Communities Scrutiny Committee - Tuesday 3 March 2026, 7:00pm - Epping Forest District Council webcasts

Communities Scrutiny Committee
Tuesday, 3rd March 2026 at 7:00pm 

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  1. Cllr Jodie Lucas
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  1. Serena Shani
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  1. Cllr Richard Bassett
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  1. Cllr Stephen Murray
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  1. Shane McNamara
  2. Cllr Jodie Lucas
  3. Cllr Stephen Murray
  4. Cllr Jodie Lucas
  5. Jennifer Gould
  6. Cllr Jodie Lucas
  7. Cllr Stephen Murray
  8. Cllr Jodie Lucas
  9. Cllr Stephen Murray
  10. James Warwick
  11. Ian Channel
  12. Cllr Jodie Lucas
  13. Cllr Razia Sharif
  14. Ian Channel
  15. Cllr Jodie Lucas
  16. Cllr Chidi Nweke
  17. Cllr Jodie Lucas
  18. Jennifer Gould
  19. Cllr Jodie Lucas
  20. Cllr Richard Morgan
  21. Cllr Martin Morris
  22. Cllr Lisa Morgan
  23. Cllr Jodie Lucas
  24. Cllr Rose Brookes
  25. Ian Channel
  26. Cllr Jodie Lucas
  27. Cllr Rose Brookes
  28. Ian Channel
  29. Cllr Jodie Lucas
  30. Cllr Rose Brookes
  31. Cllr Jodie Lucas
  32. Cllr Mary Dadd
  33. Ian Channel
  34. Cllr Mary Dadd
  35. Cllr Jodie Lucas
  36. Cllr Janet Whitehouse
  37. Cllr Jodie Lucas
  38. Cllr Jon Whitehouse
  39. Cllr Jodie Lucas
  40. Shane McNamara
  41. Cllr Jodie Lucas
  42. Ian Channel
  43. Cllr Jon Whitehouse
  44. Shane McNamara
  45. Cllr Jodie Lucas
  46. Cllr Lisa Morgan
  47. Cllr Jodie Lucas
  48. Jennifer Gould
  49. Cllr Jodie Lucas
  50. Cllr Stephen Murray
  51. Cllr Jodie Lucas
  52. Cllr Jeane Lea
  53. Shane McNamara
  54. Cllr Jodie Lucas
  55. Jennifer Gould
  56. Cllr Jodie Lucas
  57. Ben Johnson - Qualis
  58. Ben Johnson
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  1. Cllr Jodie Lucas
  2. Cllr Razia Sharif
  3. Ben Johnson
  4. Cllr Razia Sharif
  5. Ben Johnson
  6. Stuart Thompson
  7. Cllr Razia Sharif
  8. Stuart Thompson
  9. Cllr Jodie Lucas
  10. Cllr Lisa Morgan
  11. Dawn Harrisson
  12. Cllr Lisa Morgan
  13. Ben Johnson
  14. Cllr Lisa Morgan
  15. Ben Johnson
  16. Cllr Lisa Morgan
  17. Ben Johnson
  18. Cllr Lisa Morgan
  19. Ben Johnson
  20. Stuart Thompson
  21. Cllr Jodie Lucas
  22. Cllr Lisa Morgan
  23. Ben Johnson
  24. Cllr Jodie Lucas
  25. Cllr Stephen Murray
  26. Ben Johnson
  27. Cllr Stephen Murray
  28. Ben Johnson
  29. Cllr Stephen Murray
  30. Cllr Jodie Lucas
  31. Cllr Mary Dadd
  32. Ben Johnson
  33. Cllr Mary Dadd
  34. Ben Johnson
  35. Cllr Mary Dadd
  36. Cllr Jodie Lucas
  37. Cllr Chidi Nweke
  38. Ben Johnson
  39. Stuart Thompson
  40. Cllr Jodie Lucas
  41. Cllr Chidi Nweke
  42. Ben Johnson
  43. Cllr Chidi Nweke
  44. Cllr Jodie Lucas
  45. Ben Johnson
  46. Cllr Chidi Nweke
  47. Cllr Jodie Lucas
  48. Cllr Will Kauffman
  49. Ben Johnson
  50. Cllr Jodie Lucas
  51. Cllr Razia Sharif
  52. Ben Johnson
  53. Cllr Razia Sharif
  54. Ben Johnson
  55. Cllr Razia Sharif
  56. Ben Johnson
  57. Cllr Razia Sharif
  58. Ben Johnson
  59. Cllr Razia Sharif
  60. Ben Johnson
  61. Cllr Jodie Lucas
  62. Cllr Jeane Lea
  63. Stuart Thompson
  64. Cllr Jodie Lucas
  65. Ben Johnson
  66. Cllr Jodie Lucas
  67. Cllr Janet Whitehouse
  68. Ben Johnson
  69. Cllr Jodie Lucas
  70. Cllr Jon Whitehouse
  71. Ben Johnson
  72. Cllr Stephen Murray
  73. Ben Johnson
  74. Cllr Jodie Lucas
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  1. Caroline Wiggins
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  5. Cllr Jodie Lucas
  6. Cllr Mary Dadd
  7. Michelle Kerr
  8. Cllr Mary Dadd
  9. Cllr Jodie Lucas
  10. Cllr Stephen Murray
  11. Caroline Wiggins
  12. Cllr Stephen Murray
  13. Cllr Jodie Lucas
  14. Cllr Razia Sharif
  15. Caroline Wiggins
  16. Cllr Razia Sharif
  17. Caroline Wiggins
  18. Jennifer Gould
  19. Cllr Jodie Lucas
  20. Cllr Lisa Morgan
  21. Michelle Kerr
  22. Cllr Lisa Morgan
  23. Cllr Chidi Nweke
  24. Caroline Wiggins
  25. Cllr Chidi Nweke
  26. Michelle Kerr
  27. Cllr Jodie Lucas
  28. Cllr Mary Dadd
  29. Cllr Jodie Lucas
  30. Cllr Jon Whitehouse
  31. Brian Ellick
  32. Cllr Jon Whitehouse
  33. Brian Ellick
  34. Jennifer Gould
  35. Cllr Jon Whitehouse
  36. Cllr Jodie Lucas
  37. Cllr Janet Whitehouse
  38. Cllr Jodie Lucas
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  1. Webcast Finished

