Agenda item - RESPONSE TO REASONS FOR CALL-IN

Agenda item

RESPONSE TO REASONS FOR CALL-IN

The response to the reasons for call-in.

Minutes:

In accordance with the Council’s Constitution, the Overview and Scrutiny Committee considered the report of Officers which detailed the call-in submitted in relation to the decision taken by the Leader of the Council in relation to the amendments to existing permanent Quieter Neighbourhoods (KD 5512).

 

Details of the decision taken on 27 October 2022 and listed on the Publication of Decision List Number 22/22-23 published on 28 October 2022. The report also set out the officer responses to the reasons for call-in.

 

The decision had been called-in for review by eight members of the Council: Councillors Maria Alexandrou (Lead), Chris Joannides, Lee Chamberlain, Paul Pratt, Tom O’Halloran, Andrew Thorp, Alessandro Georgiou, Chris Dey.

 

The Leader of the Council, Councillor Nesil Caliskan, responding to the reasons for call-in, stated that the reasons behind the most recent decision was to make the necessary amendments to the original decision to implement the two Quieter Neighbourhoods (QNs) taken in summer 2020.  Following a period of community feedback and monitoring, each QN was made permanent early in 2022.  During the trial periods, some enhancements and associated activities had been identified.  The Council had been progressing these and were now seeking to provide an overview of the proposed changes and the appropriate approval to proceed.

 

Subsequent to the review, the main objectives of the scheme were to provide safer, healthier neighbourhoods for residents in the Borough, remained the same.  The call-in decision was for the implementation and operation to provide increased permeability for all exempt vehicles, including Blue Badge holders and the emergency services.  This had been informed by feedback from residents and the emergency services, together with the equalities impact assessment process.  Activities, such as monitoring and small-scale improvements, were proposed to complement and enhance the Quieter Neighbourhoods in response to feedback received and provide mitigation where measures had been identified.

 

The Leader informed the Committee that the High Court had ruled that the Council had followed procedures and the implementation of Quieter Neighbourhoods was lawful.

 

The Healthy Streets Programme Director, Richard Eason, stated that the data used in the analysis, on which the decision was based, was not false.  Officers had not lied. 

 

The Leader accepted that some of the signage could be clearer, and Officers had full authority to make the necessary changes swiftly.  It was not the Council’s intention that poor signage be used to increase income from the schemes or restricted areas.                                                                   ACTION

 

The Director of Environment and Operational Services, Doug Wilkinson, stated categorically that the road traffic signage erected by the Council was fully compliant.  If drivers, using these routes, were more observant they would not break the law and incur the appropriate fine.

 

The Healthy Streets Programme Director assured the Committee that the Council had written to all blue badge holders who lived in the Fox Lane QN area to ensure that all those who were eligible had taken up the exemptions.  This exercise would be carried out in the Bowes QN.  Increased filters would provide more flexibility for blue badge holders with exemptions to pass through without incurring fines. 

 

In response to questions from Members, the Healthy Streets Programme Director advised that the application and operation of the blue badge permits was via an online self-service system which updated within a very short space of time and the vehicle was activated by the next day.  The permits were no longer physical permits.  There was a great deal of flexibility to whom the blue badge holder could assign a permit, which allowed for changes at short notice, particularly with regards to carers.  There was more work to be done, in terms of developing the system and the categories of people who were or could be exempt.

 

The Leader explained that the impact on a one-person household needed to be better understood by Officers.  The expansion of the scheme would allow for a better understanding of the needs of all disabled residents.  This would not just apply to low traffic neighbourhoods (LTN) but to all areas in the Borough.  Enfield Council was not the only London Borough to roll out LTNs, other London Boroughs were doing so.  There needed to be a strategic, Pan London approach to the blue badge scheme and exemptions. 

 

Enfield Council had undertaken a considerable amount of work with regards the blue badge scheme, which, not all London Boroughs had done.  The outcome of the extensive research would be subject of a further report detailing how the processes would be implemented.  This would be subject for consideration by the relevant Scrutiny Panel and the Overview and Scrutiny Committee.                                                                                                            ACTION

 

The Healthy Streets Programme Director advised that there would be continued consultation with the London Ambulance Services, together with residents, to develop a robust scheme and Enfield Council would work with neighbouring London Boroughs regarding the increased permeability across London.

 

Following a request from Committee Members, the Healthy Streets Programme Director undertook to provide the relevant cycle data, not included in the report, which formed the basis for the original decision.                                                                                                                                ACTION

 

The Chair asked that a policy review with regards to policy decisions regarding to cyclists with disabilities.                                                    ACTION

 

The Leader agreed that it be sensible to use, were possible under current legislation, data held by the Council on its various databases to cross reference the uptake of the exemption permits, such as those residents who were listed on the Social Services database with care packages in place.                                                                                                                                     ACTION

 

The Overview and Scrutiny Committee considered the reasons for the call-in and responses set out in the reports of Officers.  Having considered the verbal responses and information presented by the Leader of the Council and Officers, the Committee AGREED to confirm the original decision made by the Leader of the Council.

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