Agenda item

To approve the recruitment of an Environmental Warden subject to ensuring cost neutrality over the proposed three year appointment and a satisfactory partnership agreement and to delegate responsibility to negotiate a partnership agreement with the Parish and Town Councils wishing to participate.   

1.      That the recruitment of an Environmental Warden be APPROVED subject to it being cost neutral over the proposed three year appointment and a satisfactory partnership agreement being entered into.

2.      That responsibility be delegated to the Head of Community Services, in consultation with the Lead Member for Clean and Green, to negotiate a partnership agreement with those Parish and Town Councils wishing to participate with that agreement including Terms of Reference.

64.1           The report of the Interim Head of Community Services, circulated at Pages No. 127-155, considered the involvement of the Council in proposing and leading on the formation of a partnership between the Borough and Town and Parish Councils to recruit an Environmental Warden for a three year period to help reduce incidences of dog fouling and related environmental issues. Members were asked to approve the recruitment of an Environmental Warden over a three year period, subject to cost neutrality and a satisfactory partnership agreement.

64.2           Members were advised that, in essence, the Council was looking at forming a partnership with the Parish and Town Councils. The offer from Tewkesbury Borough would be the line management of the Officer(s) undertaking the role of the Environmental Warden over and above the duties currently carried out by the Council. Feedback had been received from nearly all of the Borough’s Parish and Town Councils with 11 having shown an interest; 29 who did not wish to participate; seven who were still considering the matter; and three from which no response had been received – those three were all Parish Meetings so it was likely that they would not want to participate. The next step would be to create a formal partnership with the Parishes that wanted to be involved so a meeting would be set up early in December; the Warden would then be recruited in the New Year to commence their duties in the new financial year.

64.3           During the discussion which ensued, Members asked a number of questions relating to the powers available to local Councils in respect of the Environmental Warden; what the Warden could do to tackle someone that they saw dropping litter, letting their dog foul etc.; how many fixed penalty notices the Council had issued to date, how much a fixed penalty was and how they were paid; what the duties of the Warden would be; whether a Parish Council that did not sign up to the Scheme initially could enter the agreement at a later date; whether different Parishes could sign up on the basis of precept and/ or population or whether all had to sign up on the same basis; who would pay for the Personal Protective Equipment (PPE); whether a part-time Warden would be sufficient to meet the needs of Parishes; who would pay insurance costs for the post; and how monitoring would be undertaken to ensure Parishes were receiving the services that they paid for.

64.4           In response to the queries raised, the Environmental Health Manager explained that local Councils had a general duty to carry out activities and spend money in this area; the Borough Council had a corporate enforcement policy in place which he would pass on to any Members that so wished. In terms of fixed penalty notices, none had been issued in the last 12 months but in the last two years, two notices had been issued; the fine was usually up to £100 and in both instances the money had been collected. The Council also regularly wrote to dog owners who were suspected of allowing their dogs to foul and this would continue with input from the Warden about what they had seen whilst out in the Borough. The payment of fines was usually done via an invoice; in terms of any action taken, the offence of the notice was the non-payment of the fine so that would be the basis on which the Council would take Court action. There was good detailed guidance from the government on this issue so the Warden would receive training prior to being asked to issue any fixed penalty notices. In terms of duties, the Warden would look at flytipping, littering etc. as well as dog fouling – they could also concentrate on particular issues in specific areas if that was what the Parish required. Whether Parishes could join the Scheme at some point within the three year period was something that the partnership would need to determine; a number of Parishes had suggested they would like to see how the scheme worked before signing up so this was something that would need to be considered at the outset. Within the initial information that had been sent to Parishes, the Environmental Health Manager had tried to give an idea of what the contribution might be depending on the number of Councils that signed up which was why he had provided examples of payments based on population/precept. Once the partnership had confirmed what would be within the job description of the Warden it would go through a pay evaluation process to get a salary scale; for the purposes of the information contained in the current report the national average had been used. Once the job description and salary scale was agreed it would then be possible to look at the number of hours that each Parish wanted to assess what the hours of the postholder would need to be. It needed to be clear what each Parish was putting in and what they expected to gain to ensure the system was fair to all.  In terms of PPE, the Council already had a substantial amount which could be used, however, if any needed to be purchased the cost would be shared between the partners. The insurance costs would be paid by the employing authority which would be the Borough Council.

64.5           The Environmental Health Manager indicated that, to date, all Parishes that had responded had received a general response to say thank you for their comments and that they would be kept updated with how the project was proceeding. The discussions so far had made it clear that Tewkesbury Borough Council carried out a lot of activity in the enforcement area and the Warden would provide an additional level of service. In terms of protection for the Council, a Member indicated that he was pleased that the recommendation was subject to the project being cost neutral and that it required a partnership agreement. The Chief Executive provided assurance that the project would only go ahead if it was cost neutral. The scheme had been put forward in response to approaches from Parish Councils in the past and it aimed to work with Parishes on those issues which affected them greatly. Members agreed that enviro-crimes were a modern blight on the Council’s streets and it was important that Councils used all of the tools available to them to combat the problems; it was felt that this could be a good answer to those issues.

64.6           Accordingly, it was