1 WEBCASTING INTRODUCTION

Cllr Jodie Lucas - 0:00:00
Sorry, I've got a little bit of feedback.
If everybody could just make sure that their microphones are off on their teams if they
are presenting tonight.
Okay, welcome to the Community Scrutiny Committee, Tuesday the 3rd of March here in the Civic
offices at 7pm.
I will read the webcast and introduction.
I would like to remind everyone present that this meeting will be recorded live and will
be capable of repeated viewing or another use
by such third parties.
Therefore, by entering the council chamber
and using the seating area,
you are consenting to being filmed
and to the possible use of those images
and sound recording for webcasting
and or training purposes.
So good evening again, everybody, members, officers,
and additional members here this evening.
We particularly welcome, extended welcome
to extra officers that are here
to present to us this evening.
So my name is Councillor Jody Lucas.
I'll be chairman this evening.
I have to my right, my vice chairman, Councillor Jeannie Lee.
To her right, we have Serena Sharni from Democratic Services.
We have Lou Baker this evening on our webcasting.
To my left, we have Nicholas Soyers
for head of legal and deputy monitoring officer.
And we have lead officer here this evening of Dawn Harrison
from service director of housing.
We've got, obviously, as I mentioned earlier,
some more senior officers here this evening.
We've got James Warwick, we've got Jen online as well.
And we will welcome everybody
as we get to the correct items.
So I will now move to substitute members, please.

2 APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE

3 SUBSTITUTE MEMBERS

Serena Shani - 0:01:54
Councillor Brooks, Councillor Pugsley, Councillor Yeryl and Councillor Markham have all sent
their apologies for absence.
The substitute members are Councillor Kaufman will substitute for Councillor Brooks.
Councillor Burrows will substitute for Councillor Pugsley.
Thank you.
Sorry, my bad.
We missed the apologies.
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 0:02:11
So thank you for clarifying those.
Do we have any additional apologies?
Okay, declarations of interest.

4 DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

Councillor Bassett.
Thank you, Chairman.
Cllr Richard Bassett - 0:02:26
Obviously better to clear, I'm Chairman McQuarles
and that's on the agenda.
Thank you.
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 0:02:34
So notes with previous meetings.

