Apologies were received from Councillors PL Bettington, Brig. P Jones CBE and C Nicholls.

To receive any details of Members nominated to attend the meeting in place of a Member of the Committee.

There were no named substitutes.

There were no declarations of interest.

To approve and sign the Minutes of the meeting held on 15 January 2013

RESOLVED:   That the Minutes of the meeting held on 15 January 2013 be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

To note the main regulatory activities of the Council’s Environmental Health & Trading Standards (EHTS) service for the first 10 months of 2012/13 (period 1 April 2012 – 31 January 2013) and to also inform committee of its new alignment within the Places & Communities Directorate, under the Economic, Environment & Cultural Services Division.

The Head of Consumer & Business Protection presented a report on the regulatory activity undertaken by the Environmental Health & Trading Standards service between 1 April 2012 and 31 January 2013.

He advised Members that Environmental Health & Trading Standards was now part of the Places and Communities directorate, this move had taken place on 4 March 2013.

The presentation focused on specific areas of the Environmental Health & Trading Standards service, with the following comments made regarding each department.

Licensing Team

It was noted that service requests were down on the previous year but that response times had improved. The Head of Consumer & Business Protection drew Members’ attention to the current freeze on discretionary spend which had been introduced across the Council in late 2012. He advised members that this had impacted on night time checks previously undertaken by the licensing team.

He then advised Members in respect of the successful introduction of the taxi marshalling scheme. Members wished their appreciation to be put on record and noted that the scheme had been well received by the trade.

Members raised the issue of test purchase operations and were advised that these had been reduced as a result of the current pressures on the budget. Members were concerned that the reduction in test purchase operation could result in an increase in underage sales throughout the County. The Head of Consumer & Business Protection advised that in the future test purchase operations would be undertaken on an intelligence led basis. In response to a question he advised that the issue of proxy sales was significantly more difficult to address.

Environmental Protection Team

The Committee Members thanked the Environmental Protection Team for their assistance in various matters throughout their wards. Some concern was expressed in respect of the out of hours phone number as it was noted that on occasions calls were not answered or messages were not forwarded to the relevant officer. The Head of Consumer & Business Protection advised that the out of hours service had been operated by an outside company and that there had been some issues. He added that this breakdown in communications was not acceptable.

Air, Land & Water Protection Team

The Head of Consumer & Business Protection advised the Committee that there were still on going issues at Sutton Walls. In response to a question he advised the Committee that in some cases homeowners needed to be present when officers needed to visit. He added that whilst visits were pre-booked there were occasions when people were not home. It was noted that although this could occasionally cause a delay it was not a significant problem.

Gypsy & Traveller Team

Members were advised that there had been 15 unauthorised encampments over a 10 month period, one of these encampments had caused significant concern as it took place on the King Charles Playing Fields prior to the queens visit and the associated jubilee celebrations.

It was noted that in line with other Council services the Gypsy & Traveller Team were aiming to become cost neutral. It was  ...  view the full minutes text for item 65.