Agenda item

Subject to the required notice being given, Members of the Council can ask questions of the Chairman of the Council, the Leader of the Council, Portfolio Holders or Chairmen of Committees.

The time allocated for receiving and disposing of questions shall be a maximum of 30 minutes. Any question not disposed of at the end of this time shall be the subject of a written response, copied to all Members the following working day unless withdrawn by the questioner.

On this occasion three Questions have been submitted in accordance with Council Procedure Rule 11.2.

Subject to the required notice being given, Members of the Council could ask questions of the Chairman of the Council, the Leader of the Council, Portfolio Holders or Chairmen of Committees.

Three questions had been submitted by Members on this occasion as set out below:-

Question One

Councillor I J Henderson asked the Portfolio Holder for Housing (Councillor P B Honeywood):-

“Will the Portfolio Holder for Housing please advise Members how many TDC owned homes to rent have been built by Tendring District Council since this Conservative led administration took control of the Council in 2009?”

Councillor Honeywood replied as follows:-

“Thank you for your question. I can advise you that the Council has built nine properties – five in Jaywick Sands, two in Brightlingsea and two in Bradfield. The Council has also created a new flat in Dovercourt in what used to be a garage space below Churchill Court. An explosion damaged property on Cloes Lane in Clacton has also been purchased by the Council and rebuilt. This brings the total to eleven properties.”

Councillor Henderson then asked a question of clarification to which Councillor Honeywood responded.

Question Two

Councillor J Henderson asked the Portfolio Holder for Housing (Councillor P B Honeywood):-

“Please can the Portfolio Holder look to upgrading the CCTV at Dovercourt Lifestyles? With ongoing increased vandalism and anti-social behaviour in this area, it is important to have clear and efficient CCTV to present to the Police to help them deal with these crimes.”

Councillor Honeywood replied as follows:-

“Thank you Councillor Henderson for your question. The Council is planning to review all of its CCTV provision, including that of our Sports Facilities as a requirement of recently adopting our CCTV Code of Practice. This will be an opportunity to review the number of cameras at Dovercourt Bay Lifestyles, within the context of our adopted standards. This will take place later in the year and, following this, a series of recommendations will be brought forward for consideration.  I will be in a position to update you further at that point.”

Question Three

Councillor J Henderson asked the Portfolio Holder for Environment & Public Space (Councillor Talbot):-

“It is almost four years since I met with the Portfolio Holder and officers to discuss the issues of dog fouling in Harwich and Dovercourt / Tendring. Ideas I put forward were not taken up by the Portfolio Holder at that time. Enforcement and progress has not happened within this department and complaints have increased.

I urge again, that our dog wardens be supplied with fold up bicycles, as this will help to enable them to patrol our seafronts in a more environmentally friendly and efficient way. The current driving in vans does not get any enforcement results on dog fouling and is not environmentally friendly. Does the Portfolio Holder agree with me that more enforcement is now needed, as his current soft approach has failed?”

Councillor Talbot replied as follows:-

“Thank you for your question Councillor Jo Henderson and as you rightly say I organised a meeting for you at Weeley on the afternoon of 8th September 2017, following a series of reports from you that the ‘Dog Poo’ problem in Dovercourt was out of control and not receiving either a clean-up or the prosecution of offenders. The meeting had the Head of Service, accompanied by Darren O’Neil and one of our two Dog Wardens.

You spoke then about high visibility jackets and a suggestion of having fold up bikes for the patrol to use. We spoke about notices, and I suggested using stencils on the sea wall and pathways. A good meeting with no answers but lots of suggestion, but with a warning from the Head of Service that there was no pool of money waiting to be spent on this.

I was conscious at that meeting that Dovercourt Councillors had consistently complained that many of their residents do not pick-up their Dog waste, and long standing Members may remember special attention given to this by Council, highlighted on Tuesday 29th June 2004 when we gave a number of radio interviews reporting the relative success of some unique dog mess signs in Dovercourt, whereas the owners took no notice of signs encouraging them to pick-up after their pets these signs, written underneath the request to Dog Owners to pick-up their waste, was apparently addressed to their dogs. The footnote said, “For Dogs” GRRR; BARK; WOOF WOOF – good dog!  These unique signs were the brainchild of Bill Smith, our officer at the time, and had been reported in the National Press, giving rise to a lot of publicity.

I report these background notes so that newer Members realise that Dovercourt Dog Poo is not a new issue!

One of the first things to mention is of course that people need to take personal responsibility for their dogs and their waste. I think that must be the primary message that we as the District Council as well as local Members and Town, Parish and the District Councils need to be spreading, rather than criticising.  My Cabinet colleagues and I would much rather that dogs were cared for and controlled, and that waste was cleared up without a single enforcement action.

I thank Councillor Henderson again for her suggestion, but as four years ago, after examination by the team, I’m afraid that portable bicycles are not found to be of practical use for dog wardens, whose primary role as a dog warden is the collection and transportation of stray dogs and although the vans themselves may look large from the outside the storage space inside is very limited and is for equipment such as, graspers, shields, sprays, and other items that are kept securely in the van and would not be able to be carried whilst riding a bicycle.  When our dog warden conducts a foot patrols, they will carry very limited equipment and will never venture to far from the van.

Having said that, for example, let us just say a dog warden parks his van in West End Lane car park and sets off on patrol on a bicycle and as he/she arrives in old town Harwich they discover a stray dog.  The warden would then need to transport that dog back along the prom whilst carrying a foldable bicycle too. I think you will already guess that I do not support the suggestion that Dog Wardens be supplied with bikes!

Our wardens travel in marked vehicles, and I feel that visible presence would be lost if the wardens were riding bicycles. The dog wardens have to cover a very large area throughout Tendring and work to the corporate enforcement principles of the 4 E’s (Engage, Explain, Educate and Enforce).

In the coming months 8 new seaside ambassadors will be on patrol in the high-profile areas of Tendring which will include beach areas and they will have the power to issue an FPN for dog fouling if the Engage, Explain and Educate phases are not heeded.

Again, thank you to Councillor Henderson for suggesting ideas. I think that we are in the process of deploying alternative enforcement options. I hope that you will join me in supporting the ambassadors and in appealing to dog owners to behave responsibly so that enforcement is not needed, but if citizens continue to offend, then YES Councillor Henderson, I do agree with you that more enforcement is now needed, and as it happens it has been the subject of some recent internal discussion.”

Councillor Henderson then asked a question of clarification to which Councillor Talbot responded.