5 NOTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING

So we have shared with this evening
minutes from 16th of December and the 13th of January.
Are there any questions or comments on either of those?
Members happy to approve both those?
Thank you.

6 WORK PROGRAMME

Then next on the item is the work programme
on pages 14 to 15 of the agenda.
The only, I would just like obviously to draw
to your attention the work programme dates from January.
So it is still showing a couple of items as not completed
that have obviously been completed.
Tonight is the last communities meeting
of the municipal year,
and then we will have covered all of the items
on the work programme.
I would like to take this opportunity
to remind members that this is good time
to reflect on the work programme,
and in the new municipal year at full council,
there'll be a new work plan.
So if there's anything that you propose
to put forward. Please either speak to myself as current Chairman or Chairman of ONS for
that to be considered. Also, you can speak to Democratic Services who can note items
to be included on next year's work programme. At this stage, is there any particular items
that you wish to mention that you would like included on the next work programme. I suspect
it will follow a similar agenda as this year. Obviously this year was particularly unusual
with the volume of housing policies that we reviewed, but I am sure as time progresses
is there will be additional items to consider.
Councillor Murray.
Cllr Stephen Murray - 0:04:35
Bearing in mind the briefing that Ms. Harrison
has organised for tomorrow on housing inspection,
which is an excellent initiative.
If we were to get an inspection in the ensuing council year,
I would like to think that that was gonna be part
of our programme to scrutinise the results of that.
Noted Councillor Murray, I'm sure both Dawn
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 0:05:01
and Democratic Services will make note of that.
Okay, so that is the update on the work programme.
So thanks again for all of the hard work on, you know,
members attending all of the meetings this year,
because there has been some additional meetings
and I'm very grateful for all of the efforts
in scrutinising all of the items.
We will now move on to the first main item this evening, which is a report on Epping

