Proper notice having been given under Standing Order 7(d)(i) Councillor Charles Mathew has requested an oral report regarding persistent breaches of a routeing agreement by Sheehans through the village of Sutton.
Officers will report.
Minutes:
Mr Periam gave an oral report regarding persistent breaches of a routeing agreement by Sheehans through Sutton village in response to an item requested by Councillor Mathew. The matter had arisen from an exchange of e-mails between Councillor Mathew and the agent for Sheehans with regard to a planning application which had now been received to vary a condition on the current planning permission for the site. As that application was yet to be determined members could not consider its merits of the application at this meeting and that his report was at this time for information but members were welcome to seek clarification.
Outlining the provisions of the current routeing agreement he referred to a number of breaches which had taken place between 15 and 22 August and identified from the company’s own records based on tracking devices which were installed in each of the company’s own vehicles.The agent had also confirmed that there had been a couple of clear transgressions which had prompted Sheehan to issue a warning to the drivers concerned .The agent had given assurances that the company did take these issues very seriously and had introduced a new system to add on to their tracker system which would activate a computer generated email to the transport manager in real time within seconds of the rules being broken. Since that system had gone live no alerts have been received. The agent had also suggested another check where local people were given the name of a Parish Councillor who would have an arranged link with the site’s management and be able to advise of any violation. That system worked well in other areas.
Mr Periam confirmed that officers had not received any complaints direct from members of the public with regard to violations of the routeing agreement since early 2016, but Councillor Mathew had advised that the routeing agreement continued to be breached. Therefore, he was proposing to arrange for county officers to carry out monitoring of the situation over the next three weeks. That would involve two officers going out - one to record the registration details of any lorries passing along the B4449 through Sutton during the restricted times and the other near the site entrance to record the same information so that there would then be clear evidence as to whether any vehicle found to be breaching the agreement had visited the site. That needed to be done as there were lorries passing along the B4449 which were not associated with the site and so were not subject to the requirements of the routeing agreement. Any identified breaches identified would be drawn to the attention of Sheehan’s who would then be expected to check this against their own records and take any necessary action. The routeing agreement required that a driver for a main contractor or sub-contractor who breaches the agreement twice within a year be prohibited from the site.
An update on the results of that monitoring would be given at the 27 November meeting.
RESOLVED: that the report be noted.