Agenda and minutes

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting held on 10 February 2020 be confirmed.

Councillor Vaughan referred to minute number 73 and asked when parking on grass services would be scheduled into the work programme?

The Democratic Services Officer confirmed that she would liaise with the relevant Officer and schedule into the work programme at a suitable time.

No declarations of interest were received.

Graham Rose, Strategic Senior Policy Officer

a.    presented an update of the progress of the Lincoln Social Responsibility Charter following the charter being in place for a period of 18 months.

b.    advised that the aim of the charter was to encourage organisations in Lincoln  to undertake socially responsible activities, above the statutory minimum, which benefited both their employees and the local community in which they were located.

c.    referred to paragraph 4 of the report and reminded members how the charter worked, highlighting the following:

·         The benefits to organisations

·         The specific criteria that organisations had to meet to be accredited

·         All accredited organisations received a certificate endorsed by the Mayor of Lincoln, together with an accreditation window sticker.

·         All signees received promotion via a range of routes from the Council which helped promote the organisation as a signee to the charter

·         To ensure all organisations continued to meet the criteria to retain the accreditation, on an annual basis they were required to complete a questionnaire.

d.    referred to Appendix A of the report and advised that 76 local organisations had gained accreditation to the charter which exceeded the target of 50 signees at this stage

e.    advised that the Lincoln Social Responsibility Forum was held twice each year, which was a great networking event for local organisations to attend and share best practise in relation to social responsibility. Due to COVID19 this year’s event had been cancelled but it was hoped that it would be continued on an annual basis from next year.

f.     advised that to support local charities and community groups during the COVID 19, organisations signed up to the charter were asked to contribute to the COVID 19 Crisis Fund of which a number of contributions were received demonstrating social responsibility

g.    advised that the City of Lincoln Council would continue to actively promote the charter and its signees, together with the benefits of undertaking socially responsible activities, with the aim to encourage more organisations to gain accreditation to the charter. The council would also continue to support Living Wage Week.

h.    advised that the City Council led by example by undertaking a range of socially responsible activities to support employees and the local community as detailed at Appendix B of the report.

i.      invited members questions and comments

Members referred to paragraph 4.7 of the report and asked how the City Council could be sure that organisations were undertaking the socially responsible activities that they had committed to?

Graham Rose, Strategic Senior Policy Officer responded that the process required businesses to be open and transparent and to provide as much detail as possible in their application. A sample check of the business could be done to ensure that they were doing what they said they would. The Council promoted the businesses as socially responsible so they would be reported if they were not fulfilling their role.

RESOLVED

1.                  that the progress with the Lincoln Social Responsibility Charter be noted

2.                  that Members be encouraged to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 77.

Simon Colburn, Assistant Director – Health and Environment Services

a.    presented a report to inform the committee of proposed changes to the City of Lincoln Council’s Trusted Landlord Scheme Document and review of the scheme

b.    gave the background to the Trusted Landlord Scheme as detailed at paragraph 2 of the report

c.    advised that as of June 2020, 81 applications had been received, of which 33 had been accepted, 26 rejected (either the landlord was not accredited or had failed to produce documents) The remaining 22 applications were either currently being processed or awaiting compliance visits.

d.    explained that there were currently 505 properties covered by the scheme, however, affiliated agents were included within the 33 Trusted Landlord Scheme members, as the reporting process did not allow a distinction between individual landlords and agents. The review of the scheme, the online application form and the supporting processes would seek to address this.

e.    advised that the 22 applications pending processing represented 346 properties. Therefore subject to acceptance on the scheme, the total number of properties covered by the scheme would be 851.

f.     advised that a target of 15% of the private rented stock had been set, however this had not been achieved and was currently 9%.

g.    explained that the target had not been achieved as the Trusted Landlord scheme had been suspended for several months in 2019/20 to focus resources on the mandatory licensing of Houses in Multiple Occupation,

h.    referred to paragraph 4.2 of the report and highlighted the benefits of the Trusted Landlord Scheme.

i.      referred to Appendix A of the report and summarised the main changes to the scheme:

·         Updated Privacy Notice for GDPR compliance

·         The inclusion of checks for Banning Order Offences, Civil Penalties and the Rogue Landlord Database to determine Fit and Proper Person Compliance

·         Recent inspections for other purposes would be taken into consideration when arranging compliance visits

·         Virtual inspections would be acceptable at the discretion of the City Council

·         Criteria set out of the circumstances where an application would be rejected.