7 Report on Epping Forest District Museum

Forest District Museum, so Wolfmoe Museum Trust, and I will pass over to those present
to introduce themselves.
Thank you, Chairman.
My name is Shane McNamara.
Shane McNamara - 0:05:45
I am the Service Manager for Contracts, Partnerships and Procurement.
My name is Ian Channel and I'm the Museum Manager at Epping Forest District Museum.
James Warwick, Service Director for Contracts Procurement Partnerships.
Thank you. And now Shane will introduce the report.
Thanks Chairman. Yes, so hopefully members have had the report. I'll pull out a few highlights if that's okay.
So since we moved into a trust in April 2024, as well as my role as Service Manager,
I have been a trustee of the museum, so I've been working with Ian to try and improve things over there.
And I would like to say that Ian is doing a fantastic job,
and some of the things that we'll go through here will highlight that.
So we picked some visitor figures from December just gone to show that we had over 1 ,000 visitors to the museum,
but also over 800 people that we worked with as part of the education service,
so working with kids in schools.
So over 2 ,000 people that we engaged with in that month,
which was a good figure.
In December the previous year, we had 871 users that we engaged with,
so that's a big increase, so that's positive.
Also wanted to let everyone know, just in case you didn't realise,
that Father Christmas came to the museum in December as well.
And for two days as well, because it was so popular.
So 133 children booked in to see Father Christmas over that period.
So that was very positively received as well.
So that was great.
I've listed a few other things that the museum have been doing,
such as adult workshops, wreath making, Christmas cards, things like that.
We also still use it for room hire and community use.
One of the highlights there was a community art class that's been running and using the museum space.
So in terms of the operation of the museum, Ian and the team have also been working to obtain funding from other sources.
As I mentioned in the report, EFDC do provide funding for the museum, but they're always looking to find other sources.
There are a few that I have listed.
I did want to highlight Qualis who provided us £5 ,000 to give improvements to some of
the school workshops and community object handling sessions that we ran.
That was gratefully received as well.
That is probably everything to highlight.
I will open it up if there are any questions.
Thank you.
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 0:08:22
Thank you, Chairman.
Cllr Stephen Murray - 0:08:23
It's been two years since we moved the museum away from being a direct service to being
a trust and I have to say I was really looking forward to this report.
I have to say I'm very disappointed in the report that we've been given tonight but let
me do some positives.
First of all, I'm aware like other members that the educational work that the museum
is doing with schools is really good. I'm really pleased with the outreach work that
I've witnessed. I mean, I can only comment in Louton because that tends to be where I
go. Some people say I only leave Louton to come to meetings here. But seriously, their
outreach work has distinctly improved over two years. So those are the positives. And
I am very aware how committed the staff at the museum are and the volunteers are, because
that has come across at events that I have seen them at.
I am very aware of how busy the other two officers are on other issues.
So I am very, very aware of that.
So I think you can sense, Chairman, that there is a but coming.
Because this is the first time we've scrutinised this since it's become a trust.
And I think, well I can only say as I feel, I think this is one of the poorest scrutiny reports that we have ever received, I have to say.
It pulls out some triggers with December.
I would like to have seen or known how over the two years attendance has either improved
or deteriorated compared to say the previous two years to when we ran the service.
I don't think that's unreasonable if we're going to carry out proper scrutiny.
I would love to have been reminded what our standard standing exhibitions are.
Perhaps I should know.
But I don't remember, so I would love to have been reminded what our standing exhibitions
are and I would love to have had a list of what special exhibitions that we've had in
the last two years.
None of those I think is an unreasonable request.
Yes, I realise that we directly paid for this up to two years ago, but essentially we're
giving this outside body 300 ,000 pounds. There's no other organisation that we give 300 ,000
pounds to. I remember the kind of carping comments that some members of the Cabinet
were making about VAEF on the basis of 30 ,000 pounds a year. Well, we give this outside
body essentially, £300 ,000 a year and the quality of the feedback has not been good.
I've said positive things as well and I have accepted that the officers responsible for
this report are extremely busy in other areas. That's all taken on board but I still think
that the points I'm making are valid points. And again, I don't know how reports are signed
off, whether there is a signing off mechanism with senior officers. I'm just amazed that
this report was signed off as being adequate. As I say, it's a two -year scrutiny of something
that we ran and it was now a trust. It hasn't got all the things in there that I would reasonably
have expected. I would quite like, I don't know whether we've got the right to see it,
but I would quite like to see a list of the trustees.
I mean, I happen to know, I think most people do,
who the chair of the trustees are,
but have we been able to get outside quality trustees?
One of the arguments with the trust
was that it was going to be able to access new monies.
Now, I know it's very competitive,
but we don't really know within those four bullet points
apart from the second one, and that's for a very specific purchase, which again was
excellent that we were able to get that.
How much outside money?
I think these are all reasonable questions for us to have expected.
I hope, Chairman, I've got the tone right, because I have been quite critical, but I
