Agenda item

Members considered the Regulations of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) - Policy Update report presented by Councillor Clark.  He informed Members that the Corporate Governance Committee will continue to have oversight of the use of RIPA and any further updates to the Policy will be reported to Council.

Members asked questions, made comments and received responses as follows;

·          Councillor Mrs Bucknor asked for clarification regarding the cost of applying to the Magistrates Court for the use of undercover surveillance and asked if this was necessary.  Councillor Clark confirmed that the policy is used infrequently so the cost is not something to raise concern.  Councillor Booth clarified that the law has recently been updated and one of the updates is that all applications to use RIPA must be approved by the Magistrates Court.

·          Councillor Owen asked how many times RIPA had been used by the Council.  Councillor Clark confirmed it had been used twice since January 2017 to May 2018 and both of these occasions were to monitor fly-tipping offences.

Proposed by Councillor Owen, seconded by Councillor Booth and AGREED that Council approve the recommendation of Corporate Governance Committee that the Council’s amended RIPA policy attached to the report in the Agenda Pack is approved.

Members considered the Flood Risk Sequential Test Informal Guidance report presented by Councillor Miscandlon.  Councillor Miscandlon made the following statement; ’Government Planning Policy requires that development is directed to those locations where the risk of flooding is least.  This is facilitated using what is known as the sequential test.  Simply put, where proposals come forward in an area of flood risk, a search has to be undertaken to see if the development can be located elsewhere where the flooding is less.  The adopted Fenland Local Plan and the more recently adopted Water Supplementary Planning Guidance reiterate and refine the national approach with the regard to the sequential test.  Through the Developer and Agent Forum that the planning service runs, feedback was received that there was the need to simplify the sequential test process in terms of such matters as the extent of the area of search for alternative sites and the need to account for the fact that a significant part of the built up area of Wisbech is at flood risk but capable of accommodating new development. Working with the local developers and agents, as well as the Lead Local Flood Authority (County Council), Environment Agency and IDB’s informal guidance has been produced to address many of the matters raised.  It is proposed that the guidance will be a living document which will be reviewed and updated following a period of 'road testing'.  It is for this reason that the guidance is being given its 'informal' status.’

Members asked questions, made comments and received responses as follows;

·          Councillor Mrs Bucknor raised concern with point 5.7 of the report regarding mapping and asked if there are any plans to improve the current dataset.  Councillor Miscandlon stated that updating the environmental maps is an on-going process that happens all the time. He confirmed that the Environment Agency is up to date with relevant information but are looking at other processes in regards to the Flood Risk Assessment for Fenland.

·          Councillor Sutton agreed with Councillor Miscandlon and said the maps are updated on a continuous basis.

·          Councillor Booth asked if this would alter the Local Plan in regards to taking into account local flood defences and not just the Environment Agency maps.  Councillor Miscandlon explained that whilst the flood defences have been updated they only take these into account in extreme cases.

Proposed by Councillor Miscandlon, seconded by Councillor Clark and AGREED that Council receive the recommendation from the Planning Committee and approve the Flood Risk Sequential Test Informal Guidance for use in the determination of planning applications as set out in Appendix 4 of the report in the Agenda Pack.