Agenda item

Councillor Charlotte Morley outlined the areas covered by her portfolio, focussing in particular on development control, drainage, land charges/technical support, planning & conservation, housing, private sector housing enforcement and Family Support.

Planning - Members welcomed the push within the Department to go paperless. It was noted that, in the future, it was intended that the majority of planning applications would be submitted electronically and speedily available on the Council’s web site.

In 2014/15, 115 planning applications had been refused. Of those, 23 had been appealed. The Council had been successful on 12 appeals, 6 were still to be determined and 5 appeals had been upheld, 3 of which had resulted from Member overturns of officer recommendations.

Planning Policy, the Arboricultural Officer and the Drainage Engineer had contributed to significant improvements/developments over the previous year. The drainage Engineer had been particularly successful in finding external grants to fund major and minor drainage projects across the Borough, as well as working with partner organisations to achieve notable reductions in incidences of flooding in the Borough.

In response to a Member’s concerns on block tree preservation orders over large geographical areas, dating from the time of the Urban District of Frimley and Camberley, Councillor Morley confirmed that there would be a focus on tree issues over the forthcoming municipal year

Housing – Councillor Morley reminded Members that the Council no longer held housing stock, this having been handed to the Accent Housing Group. There were also other housing associations operating within the Borough. However, the Council maintained the Housing Register and applied the criteria by which social housing would be offered/allocated.

Housing Officers had focussed heavily on working with people to prevent homelessness and encourage downsizing. This had resulted in significant savings to the Council. The need for bed and breakfast accommodation had also been severely curtailed. There was limited bed and breakfast stock available in the Borough and accommodation was typically sourced in Aldershot, Ash Vale and Slough. However, only 2 individuals were currently so housed and both had made themselves intentionally homeless.

The Council’s Housing Enforcement Officer worked to ensure safety and standards in rental accommodation and in particular in houses in multiple occupation.

The Committee noted, in response to a Member’s question, that a television report in respect of a homeless family in the Borough was inaccurate, but that it had not been possible for the Council to discuss some of the very complex difficulties faced by both the Council and the family in question. The family had been offered accommodation, despite not meeting certain key criteria, but had refused the offer.

Family Support – As part of the Government’s Troubled Families Scheme, Surrey County Council had sought District/Borough support to operate family support services, to make the service closer to, quicker and more responsive to the community. Surrey Heath and Runnymede Councils had jointly established a Family Support Team which dealt with families experiencing multiple problems/issues which involved multiple agency work.

A team is formed around the family where all relevant agencies will work together as one team to work with the whole family. Intensive support is offered with a family coordinator allocated to a family, working with each member of that family, to better understand the family dynamics and the hopes, aspirations and needs of each.

A key project aim was to reduce anti-social and criminal behaviour which, it was expected, would deliver indirect savings to other public bodies as a result.  Knowledge gained so far suggested that young people and adults engaged in anti-social behaviour and criminal activity typically had issues around self-esteem, anger and authority, but often did not meet the thresholds for either adult mental health or children’s mental health services.   

Members welcomed the improvements and new developments in services, highlighting in particular the much reduced use of bed and breakfast for homeless individuals/families, improvements in drainage/flooding incidences and the ground breaking work of the Family Support Team. In consideration of housing enforcement, the Committee noted that, whilst there was only one enforcement officer, significant increases in cases would be required to justify further resources.

            Resolved, that the report be noted.