Executive - Monday 30 September 2024, 7:30pm - Wandsworth Council Webcasting
Executive
Monday, 30th September 2024 at 7:30pm
Speaking:
An agenda has not been published for this meeting.
Disclaimer: This transcript was automatically generated, so it may contain errors. Please view the webcast to confirm whether the content is accurate.
Good evening and welcome to this meeting of the Executive.
Are there any apologies for absence?
Councillor Akinola and Councillor Yates.
Very good.
Are there any declarations of interest?
No.
Grant?
And then we'll move to matters for decisions.
So we've got papers from the Environment, Health,
and Grants Subcommittee this evening.
So looking at those first,
Councillor Gasser, the Environment papers.
Yeah, thank you.
So we had paper 24 .224,
which spoke about the revision to future arrangements
with enable culture and leisure.
And this is the contractor who looks after our parks
and our leisure centers and our bereavement services and our events and our filming and
our community spaces, all sorts of, lots and lots of services they run for us. But it's
an old contract, it's been running nearly five years now and we're just looking at
rethinking it somewhat. In the paper we propose bringing ten posts back in house so that we
get a better strategic overview and then working with them to try and look at the best possible
model going forward which might involve bringing some more people back in house just to make
the running smoother and we're on a sort of road map
to the November committee meeting
when we actually make that decision.
So we had some deputations at the meeting
and some of them were a bit concerned
about how the arrangements would work going forward
so we have agreed to meet with them
and we have got two meetings in the diary now
to meet with them to make sure that we listen
to all their concerns and put their minds at ease.
Great, thanks very much for that explanation.
Is that agreed?
Great.
Thanks very much.
And now, grounds maintenance.
Right, so this doesn't sound very exciting,
but it is very exciting and important.
This is looking after our parks, so it's terribly important.
And actually, I don't think I can say the name
of the successful contractor,
but we had a whole building process,
and it was a clear winner.
And it's a different sort of contract now.
It's instead of being based on like outputs if you like you're gonna mow the grass once a month. It's based on outcomes
So you know the grass will look beautiful at all times and the bins will be empty at all times
So it's a different way of doing things. It will be very closely monitored actually by council officers now as a result of the previous paper
So we expect to provide a better service for our residents in the borough
Thank you.
Great, any comments or questions on that?
If not, is it agreed?
Thank you.
And litter enforcement.
Yes, so another really important contract actually.
So this is the company that works with us
to help on the enforcement side issuing fines
for littering and fly tipping
because we only have a small officer base
so we have a company that helps us.
Again, it was a tender process
and again I don't think I can say who it is at this point.
Again, a clear winner, and it's an interesting contract
because not only will they go through the litter
and find out who's done the dumping
and find them where they can
or take them to court if necessary,
also that there will also be a vehicle going around
which will pick up the litter at the same time
which you would think would always have been done,
but it hasn't always been done in previous contracts,
so now it will be done,
so they will be enforcing and cleaning as they go.
good.
Yeah, really good stuff.
Any comments or questions for Judy on that proposal?
And I know we'll be bringing forward more measures
as part of our Cleaner Borough Plan
in the coming months as well, but is that agreed?
Excellent, thanks very much.
I think that's it for environment.
Councillor Henderson, are we okay to look at the health
overview and scrutiny in the items?
Thank you, Chair.
The first item, paper number 24232, it's actually described as the response to the ban on petitions
received by the Council.
But to be honest, the report is mainly concerned with a very wide range of initiatives that
the Council has been involved in, in conjunction with other agencies, particularly the police,
in terms of combating antisocial behavior and crime in Balham.
And indeed, I met with senior officers back in March of 2023,
and we agreed to establish a multidisciplinary task force
and actually use Balham as a pilot for this particular approach
to be rolled out in other wards,
which has subsequently happened.
This monkey agency approach, task and finish group,
has actually been extremely successful,
resulting in the whole range of initiatives
which are set out in paragraph six of the paper.
But I would emphasize that this was something
which we already had in hand long before
Councillor Hedges has submitted the petitions. Thank you.
Thanks very much Councillor Henderson and for all your work on public safety.
Any questions on that item or is it agreed?
Agreed.
Thanks very much.
Thanks a lot.
A little bit more complicated is perhaps Paper 24 -233.
This is a review
of the council's approach to implementing
what is commonly known
as the community trigger.
This is a requirement under the
antisocial
behaviour
crime
and policing
act
of 2014.
We are under a general duty to review it
periodically anyway.
But we decided to review it early
as a result
of multiple
commitments
complaints from partners, applicants and several formal complaints raised on various parts
of the process. For example, the review process and the communications and updates to the
applicants not being very clear. So the revisions to this process will provide clarity to the
applicants on the process, the timescales and what to expect. The revisions also enable
the Council and wider partnership to be clear on their roles and responsibilities as it
relates to the process. Also being more specific about what constitutes a qualifying complaint,
how the case review can be triggered and if willing true officers are able to assess the
request more accurately. It is also important as an important part of the document to set
achievable timescales to manage expectations and allow time for officers to conduct the relevant
actions on what very often are quite complex situations in the required thorough manner.
So this new revised protocol will enable a more coordinated and clear approach to the
anti -social behaviour case review and will certainly go a long way to address the concerns
and complaints which have been raised so far.
Thank you.
The recommendation is to approve the new protocol.
Thanks very much.
As I can't see any questions, is that agreed?
Agreed.
Excellent. Thank you.
Thank you.
And if it's all right, we'll then move on to the grant subcommittee.
And in Councillor Akinola's absence, I'll just note that the Cost of Living Grant Fund Round 1,
You will see the committee has recommended that application 13 for the SW15 women's network
should actually be awarded the full amount of grant funding, £5 ,566.
And I think as the committee has recommended that unanimously, I think that's something
that we should support here.
Beyond that, are there any other comments or questions?
Is that agreed?
Thanks very much.
Just looking ahead to the Wandsworth grant fund, around 27, again, the committee there
has suggested that application one, which was for the Balerman community association,
should be awarded partial grant funding of £1500 to cover venue hire, again, unanimously
supported by the committee.
And there was another unanimous recommendation from the committee.
The application 9, the Rotary Club should be awarded the full amount of grant funding.
That's 5 ,000 pounds.
Again, I think those are sensible suggestions that we should accept.
So are there any comments or questions on that grant funding?
Then is it agreed?
Thanks very much.
I think that's all the business we have for this evening.
Thanks very much.
Thank you.