Agenda and minutes

The Group to be notified of any substitute members.

The Group were informed that Councillor Howard was substituting for Councillor Bisnauthsing.

Members are asked to disclose any interests in matters for consideration at the meeting.

None disclosed.

(Enclosure)

The notes taken on 26th July 2012 were agreed as a correct record.

Report RCC05 by the Head of People, Projects and Performance.

(Enclosure)

The Chairman welcomed Beverly Agass, the Chief Executive to the meeting who presented the Head of People Projects and Performance’s report on consultation activities. 

She began by briefly referring to the forums that used to take place across the district. The format of these had tended to be formal and used to be attended by a small core of residents each time.  In order to try engage with more people on a less formal setting the Council were trialling different approaches. 

Drop in sessions had been held at various locations in the District earlier in the year and just recently they had been held as part of other activities that had been happening such as the Olympic Torch run through the District and community events. They had been themed on quality of life and service representatives had been on hand to advise residents on topics linked to this theme including healthy eating/healthy walks and healthy environment.    

More formal consultation activities had been held in connection with issues such as the Grantham Action Plan where display boards and Planning Policy Officers had been on hand to answer specific questions, the Wyndham Park survey where both face to face and web based sources had been used and analysed.  The Community Access Point and Wherry’s Lane projects at Bourne. Officers from both Assets and Finance Sections had attended to inform the public on the main proposals.

Consultation events and activities coming up were the Gravity Fields Festival and the promotion of Destination SK project.  The third phase of the southern quadrant consultation was being undertaken by Planning Policy and would involve drop in sessions at Grantham Library and Witham Place in November 2012.

Feedback to residents had been undertaken quickly with issues being resolved or questions answered in a shorter space of time.

The second edition of the Parish newsletter had been circulated, including an update on which Head of Section was the contact point for each Parish.  The Parishes had been split into five clusters with each one having 12 parishes and a Head of Section as a contact point for any issue that a Parish had.  It was hoped that this would help build a better understanding between the Council and Parishes.

Mrs Agass then spoke about other issues that were being looked into by the Consultation Team who had been asked to carry out a scoping exercise to determine what the corporate consultation requirements were for the Council as a whole.  This would include the drop in sessions and the community events that had been held during the year. Other areas being looked at were a citizen’s panel with a cross section of people both young and old who were engaged with issues including social media such as twitter, facebook etc.  It needed to be established what the Councils requirements were and how we can consistently improve, keep in touch with all residents, be accessible and open to new methods.

A comment was made about how many people we consulted,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 80.

The Service Manager, Legal and Democratic Services to update the Group.

The Service Manager Legal and Democratic Services, John Armstrong, informed the Group about changes which were due to be made under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (“the Act”), specifically concerning covert surveillance.  He highlighted how the powers under the act may currently be used to prevent or detect a crime or to prevent disorder.  The powers under the Act had been used by the Council where there had been incidents of anti social behaviour, where surveillance was specifically aimed at certain areas for the prevention and detection of crime.  The new legislation which was coming into force on 1st November 2012 altered the circumstances and the authority that was required to use the powers.  Firstly to use covert surveillance it must be demonstrated that the offence being committed was a crime that would result in a prison sentence of at least six months or, be an offence of selling, allowing to be sold or permitting the sale of alcohol to children or the selling of tobacco to children. This means that it can be used for the detection of prevention of a crime but use of the power was no longer permitted for the prevention of disorder.  The scope of the power was therefore reduced and with it the potential to use the covert surveillance power under the Act was reduced.  Secondly, whilst the Council’s authorising officer must in the first instance determine whether the use of the power was necessary and proportionate to achieve the aim it was seeking, the Council if satisfied at that stage must then make an application to the Magistrates Court.  The Council would need to satisfy the Magistrate that the use of the power was both necessary and proportionate and demonstrate that the crime was so serious that it was possible that a six month prison sentence was available.  This meant that perhaps in the future the public may view the council as being less effective but it would be a case of managing expectations with regard to the use of covert surveillance.  In any event it must not be forgotten that in many cases where the possibility of convert surveillance was being considered a more appropriate response to stop the activity that the Council was seeking to prevent was to be overt and put the public on notice that surveillance would be carried out to prevent a specific act.

He then spoke about the use of covert surveillance for checking that alcohol and tobacco was not being sold to children. This was carried out under the Licensing Act 2003 and it was usually Trading Standards who were the leading authority who carried out these operations.

Questions were then asked about CCTV to which the Service Manager Legal and Democratic Services replied.

The Chairman thanked Mr Armstrong for attending the meeting.

(Enclosure)

An updated copy of the draft programme was circulated to Members for noting.  Comments were made about the timing of some of the issues and the Democratic Officer said they were not set in stone and were amended according to progress on the issues. 

The meeting closed at 3.35pm.