Agenda, decisions and minutes

The Convenor intimated that there was no urgent business.

The Convenor intimated that there was no exempt business

The Convenor asked for declarations of interest of which there were none.

The Committee had before it the minute of the previous meeting.

The Committee resolved:-

to approve the minutes as a true record of the meeting

The Convenor advised that due to an ongoing major incident, it would beneficial for the Local Senior Fire Officer to present his report earlier than intended.

The Committee agreed and heard from Bruce Farquahrson who provided an oversight of the report.

The Committee heard that positive action in the areas of Home Fire Safety,  Bonfire Night and Unwanted Fire Alarms had all contributed to a reduction in these instances.

Home Fire Safety involved partner working with statutory and voluntary bodies and had generated additional opportunities to enhnace the work already undertaken and fine tune the existing targetting approach.

Whilst there had been an increase in Deliberate Fire Setting, actions involving local communities and schools had presented an opportunity for education and public awareness which it is hoped will lead to future reductions.

The Committee heard that the success of the 2018 Bonfire Night planning would be feature in this years activities.

The Committee heard that following any fatal or injury resultant fire, a debrief was held to ensure that al staff welfare was considered and where necceassry  health and well bing intervenetions applied.

The Committee acknowledged the quality and content of the report.

The Committee resolved:-

to note the report.

The Committee had before it the Committee Planner and heard from the Clerk on the current and future business.

The Committee heard that whilst the Annual Committee Effectiveness Report had been defered to the June meeting, as this was the first such report, ongoing reviews suggested that amended timelines and reporting would feature for the 2019/20 report which would see earlier exposure to members.

The Committee heard that members valued the exposure to services during recent visits and that these had enhanced understanding of activities which allowed assurance to better applied. The Committee were keen that these continue.

The Committee resolved:-

to note the Committee Planner.

The Committee had before it the Resilience Annual Report which also included the PREVENT Update.

The Committee first heard from the Assurance Manager who provided a summary of the organisational resilience aspects of the report.

The Committee heard that processes and procedures had been adapted following self-assessment of resilience arrangements in 2017 and that in addition every incident is followed by an internal debrief. This identifies lessons to be learned and actions to be taken to improve the Council’s response to incidents.

Activities were in place to produce a single generic Emergency Plan across all Council services to assist Duty Emergency Response Co-ordinators (DERCs) discharge their duties.

The Committee next heard from Derek McGowan who summarised the PREVENT aspects of the report.

The Committee heard that the planned delivery dates for implementation of the identified 18 Actions would be met and that the activity remained under constant review based around global and local activity and included the benefit of a Peer Review Team to assist.

The Committee resolved:-

(i)            to note the progress made with implementing the recommendations of the PREVENT peer review; and

(ii)          instruct the Chief Officer – Governance to submit a further report to the October 2019 Committee consolidating the Council’s resilience arrangements within a single generic emergency plan.

The Committee had before it the Environmental Nosie Action Plan Update and heard from Nick Glover who provided a summarry of the report.

The Committee heard that the plan was subject to legal review every 5 years and from the review and areas that required to be changed were identified.

(i)            to approve the 5 new Noise Management Areas and 1 Quiet Area in relation to round three of the noise mapping process detailed in Table 1 and 2.

(i)            to agree to submit the approved areas to the Scottish Government by end April 2019.