Agenda item

Councillor Mrs Vivienne Chapman referred Members to the elements of her brief as Community Portfolio Holder. She noted that the Council would continue to face a number of challenges in her areas of responsibility, notably around funding streams, the projected increase in the proportion of the community over 85 and most services being discretionary. She highlighted, in particular, the following:

Community Services – The Council was expanding a successful telecare package, including community alarms, pill dispensers, an extensive range of sensors and detectors including gas, CO2, fall and smoke alarms, plus GPS tracking and care calls for people with dementia. In addition, the Council ran a growing ‘meals at home’ service, 365 days a year and a well-used ‘Dial a Ride’ service, for which there were a number of plans for expansion.

The Windle Valley Day Centre was now providing day care, Monday to Friday, 8.30 a.m. to 4.30 p.m. with a combination of trained carers and volunteers, plus a hairdresser and foot health practitioner. A Saturday Club had now been opened for both people living with dementia and their carers.

Members were advised that, if they were aware of any residents who would benefit from a befriender service, they should contact the Operations Manager for Community Services.

Members highlighted concerns on the impact of future funding cuts. It was, however, noted that the Council was working with other councils and partner organisations to mitigate any impacts. The Executive Head of Community agreed to circulate details of funding streams for the period up to 2020.

Environmental Health – The Council had a team of 7 Environmental Officers covering a range of duties, including food safety, health and safety, air quality monitoring, statutory nuisance investigation and control, dog control and pest control, including an out of hours service. The Home Improvement Agency would be transferring to Regulatory Services, to have all functions under one service.

Recycling and Refuse – In 2014/15, the Council had recycled or composted 63% of municipal waste produced, making the Authority the top performing Council in Surrey and 4^th in the UK. In dry recyclables, the Council was the top performing Council in the UK. This area would be the subject of a report later in the agenda.

The Council was participating in a Joint Waste Contract, with Woking, Mole Valley, Elmbridge Borough Councils and Surrey County Council and was in an advanced stage of negotiations with 3 tenderers.

Traveller Sites – The Council currently managed 2 sites on behalf of Surrey County Council (SCC), but SCC would be taking back management in September 2016.

Members queried what contingency plans were in place for illegal incursions. The Executive Head of Community referred Members to the close work in this area between Environmental Heath Officers, the Council’s Legal Services Team and Surrey Police. The Executive Head of Regulatory Services outlined the measures in place for incursions onto Council Land. She emphasised, however, that the Council had no powers over private land.

Councillor Chris Pitt reported on the numbers of travellers based in Surrey, the unauthorised encampments and the unauthorised developments. He suggested asking the External Partnerships Select Committee to invite John Hockley, an SCC officer with responsibilities in this area, to make a presentation to a later meeting of that Committee.

Health and Safety – The Council had an officer from another Surrey Authority, for one day a week, to provide advice on Health and Safety responsibilities.

Street Cleansing – The cleansing service covered a range of tasks including street sweeping, cleansing of car parks, public toilets and recycling sites, debris removal, fly tipping, fly posting and small scale graffiti.

Fly tipping continued to be an issue for the Borough and the Council recently took on powers allowing fines of up to £400 to be awarded to perpetrators of small tips.

Health and Wellbeing – The Council had established a multi-agency Health and Wellbeing Board, which had launched a Workplace Health and Wellbeing Charter and had promoted public health messages, sought to reduce excess winter deaths, established a dementia befriending pilot and managed an exercise referral programme.

A Surrey Heath Dementia Partnership had been established and Surrey Heath was working towards being declared a Dementia Friendly Borough.

Licensing – The Licensing Team dealt with premises, personal, taxi, hackney cab and gambling licences, whilst the Environmental Health team covered licensing of areas such as street trading, riding establishments, pet shops, dog breeding, dog boarding and catteries.

Emergency Planning and Business Continuity – The Council had a number of responsibilities as a Category 1 responder under the Civil Contingencies Act 2004, including business continuity, updating and maintaining a flood plan and a Borough Emergency Planning package.

The Council had recently appointed a company called Applied Resilience to provide 25 hours per week emergency planning support.

Members noted a suggestion that there might be conflicting numbers on the Council’s web pages for the out of hour’s services. It was confirmed that the contact number was 01276 707100. The Council’s web site would be checked to ensure that only this number was displayed.

Resolved, that the presentation be noted.