Agenda item - Member Involvement

To consider the following matters raised by Members:

(a)         Petitions: To receive any petitions submitted to the Full Council or at the meeting itself;

(b)         Written Questions: To consider any written questions;

(i)           Councillor Cox- Dog fouling prosecutions

(ii)         Councillor Robins- Road junctions in South Portslade and Old Village Portslade

(c)         Letters: To consider any letters;

(d)         Notices of Motion: to consider any Notices of Motion referred from Council or submitted directly to the Committee.

(c)               Written Questions

(i)                 Councillor Cox- Dog Fouling

8.1             Councillor Cox asked the following question:

‘How many prosecutions has the Council undertaken for dog fouling in the last 12 months?’

8.2             The Chair provided the following response:

“2 fixed penalty notices were issued for fouling over the last 12 months, one was withdrawn due to insufficient evidence and the other was not paid that resulted in court action and a successful prosecution. The courts sentenced the dog owner to a £100 fine, £350 costs and £15 victim surcharge”.

8.3             Councillor Cox asked what action the Council were undertaking or would undertake to improve.

8.4             The Chair provided the following information:

“In the last 12 months the animal welfare team have received 432 complaints about dog fouling.

We decide the appropriate enforcement action by using the Councils enforcement policy. Each case is judged on its own merits along with an assessment of the strength of the evidence to bring a successful prosecution.

The Animal Welfare Team has 4.1 full time equivalents. In the last year the team have carried out 361 dog related enquiries. 328 kennelled, re-homed, reunited strays dogs, 315 Proactive fouling patrols, 254 Investigated dangerous dogs/dog attacks, 213 investigated animal cruelty/welfare investigations, 180 investigated other animal complaints, 118 animal enquiries, 34 stray dogs assessments, 33 recorded dog education activities, licensed 1 Zoo, 7 pets shops, 7 boarding establishments, 5 performing animals. The Council has a mixed approach that includes education, advice and enforcement”.

(ii)               Councillor Robins- Road junctions in South Portslade and Old Village Portslade

8.5             Councillor Robins presented the following question:

“Having been contacted by worried parents at two schools in South Portslade who are concerned about dangerous junctions near their schools as well as a group of residents suffering from continual anti social driving in their small road in the conservation area in the Old Village Portslade, I'm told by the Road Safety Team they are currently only considering work on junctions where there has been 8 injury causing accidents in 3 years. Can you confirm this is the case and when asked by parents "will a child need to be injured before something is done" should I answer, no it will take 8 actually”

8.6             The Chair provided the following response:

“The Council’s Road Safety Team will investigate the safety of any location in the city to determine the frequency and severity of reported injury collisions and will take action to respond to each location accordingly.  In order to prioritise the way in which the Council’s limited funds are directed towards the reduction of injury in those locations with the highest frequency and severity, collisions reported within a statistically robust period of analysis (3 years) are prioritised and assessed.  Public funds are then directed to those locations where the maximum possible benefit can be achieved.

The way in which these locations are assessed is currently under review in preparation of a new road safety strategy to 2020 and from April 2014 locations where the collision history is shown to be worsening will be ranked, along with associated criteria, including injury severity, the involvement of vulnerable road users and age of casualty to enable more sites to be addressed with the funding expected to be available.

Both Benfield Primary and St Peter’s Infants school have school travel plans and were two of the five schools involved in the 2011-12 Safer Routes to School Project that delivered safer walking and cycling measures in February/March 2012 including a pedestrian refuge in Carlton Terrace, redesigned junctions in Trafalgar Road to improve visibility and space for pedestrians as well as reduced speed limits.  At the same time, pedestrian refuges were added at two locations to the North and South of the Church Road junction with St Peter’s Road.

Since implementation of these measures there has regrettably, been one collision over the last year (up to May 2013) involving a child during term time. However, this was a slight collision involving a reversing vehicle.

I trust this of assistance to you and will enable you to reassure the parents accordingly”.