also put it in a positive context.
But overall, very unimpressed by this report for scrutiny.
Not unimpressed by what the museum is doing, but I had to go to the website to find that
and I happen to have had really long conversations, mainly at the Loughton Community Day, where
they put a really good presence together.
So I hope the officers feel that I'm coming from an honest place, but I don't think what
I've said is unreasonable, Chairman.
Thank you, Councillor Murray. Jen, would you like to come in?
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 0:13:48
Jennifer Gould - 0:13:53
Yes, thank you, Chairman. I appreciate the comments, Councillor Murray.
If I may, I'd like to make a bit of a suggestion. I think we have got, if I'm right, in still
this municipal year, we've got an overview and scrutiny still to come. If the committee
would agree, how about we take this report back,
we do a bit more work on it and bring it back to ONS
including some more detail on the lines of that
which Councillor Murray has suggested
and we have a further crack at the week as it were.
I think that that might be a good idea.
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 0:14:36
The only thing I will say is the last ONS I believe
is the Youth Council.
I don't know, unless there's another one prior to that.
I'm just being told there may be one on the 17th of March.
Chairman, personally, I would be happy if we just moved,
Cllr Stephen Murray - 0:14:54
if the agenda allows it, that it just moved over
to the next community committee in the municipal year.
I think that makes more sense.
However, I would suggest that, you know,
you've got some sensible questions, Councillor Murray,
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 0:15:06
and there are people in the room this evening that may be able to answer or at least provide
you with a written response that can be shared to some of your questions. So if at this time
there are any particular questions out of what you've said that you would like answers to
this evening or prior to the next municipal year, please either ask those particular questions to
those that are here this evening or we can put them forward in writing and also as well as that
invite them back at the first meeting.
OK, I think I've got two questions then.
Cllr Stephen Murray - 0:15:39
What have been the one -off exhibitions that you've been able to manage during the first
two years?
And what have been the difficulties and the benefits of moving from your previous status
to your current status?
So any special exhibitions that we've had in the last two years
and what are the, from your point of view,
what are the bonus points of your new status
and what have been the difficulties that you've had to deal with?
Okay, thank you. Who would like to take those? Ian?
Thanks very much for that question, Councillor Murray.
James Warwick - 0:16:22
So over the last two years we've had two large -scale exhibitions.
So the first one was a photographic exhibition about all the towns in the Epping Forest District from the 1920s onwards.
Ian Channel - 0:16:32
The year after that, so our second year as a trust, was our World War II exhibition.
So it celebrated the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War in Europe. It was called Calm and Courageous,
the Second World War Homefront in the Epping Forest District.
And this coming, well not next week on Saturday,
We have our brand new exhibition opening.
You're all very welcome to attend.
And it's titled Town and Country Life in Roman Derelitum.
So it explores what Roman life was like in West Essex
with a particular focus on the West Essex Archeological Group's excavations at Derelitum,
which is a site between Shiguel and Abridge.
Those are our large -scale temporary exhibitions.
Just one of the cons, I'll stop there.
We're a very small team now, so we can only really manage one large -scale exhibition per year.
It's a lot of work that goes into them, but we try to make up for that with smaller changes to our permanent displays.
So one of our newest smaller exhibitions is by the Waltham Abbey Photo Club.
So it shows photographs of the natural world around sort of West Essex and Waltham Abbey.
and that's a real success.
A positive, I think, to becoming a trust
is it really opens up various funding opportunities to us
that would have been closed as part of the council.
And I think that's a real positive.
So other sort of charity funding opportunities.
But I think really the museum has really gone from strength
to strength.
And yeah, a lot going on.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 0:18:19
Thank you. Councillor Sheree.
Cllr Razia Sharif - 0:18:26
Thank you, Chan. Thank you to the officers for that report. I have to echo some of the
comments already made by Councillor Murray. I'm not going to dwell on it, though, but
I would like to come back to the budgets and the amount of money that you were given, the
core funding that you were given from Epping Forest District Council, a whopping well over
at 300 ,000 pounds.
Given that you have that,
what was the need then to take another 5 ,000 pounds?
Well, maybe need is the wrong word.
Another 5 ,000 pounds from Qualis.
And also just on the funding,
you have funding until March, 2028.
What are your plans beyond that period
for sustainability of the museum?
What happens thereafter?
Thank you.
Who would like to take those questions?
Ian Channel - 0:19:21
So the Qolis funding, the £5 ,000, that supports a project that we wouldn't be able to deliver.
So it's outside of our normal work remit. So it does multiple things. The first one is supporting our Roman schools workshop.
So it allows us to give Roman
workshops free to local schools specifically around sort of the Loughton and Chiguel area. Those are the schools we're targeting.
It's also allowing us to go out to Chigwell Library as well as Limes Farm
Community Centre to deliver object handling sessions so the local community
can get up close in person with their own with their own heritage. It supported
an archeological illustrator to bring the archaeology to life. None of the
original archaeology from the site is is standing so it's a great way of bringing
that to life to museum visitors as well as local schools and it's also
