in a matter who attends a meeting of the authority at which the matter is considered -

(i)            must disclose the interest at the start of the meeting or when the interest becomes apparent

and, if the interest is a disclosable pecuniary interest, or a personal interest which is also prejudicial

(ii)           may not participate in any discussion or vote on the matter (and must withdraw to the public seating area) unless they have been granted a dispensation.

A member who discloses at a meeting a disclosable pecuniary interest which is not registered in the Members’ Register of Interests, or is not the subject of a pending notification, must notify the Monitoring Officer of the interest within 28 days of the disclosure.

Disclosable pecuniary interests, personal and prejudicial interests are defined in Part 2 of the Code of Conduct For Members

[If a member is in any doubt as to whether they have an interest which should be declared they should seek the advice of the Monitoring Officer before the start of the meeting]

There was no declaration of interest.

An opportunity for members of the public to make statements or ask questions in accordance with the rules as to public participation

There was no public participation.

None

OS/24/16                     CCTV CODE OF PRACTICE

J Still introduced the report and explained the new approach to CCTV.

J Guiton followed on from that explaining the legislation and the use for a surveillance camera commissioner and the code of practice which requires the Council to publish its own Code of Practice on the use of its CCTV systems to enable it to comply with the 12 guiding principles.

J Guiton explained that this is only a starting point and there is more to follow on in the long run.

J Guiton was happy to take questions on the report.

P Hearn referred to pages 17/18 on locations. There is no CCTV covering the Community Centre in Tring and they are keen to have one.

J Still said that they have been looking at this as it has become a problem area; this has been passed on to Adriana Livingstone in Estates. The code will need to be applied to see if there is a need to have CCTV. Shopping Centres normally manage their own CCTV; we don’t have a budget to have CCTV so the code will need to be applied.

P Hearn asked what the rough cost is for CCTV.

J Guiton said around ten thousand to install a CCTV camera.

P Hearn informed J Guiton that the Town Council has a small fund and is willing to help towards the maintenance cost if need be.

Cllr Harden arrived at 19:40

B Mclean asked when Villages are likely to get CCTV as he is aware that some Villages have minor drug problems as people are moving towards the Villages from Watford as they know there is no CCTV. Is there a criteria to look at?

J Guiton said yes that’s what the policy is for, it comes down to funding issues then CCTV has to be justified. Each year the CCTV has to be justified we cant just have a CCTV temporarily there has to be an on-going need for it.

B Mclean will gather data/evidence to put forward.

J Banks asked why the Grovehill CCTV isn’t used for anti-social behaviour or fly tipping.

J Guiton said the Enforcement Team deal with this, anything caught on CCTV is reported. The cameras are for public safety.

W Wyatt-Lowe asked if it was true that CCTV needs lighting and what happens when all the street lights are turned off and how many trained staff do you have.

J Guiton said the lighting does affect CCTV, where there are cameras there are lighting, these lights are left on. There are 8 full time staff and they have standby staff.

The Chairman said that you refer to appendix B&C but these are missing.

J Guiton said thats because it’s a public document they can’t have public knowing exactly where they are but are happy for Members to see the list.

It was agreed by Members that it doesn’t need to be added into the report.

The Chairman referred to page 22 offering services,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 66.

L Carman introduced herself and her background and what the Tenancy Sustainment Team have achieved over the last year and how many cases they have dealt with and the reasons why the Team was implemented and how the Team was made up and the background of all the staff.

Feedbacks from tenants are included in the report so you can see how satisfied people are with the works that we do.

L Carman was happy to take questions on the report.

M Griffiths added that she was very keen about this and is pleased with the work that is going on and the holistic approach they have.

W Wyatt-Lowe asked how many people were in the team and what the work load was like and how staffs approach to not building a personal relationship with tenants.

L Carman explained that staffs are well trained and they meet regularly and discuss work load and issues staffs may have, and although staff have relationships with tenants it’s not personal and if they felt this was happening other members of the Team would do home visits etc to remain professional so a personal relationship wasn’t build, Staff understand the boundaries. There are 4 Officers and 1 Surveyor and 1 Lead Officer.

W Wyatt-Lowe asked if they use external people.

L Carman said yes we use people like Social Services, Citizens Advice, Thriving Families and many more.

B Mclean referred to page 42 – 6.4, are you working on a series of KPI’s that can come to the committee?

L Carman said that there are currently 4 KIP’s and they are looking at social returns and trying to make it more accurate. There is a new system starting in April which they hope will help with internal reporting. This is done on a monthly and quarterly basis and she’s happy to pass this information to Elliott Brooks to be included in the quarterly returns.

The Chairman said that he can see case studies in the report about how happy people are, what about negative people?

L Carman said there are some difficult people and they do get challenges and positivity’s from it.

The Chairman asked how well staffs were trained.

L Carman explained that staffs are well trained and training needs are picked up regularly from case reviews and meeting, Herts County Council provide a lot of free training which our staff regularly undertake.

The Chairman asked if there is funding for deprived and poverty.

L Carman said that there are companies out there that can help these Tenants.

The Chairman asked how the concern card works.

L Carman said contractors use them and find it very useful; they fill it out it then goes through a process and then gets acted on.

I Imarni asked if there is a list of triggers and was care leavers one of the triggers.

L Carman said it just depends on the person but yes they have a list and care leavers are one of our high  ...  view the full minutes text for item 67.

J Hedger brought to the committee a 6 monthly update.

·         Able House has just been completed

·         Woodhouse went to Cabinet before Christmas and was approved.

·         The ground floor for Maylands has extra planning to support the scheme opposite, this is going to Cabinet in Feb.

·         Apsley is due to finish in April.

·         Tring, the walls went up after Christmas and are due to be completed in August.

·         Stationers place is causing difficulty and now has a slight change of plans.

·         Martindale is out for public consultation in the next 8 weeks which has 66 units and half are going on the open market.

·         Swingate Lane is due to go out to tender hopefully by the end of March.

J Hedger was happy to take questions from Members.

W Wyatt-Lowe said is there no access out of London Road going right.

J Hedger confirmed that was correct.

The Chairman refereed to page 46 – 3.3 the new government home ownership.

J Hedger said at the moment they have no details yet, all they know is it’s for first time buyers under the age of 40 with a 20% discount off market value. The cost will be capped at £250.000

J Hedger will send the plans out.

The Chairman asked if there were penalties if the developers were to start late like the Old Town.

J Hedger said yes they implement it if schemes are delayed.

Action:  None.

Outcome: J Hedger to send Martindale plans to Members.

To consider passing a resolution in the following terms: That, under s.100A (4) of the Local Government Act 1972 Schedule 12A Part 1, as amended by the Local Government (Access to Information) (Variation) Order 2006, the public be excluded during the items in Part II of the Agenda for this meeting, because it is likely, in view of the nature of the business to be transacted, that if members of the public were present during these items there would be disclosure to them of exempt information relating to:

Agreed

Agreed

Cllr Link and Mclean gave their apologies for the next OSC.