Agenda item

To Follow.

The Chair referred to Item 9, the Quarter 2 Performance Report for Legal Governance and Democratic Services, which will be introduced by Cllr Harden.

Cllr Harden highlighted the impressive work behind the scenes carried out by the legal team; he said this was represented in the report on a number of cases they have been successfully involved.  Cllr Harden also highlighted the strenuous work being carried out by Members’ Services at this time of year regarding the update of annual canvass.  Cllr Harden advised he reported to Members at Full Council the non-requirement of returning forms with no change. He highlighted that that 17,000 forms were manually processed; that meant actually scanned by Officers, of which 11,000 have no change – he emphasised that was 11,000 forms coming back to the DBC that did not need to. 

The Chair asked if DBC was doing as much possible to encourage people to update their information or validate their information on line, because there are other places within Hertfordshire, where the interaction electronically is as much as 98%.  He said that DBC seemed to struggle with this.

Cllr Harden said that that he had asked whether the front page of the form could be adapted to highlight that if there was no change, there was no need to do anything, but there was a lot of information that has to be presented on that front page and unfortunately this could not be made any bolder.  Cllr Harden said he had asked J Doyle to look at the potential to try and adapt something via the Electoral Commission, however there were very clear regulations surrounding this matter. He said that if there were Local Authorities in Hertfordshire that were having a better success rate, it is likely that DBC was already in consultation with them.

The Chair asked J Doyle for further comment. J Doyle said that in respect of the returns and recording of residents on the Electoral Register, DBC was equivalent with all the authorities in Hertfordshire. He explained that the front page of the form is almost set in Statute; therefore DBC could not change it too much. J Doyle said that DBC had tried to use advertising campaigns, bus tickets, cinema tickets, till tickets. He said DBC had tried to encourage the target audience to enrol on the Electoral Register electronically.  J Doyle stated that there are other authorities in Hertfordshire experimenting with other ways of doing this and he had been in contact with them to share and learn lessons. DBC had also been in contact with the Electoral Commission to establish the extent of any possible changes to the form to encourage more electronic updates.  He said he and R Smyth had conversations regarding how DBC could integrate with other in house IT systems to try and increase the electronic registration element.

Cllr Collins said that for some generations, doing things electronically was an obvious thing to do, however she said that DBC had to recognise that much of its client base would not know what was meant by “doing it electronically”.  She said a certain level of sensitivity was required to help these people.  Cllr Collins expressed concern, saying that she had seen an DBC employee talking to a lady of nearly 90 years of age, saying “and then you press return” and the expression on the lady’s face showed that she did not understand what was meant. Cllr Collins said that she felt this individual had been bullied by a DBC employee.  Cllr Collins stated that DBC needed to recognise that the manual application of things would gradually phase out as people became more familiar with new technology. Cllr Collins said that DBC may need to accept that this may cost more in the short term. She emphasised the need to be kind.

The Chair said that as a public meeting, he needed to clarify something.  The Chair stated he was a little perturbed to hear Cllr Collins suggest that a member of the public was being bullied by a DBC employee. Cllr Collins stated that she withdrew the word “bullied”.  Cllr Collins said she did not consider the scene she was witnessing to be acceptable, but she re-iterated that she withdrew the expression “bullied”.

Cllr Tindall why the FOI target had been completely missed. M Brookes said that throughout the year, there were very few occasions where the target was missed.  He said the target is set deliberately high because it is a statutory target, therefore DBC tried to achieve 100% all the time, however, sometimes just due to the sheer volume of requests and the complexity of those requests, it could be difficult to meet them all.  M Brookes said that when judged throughout the year, DBC met the FOI requirements.

Cllr Silwal asked a question relating to page 51 of the agenda pack.  He asked for an explanation on how the Council addressed issues of begging, sleeping rough and such activities in the town centre.  The Chair referred the question to M Brookes.

M Brookes said there was an issue in the town centre with rough sleeping and begging at times.  M Brookes said this was dealt with on a case by case basis.  He said DBC had issued injunctions against individuals however there was tendency for them to move on and then come back; further steps may then be required.

Cllr Silwal asked if DBC used Community Protection Notices. M Brookes explained that a Community Protection Notice was aimed at a person, prohibiting them from carrying out particular activities in an area. He said that DBC were also considering Public Space Protection Orders for the town centre, which would potentially bring in wider controls as a whole; he said this was area specific, rather than individuals. M Brookes also added that the Community Protection Notices were part of the new legislation that came through to strengthen Anti-Social Behaviour laws. He stated it was very successful in managing to deal with specific anti-social behaviour issues, faster.

Cllr Taylor raised a question relating to Pages 57 and 58 of the agenda pack regarding Member Development.  He stated that he document incorrectly refers to ‘Trudi Costin’, who was now ‘Trudi Angel’; he said this raises the question of whether other parts were incorrect.  He said the document states “no data” in July, August and September, however he believed that this was because no sessions were held during this time. Cllr Taylor asked J Doyle to clarify this. 

J Doyle confirmed that during this time there were no Member Development sessions. J Doyle said that the target data may be inaccurate due to incorrect recording or input, however J Doyle assured the Members that they were on target, as was reported at the last Member Development Steering Group.  J Doyle said he ensure this is done for the next meeting. 

Action Point: J Doyle to send Members the data for the Member Development sessions.

Cllr Adeleke referred to pg 51, item 3, of the Agenda pack); regarding the number of successful prosecutions, in particular one relating to sub-letting a property. He said that when the Grenfell Tower tragedy occurred, one of the serious problems that Kensington & Chelsea Council faced was identifying tenants, as there was that there was a huge problem with sub-letting. He asked how widespread this issue was in the Borough, and if there were any enforcement programme in place to ensure that this kind of abuse is not rampant.

M Brookes said that he would come back to the Committee with as an answer to this, as this was not directly dealt with by Legal Services, but instead was a matter for the Estates Team who manage the properties.

Action point: M Brookes to provide the Committee with further details of DBC’s approach towards unlawful subletting of Council properties.

Cllr Adeleke noted that the maximum penalty for such a prosecution was only £5,000; if the sub-letter had accrued proceeds of £9,000, this meant that even if someone gets caught, they will still end up with profit. M Brookes explained that this was a maximum level set by the Court and the Council was bound by that. 

Cllr Tindall expressed concern about the increase of houses that were being divided and then let to multi users.  He stated there are a number of areas where there town houses had been sub-divided into up to five individual bed-sits, which then cause considerable problems.  He stated there is a fire risk, also parking and other risks and these tend to upset local residents.  Cllr Tindall asked if multi-use dwellings were also investigated as a breach, alongside sub-letting. 

Cllr Harden said he recalled that the Enforcement Team within Regulatory Services is responsible for ensuring the health and safety of residents within converted multiple occupancy premises.  He stated that these questions may have strayed into Housing territory.

The Chair said it was the duty of everybody, Members of the Council or members of the public that if they believe there is a property being illegally used in multiple occupations, in any form, Council or private, they should report to the Council.

The Chair referred to Page 52, item 8 of the agenda pack and noted that R Hill, Licensing Team Leader was moving to a new position. He asked what was happening with regard to the recruitment of this role, as it was an important one in addressing a number of issues. M Brookes confirmed that the role was currently being advertised.

The Chair asked if any other Committee Members had any further questions, none were asked.

Outcome: At the invitation of the Chairman, the Committee agreed the contents and recommendations of Legal Governance & Democratic Services report for Quarter two 2017/2018.