·         A broadening of the compliance checks for affiliate Letting and Managing Agents

·         Amendments to the Terms and Conditions in respect of the above changes

Members asked how the virtual inspections worked and how could Officers be sure that the Landlord was showing the correct property?

Simon Colburn, Assistant Director – Health and Environment Services responded that the use of photographs and videos had proved to be an efficient way of starting off the process. They could be used at the discretion of Officers, for example to inspect a small change to a property where the Landlord was known to Officers and they were certain that the correct information was being provided.

RESOLVED that the proposed changes to the Trusted Landlord Scheme be supported and referred to Executive for approval.

Simon Colburn, Assistant Director – Health and Environment Services

a.    presented a report to:

                      i.        inform committee of a proposal to implement a Public Space Protection Order (PSPO) to provide additional tools and powers to reduce and  manage incidents of ASB and drug use within the Councils multi-storey carparks namely Lucy Tower, Lincoln Central and Broadgate.

                    ii.        inform the committee of the public and partner consultation responses received and to seek the views of the committee on the proposal.

b.    gave the background to the report and advised that the purpose of the proposed PSPO was to provide additional tools and powers to tackle ongoing and protracted ASB occurring on a regular basis within the multi-storey carparks.

c.    proposed that the PSPO be put in place for a maximum period of 3 years after which a full review would take place.

d.    advised that a significant number of complaints had been received relating to Anti-Social behaviour taking place in the multi-storey car parks and highlighted the number of reported incidents in each of the 3 multi storey car parks.

e.    advised that the Council had already taken positive steps to address the number of reported incidents including introducing CCTV which was assisting with deterrence and would assist in the enforcement aspect of the proposed PSPO.

f.     advised that a public and private consultation had taken place between Monday 23^rd September 2019 and Friday 8^th November 2019. As part of the consultation partners were approached directly to seek their views and any evidence they held in relation to the proposed PSPO.

g.    referred to paragraph 5 of the report and summarised the responses received from the consultation.

h.    referred to paragraph 6 of the report and highlighted the evidence including reported incidents, full details of the information provided from the internal incident reporting system provided by City of Lincoln Council Corporate Health and Safety Team were shown in Appendix C to the report.

i.      advised on the additional powers that the PSPO would provide as detailed at paragraph 8 of the report.

j.      referred to paragraph 9 of the report and advised how the PSPO would be implemented and enforced.

k.    advised on the impact of COVID 19 as detailed at paragraph 9 of the report and stated that there was a very clear requirement for the Councils buildings and property to be Covid secure and a need for the customers to be able to safely use the facilities provided.

l.      invited members questions and comments

Comment : Referred to paragraph 8.1 of the report and commented that he felt that this approach was sympathetic but also this process would make dealing with anti- social behaviour quicker and simpler.

Question: P3 was not supportive of the PSPO, had they provided any suggestions on how the issue could be dealt with better?

Response: P3 was reluctant to support the criminalisation of certain behaviours. However, the Council and Police were supportive of introducing powers which allowed for criminal action to be  ...  view the full minutes text for item 79.

The Chair of Policy Scrutiny Committee updated members of the business that had been discussed at the Health Scrutiny meetings held on 19^th February 2020, 17^th June 2020 and 22 July 2020, these were:

·         NHS post COVID19 Phase

·         A&E at Grantham

The link to the Health Scrutiny Committee agendas and minutes would be circulated to members following the meeting.

RESOLVED that the report be noted.

The Democratic Services Officer:

a.    presented the report ‘Policy Scrutiny Work Programme 2020-21 and Executive Work Programme Update’.

b.    presented the Executive Work Programme August 2020 – July 2020.

c.    requested councillors to submit what items they wished to scrutinise from the Executive Work Programme and policies of interest.

d.    invited members questions and comments.

RESOLVED that

1.     the Policy Scrutiny work programme be noted and updated to include a report on Parking on Grass Verges

2.    the Executive work programme be noted.