The Environment, Community Safety and Engagement Scrutiny Commission was scheduled to discuss measures to tackle phone snatching, receive an annual interview with the Police Borough Commander, and review the council's response to recommendations concerning active travel and access to nature. The meeting's agenda also included a scrutiny review of play spaces and the commission's work programme.

Community Safety Report

A report was scheduled to be presented detailing measures being implemented to combat phone snatching. The discussion was expected to focus on individuals using electric bikes, particularly those that are illegally modified, and how closed-circuit television (CCTV) can be utilised as part of a broader strategy to address this issue.

Annual Interview with the Police Borough Commander

The commission was scheduled to conduct an annual interview with Police Chief Superintendent Emma Bond, who serves as the BCU Commander for Central South. This interview would likely have provided an opportunity to discuss policing matters within the borough.

Exploring the Physical and Mental Health and Wellbeing Impacts of Active Travel and Access to Nature Scrutiny Review Cabinet Response

A significant portion of the meeting was dedicated to reviewing the Cabinet's response to the Environment Scrutiny Commission's report on the physical and mental health and wellbeing impacts of active travel and access to nature. The report outlines the council's proposed actions in response to 34 recommendations made by the commission.

The Cabinet was recommended to approve the council's response, accepting 28 recommendations and partially accepting six. The report details a commitment to establishing a working group comprising officers from Highways, Public Health, Parks, Ecology, and Planning to integrate the health benefits of active travel and access to nature into the council's public health functions. This includes accelerating initiatives like Streets for Nature and Greenways, which aim to create greener and healthier environments for everyday journeys.

Key areas of focus within the recommendations include:

• Green Active Travel: Empowering Landscape Architects and ecology officers to play a more proactive role in delivering Streets for Nature and ensuring the integration of nature for health benefits. This involves recognising the creation of Greenways and enhancing Streets for Nature as a distinct discipline within highways engineering.
• Inclusive Active Travel: Amplifying and building the capacity of local community and voluntary groups working to make active travel more inclusive, particularly for cohorts with protected characteristics who are less likely to engage in exercise or experience health inequalities. This includes continued investment in and exploration of ways to build relationships and unlock funding for groups such as Wheels for Well-being and Joy Riders, and identifying other local groups that could deliver similar benefits.
• Prioritising Areas of Deprivation: Giving higher priority to facilitating access to active travel and nature in areas of higher deprivation, with a focus on the ecological and social impact of such initiatives.
• Research and Engagement: Conducting research by working closely with and listening to groups experiencing the most health inequalities to better understand the practical and cultural barriers to increasing active travel and recreational time in nature.
• Bespoke Activities: Designing and expanding bespoke activities, events, and walks aimed at particular groups, in tandem with addressing structural disadvantages such as a lack of cycle parking and inaccessible infrastructure.
• Accessible Infrastructure: Ensuring that walking, wheeling, and cycling infrastructure is fully accessible through engagement and co-design, with a focus on creating a cycle network suitable for a range of mobilities and including routes for recreation as well as commuting.
• Cycle Training: Increasing the availability of cycle training for children and adults, with a particular emphasis on promoting these opportunities amongst cohorts less likely to cycle.
• Social Recognition and Career Pathways: Exploring ways to link active travel and working in nature to social recognition, career pathways, professional success, and financial prosperity, particularly for ethnic minorities and disabled people.
• Adapted Cycles and E-bikes: Exploring grant funding to lower the cost of adapted/accessible cycles for disabled people and ensuring the Try Before You Bike scheme includes accessible bikes. There was also a recommendation to lobby the government to recognise bikes as mobility aids and to support e-assisted bikes for disabled people.
• Cycle Storage: Targeting cycle storage and hangers where they are most needed, including providing funding to increase secure cycle storage capacity, particularly in areas lacking private storage space.
• E-bikes and Scooters: Working with e-conveyance providers to improve parking by accelerating the rollout of dedicated bays for e-bikes and e-scooters and ensuring they are parked considerately.
• Wildlife Gardens and Community Gardening: Ensuring greater emphasis on inclusion and wellbeing in nature-based activities, with specific provisions to fund projects enabling resident participation in nature-based fun, arts, craft, and health pursuits. There was also a focus on ensuring people from marginalised communities have access to community gardens, particularly Black African and Caribbean residents.
• Parks and Green Space: Recognising and publicising the significant public health benefits of green space and investing in both existing spaces and ensuring adequate provision in new developments. New green space is to be proactively designed with input from ecology officers and landscape designers to maximise public health and biodiversity value.
• Community Food Growing: Including community food growing within non-mandatory planning advice, proactively exploring with planning applicants the possibility of integrating community food growing spaces and edible landscapes in developments.
• Pet Insecticide Treatments: Taking steps to publicise, mitigate, and reduce the harm of pet insecticide treatments, including public education on the damage caused by contaminated dogs entering water courses.
• Public Space Design: Designing public space to maximise safety, durability, permeability, aesthetics, and wherever possible, ease of disassembly and re-use, moving away from tarmac in enhanced public spaces.

The report indicated that the financial implications of the accepted and partially accepted recommendations could be met from existing revenue and capital budgets.

Play Space Scrutiny Review

A scrutiny review of play spaces was also scheduled to be discussed.

Work Programme

The commission was set to review its work programme.

The meeting also included standard procedural items such as receiving apologies, notification of urgent business, and the disclosure of interests. There was also a provision for the exclusion of press and public for specific items if deemed necessary due to the likely disclosure of exempt information.