Issue - meetings

News round-up and current consultations

Concern was expressed that residents were reporting that they had not received the consultation documents on the St Ann’s development, and Cllr Alexander reported that, as a local resident, she personally had not received them. It was agreed that the Chair would write to the Mental Health Trust to follow this issue up, as a commitment had been made that the document would be sent to every household in the borough. It was further agreed that the Chair would contact the Mental Health Trust regarding the suggestion that the commissioning group should attend a meeting of the Community Reference Group to discuss health provision at St Ann’s.

Cllr Adamou advised that the St Ann’s development would be a subject for discussion by the Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

It was suggested that the number of items for discussion under the ‘news round-up’ segment be reduced for future meetings, in order to allow more time for questions from residents; it was suggested that presenting these items in the form of stands may be a better way of handling these items. Members felt, however, that the information presented had been useful, particularly for the items on the proposals around the artwork element of the West Green Road improvements, which not everyone had been aware of, and the Alexandra Palace consultation.

Some concern was expressed that not all ward councillors had been aware of the West Green Road artwork issue before it had been raised at this meeting. Officers would be advised in future to use as clear language as possible in addressing the Area Forum, and to avoid jargon.

It was suggested that the Article 4 Direction should be a standing item on the agenda; while some concern was expressed regarding the timescale for progressing this, it was noted that the time-frame was set out in law and it was recognised that it was positive that this was being taken forward. It was suggested that a specific enforcement strategy needed to be developed to support the Article 4 Direction.

It was suggested that Planning and Licensing issues, and how people could engage with applications and consultations could be an item at the next meeting. The Committee discussed the issues around Certificates of Lawfulness, and the need to rigorously check the documentation associated with these. It had been suggested that the Regulatory Committee could have a report on a random sample of Certificate of Lawfulness applications, to monitor whether documentation was being checked, and the Committee endorsed this suggestion. It was recognised that it was positive that the Planning and Licensing departments were working together more closely on issues around HMOs.

Waste and Recycling: the new arrangements

Some Committee members felt that the presentation on waste and recycling had given the impression that there were no positive aspects of the new arrangements, and that this was not an entirely balanced view of the situation. Others felt that it was useful to focus on the problems, in order to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 43