supporting building a heritage board between Chigwell and Abridge near the site of the recent excavations.
So that particular funding is outside the normal remit of what we would be able to offer and fund.
The museum itself, what we're trying to do is just make ourselves as financially sustainable as possible.
So that's diversifying our current offer. So we do a lot of different things to do that.
So we do have a donation function now on our website.
We run fundraising events.
So we have a 1940s fundraising event
in Waltham Abbey Town Hall.
We do a lot of different engagement activities
as well, such as King Harold Day,
as well as looking at various funding opportunities.
So traditionally, a museum has always been really dependent
on HLF funding.
But what we're trying to do is diversify that and open up
various different grant opportunities.
And really it's saving as much money as we can do as well
during this time and budgeting in the appropriate way.
Thank you.
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 0:21:22
Councillor Nwoki is first.
Thank you, Chair.
Cllr Chidi Nweke - 0:21:27
I think I'm in agreement with what my work colleague
has just said regarding to the report.
And for that reason, I'm a bit mindful
because I have a focus in a different area of the report
which is on the equality side which says that an equality
impact assessment was carried out and there was no
significant impact.
And on that I have about seven or eight questions on that.
So I'm just mindful considering that the report will be going
back, is it best for me to send this as an email or should I go
through the questions?
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 0:22:06
I would suggest that Jen's going to probably give a similar response to myself but I would
suggest probably, I'll come to you in a second Jen, but I would suggest the probably best
thing to do is put them in an email so that they have that when they come in to review
this report. But let me just go to Jen to see what she's going to say.
Yeah, thank you Chair. Absolutely. We do the equality of impact assessments but don't publish
Jennifer Gould - 0:22:30
them with their reports any longer but we absolutely can't remember if you
would like to email in your questions and specifically we can make sure that
we get those answered in full for you that's not a problem at all
thank you chair I think I'll do that okay thank you
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 0:22:50
Cllr Richard Morgan - 0:22:55
Councillor Morgan thank you one of my questions actually been asked already by
Councillor Rosie Schrief about the forward funding.
Cllr Martin Morris - 0:23:01
So I would like to see that on the report
along with what I think would be helpful
would be a month on month attendance
Cllr Lisa Morgan - 0:23:07
from when two years ago to now.
So we can actually see that what we're hearing is correct.
And there is an increase in footfall place.
Thank you.
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 0:23:23
Okay, Councillor Brooks online please.
Thank you very much.
I won't repeat what my colleagues have said.
Something that I feel the museum has continued very well,
this is a comment first,
is the previous when we were running it ourselves,
Cllr Rose Brookes - 0:23:44
some excellent community activities,
you've really opened it up to the community and you've continued that, you know, in a huge range.
It's very successful and it's what's being mirrored in many museums, particularly urban museums across the country.
What I would like to know actually is when we moved to the Trust, we did have to make some redundancies
and there was a change in the way we offered the education programme, which has always been one of its strengths.
So have we moved now to sessional employment of staff to take the sessions in the school, please? That's the first question.
Ian?
That's a really great question.
Ian Channel - 0:24:37
So when I started in post in February 2024,
the job structure was largely in place
and we had a part -time learning officer.
The original idea was she would be supporting
only an in -house educational programme.
Since that time, we've had a slight restructure.
We've had staff leaving.
So it gave us the opportunity to appoint
a new full -time learning officer.
And basically that has allowed us to renew all of the museum's
relationships with local schools that we had when we were a part
of the trust.
And it's really gone from strength to strength, really.
From September 2025 to the present,
the museum has engaged 1 ,525 school pupils
in off -site outreach as well as in -house visits, which
is an increase of 1 ,409 from the 2004 -2005 financial year, which just shows that we really
do need a full -time learning officer to ensure that we have full engagement.
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 0:25:51
Cllr Rose Brookes - 0:25:54
Thank you. Secondly, I just wonder when you went over to this, and I remember the heavy
discussions about how much money you would have so that you weren't being set up to fail,
which we've seen in many other places like Nottingham, is, excuse me, my brain isn't quite working as it should,
the getting good trustees and also boosting, I know you've got, because one of my constituents is one of them,
a dedicated core of volunteers doing various activities for you, but have you been able to expand that a bit
And also finally, a question about promoting membership as some sort of a membership scheme
as a way of bringing in more income generation.
Ian Channel - 0:26:46
Yes, absolutely. So we currently have about 25 volunteers at the museum.
So when we became a trust, we did diversify our office.
So we now have gardening volunteers that we didn't have before.
We have our long -standing collections volunteers, and we now have learning volunteers,
front of house and of course the museum trustees.
So we have a lot of opportunities really on offer for the volunteers and we also do regular
work placements and student placements with universities.
We have two UCL placements with us at the moment supporting with our learning and collections
programme.
So really that's been an immense improvement
as the years go on really.
Does that conclude your questions, Councillor Brooks?
