As we are approaching half-way through the term of the Alliance Group’s time in office at County Hall, News OnTheWight approached each of the Cabinet members offering an opportunity to highlight the work of their portfolio and their hopes for the coming year.
We began with Isle of Wight council leader, Lora Peacey-Wilcox, followed by Cllr Jonathan Bacon, Cllr Julie Jones-Evans and Cllr Debbie Andre,
Up Next is Cllr Karen Lucioni, whose portfolio covers Community Protection, Regulatory Services and Waste. In her own words. Ed
Our environmental services, including waste and recycling are dedicated to delivering a better place to live work and play through protecting and enhancing our environment and providing clean environments for people to enjoy.
Thank you to everyone in the community who have made us an Island of recyclers!
Successful year
Thanks to the dedication of residents and hard work of our bin crews, recycling centre staff and waste workers at Forest Park, the Island continues to be a top recycler nationally.
Our state of the art recycling separation plant on Forest Road is continuing to achieve high recovery rates for all types of plastic, metals, glass, paper, card and tetra packs.
New energy from waste plant
Looking forward, 2023 will be an exciting year, as the commissioning of our new energy from waste plant draws to a close and we hope by spring to be announcing it has passed all handover testing.
The plant is operational and working really well, we are making sure it is tested end to end before it reaches its handover certification.
Get in touch with any issues
Our excellent waste contract management team at the council is there for you as a community should you have any issues.
You can get in touch through the new waste and recycling pages on the council’s beta Website or by calling 823 777.
Share your views
As a commitment to our community, the recycling and waste annual customer satisfaction survey is open.
Please do let us know what we are doing well and what we could do better to support you and our aspiration for zero non-essential waste to landfill.
Garden waste subscriptions
For our green-fingered community, the annual Garden waste subscriptions will be open for renewals in January and for new customer to join in February.
This brilliant service takes the hard work out dealing with your garden waste.
Fly tip task and finish group
I will be reigniting the fly tip task and finish group this spring to ensure that we as a council know the numbers and have a strong environmental action plan to tackle litter and fly tip on our beautiful Island.
I want to hear from the community about your ideas and thoughts, our fly tip level may be low, but I believe we can work together to prevent fly tip blighting our countryside and communities.
Work undertaken in 2022
On to regulatory services and highlights on some work undertaken.
Licensing
- Return to large events following Covid pandemic
- Processed 1,205 licensing applications up to the end of November 22 including 377 Temporary events.
- Taxi drivers and proprietors asked for an increase in tariffs during a council consultation with the trade. The review was undertaken and for the first time in eight years showed a need to raise tariffs, taking into account the rise of fuel and other associated costs to the trade. The council does not receive any funding from the increase.
Trading Standards
- Continued response to the Avian Flu pandemic to reduce spread on the Island.
- Saved consumers from scams – £374,000 in 21/22 and £52,000 in the first six months of 22/23.
- Investigated a number of rogue trader activities which will be proceeding to prosecution in the next few months
Environmental Health
- Reintroduced the food intervention programme following suspension during the Covid pandemic
- Delivered training to the food sector on Natasha’s Law (allergen awareness).
- Completed the Island’s annual assessment of air quality. The Island continues to have good air quality below the actionable levels set by the government.
- In the first six months of the year issued six fixed penalties for fly tipping
Community Safety
- Continued to deliver the violent Crime Reduction unit on the Island in partnership with the Police and Crime Commissioner. This funds a number of interventions for under 25yrs.
- Delivered Safer Street Three programme and successful in obtaining Safer Streets Four funding in partnership with Portsmouth CC, Gosport Council, Havant Council and Fareham Council. This is for interventions to make our streets safer and reduce gender based violence.
- Purchased more domestic CCTV cameras for loan to victims of antisocial behaviour (15 new ones in 2022).
- More CCTV funded by safer streets project
Policing
I represent the Isle of Wight on the Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) Panel which is held at Hampshire County Council, questioning on many issues like the 101 service, police visibility, a value for money service.
I have regular meetings with the Commissioner, Superintendent and the Island’s police team.
I will continue to hold the PCC to account. The commissioner’s annual report can be found online.
Many projects on our Island have been awarded substantial funding from the PCC office and ranges from small grass roots projects, to larger schemes like victim support, youth probation team and early intervention and restorative justice.
Fire and Rescue Service
I also represent the Island on Hampshire and Isle of Wight Fire Authority, and I’m very pleased to say that we have had £2.5 million invested back into our fire stations, along with new specialist appliances.
I am so very proud of the work our service do at grass roots with fire cadets, Prince’s Trust, school education and groups like brownies, scouts etc by championing fire prevention and education. I am blown away by the impact these projects have on our young people. My thanks to all involved.
We are also looking for people to join the fire service full time or on call (retained) take a look on the Website if you are interested, its a great team on the Island.
Emergency Management Team
Throughout 2022 our Emergency Management Team continued to operate at a strategic and tactical level, to ensure that the Council fully discharges the statutory duties under the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 and that individual Council service areas can deliver a response at the operational level.
In 2022 the Team experienced a significant increase in responses to adverse weather incidents; storms and gales, flooding and extremes of temperatures, including prolonged heatwaves.
The Team achieved the aim of catching up on work not undertaken during the response to Covid, this included an extensive training and exercising programme involving Council Staff, multi-agency partners, the Voluntary Sector and transport and utility providers.
Working in the background to ensure resilience
This programme included the validation of plans for responding to adverse weather incidents and those to be used in the event of a response requiring the evacuation and shelter of Island residents. Further training and exercising will be delivered in 2023 against a range of scenarios.
This is a department the public rarely witnesses, however is always working to ensure all our safety and the Island resilience.
I know we have challenging times ahead, my door is always open to listen and engage on issues that we can work on together, my email address is [email protected] and contact number is 07506 930 109.
Happy new year to everyone.