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 0:27:33
I think so, thanks very, very much.
I know that you're a small team now
and I do know that you have worked very hard.
Cllr Rose Brookes - 0:27:41
I'd just like to acknowledge that
because it's a difficult climate
across the sector and also just trying to be at the heart of Waltham Abbey and
particularly being such a historic town you've continued very well thank you.
Thank you. Councillor Dadd.
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 0:28:05
Cllr Mary Dadd - 0:28:09
Thank you Chairman. I wanted to ask whether the outreach and work in the community is extending
or plans to extend beyond Lauten and Chigwell because as you know Chipping Onger is a very
old community, a lot of historic interest there and of course Epping as well.
And similarly whether you have on the educational aspects.
Thank you.
Thanks very much for that question.
Ian Channel - 0:28:33
Yes, we have a long -standing relationship with Onger Town Council as well as the Onger
Millennium Historical Society and we've worked extensively with them.
We recently purchased some early mediaeval Anglo -Saxon coins and we've made replicas
for the town council so they can offer them to Seirize, the town they are twinned with
in an upcoming celebration.
So we have a long -standing relationship with Onga as well as working in the local schools
there and very similar with Epping, kind of a long -standing relationship with
Epping schools as well as supporting any sort of community events that the Town
Cllr Mary Dadd - 0:29:20
Council has on. I think that I was unaware of that because I have actually
known very much about it prior to two years ago and I think it would be quite
useful to have something like that included in your report. Thank you. Thank
Thank you for your patience, Councillor Janet Whitehouse.
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 0:29:34
Thank you, I'm aware of an off -meme of the Commission now.
Cllr Janet Whitehouse - 0:29:38
Yes, I was surprised when I saw this report to see it was written by EFDC officers.
I had expected it would be written by Ian since the museum is independent.
I was also interested when Mr McMarr said that he was a trustee and I wondered if that's
in their personal capacity or because of his position with EFDC,
when we do have the rewritten report,
I think it would be very helpful to have more about the governance
of the organisation.
I was going to ask about volunteers, but you've already answered that.
But I really am very hazy as to what the relationship is now
of the museum to the council because, you know,
I thought it was independent,
yet here we have two senior officers presented on Ian's behalf,
which just seems really odd.
I'm sure Ian used to present reports to us directly
when he was an EFDC officer, and they were very good.
I think this report is going to be quite long,
the you're going to write report, you know,
report because two years has gone by.
There's so much that we want to know.
I do just note that at the top of the report,
there's the portfolio line isn't put in.
The officer's titles are not put in,
and we do need that information at the top of the report,
so please really fill those in too in future.
But yes, I shall look forward to seeing the new report.
Thank you.
Councillor John Whitehouse.
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 0:31:04
Yeah, apologies for the presentation,
Cllr Jon Whitehouse - 0:31:06
so I'm happy to watch the video if these were dealt with then
but there are three things I wanted to ask if I may.
First of all, just to cheque,
I'm presumably the museum still meets the criteria
for a registered museum
and will do so when it's re -accredited.
I also want to ask about the collections policy.
Before the transfer, there's a lot of work done in this sort
of clearing out some of the collection and, well, yeah,
I suppose make it a bit more targeted.
And I note the kind of acquisitions you refer
to in the report and in what you've just said.
I wondered what the current acquisitions policy was
and what you're actively looking to,
how you're actively looking to enhance the collection.
And the other question actually follows on from what I said,
which is I wondered about governments
in terms of how many trustees are there,
how often they meet, is it the same set of trustees
as when the transfers happened, or has there been recruitment?
What's the turnover like?
And it'd be helpful to have a comment on that as well.
Thank you, Chair.
Thank you for those questions.
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 0:32:18
Shane McNamara - 0:32:23
I'll answer the question on the trustees, although the number actually has changed recently,
so there's eight trustees currently. We meet every couple of months, obviously, to go through
everything related to the museum. I think, just going back to Councillor Janet Whitehouse's
I was initially involved in my role at EFDC as the contracts partnerships and procurement officer,
service manager from the partnerships point of view to make sure that that transition went smoothly.
As part of that along with Jill Wallace at the time we became trustees of the museum.
Now that that transition has taken place I've stayed on to try and help Ian with sort of procurement,
insurance, those sort of things that are more financial things that I might be able to just help with.
So I do that outside in my own time.
But obviously from the Epping Forest point of view,
I am sort of responsible for making sure that that partnership is still going and working well.
So I work closely with Ian on that.
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 0:33:26
Ian Channel - 0:33:29
And sorry, just to add, so the museum is still an accredited institution through the Arts Council.
They have a slight delay because of COVID.
So I'm expecting that us to have to reapply in 2028.
Not really the best timing, but it is what it is.
The rationalisation project, I think,
is what you were referring to.
So that project has obviously informed our collections
development policies.
It's allowed us to refine what we currently have
and remove objects that aren't relevant to the district.
We did have a, obviously, rationalisation involved
the majority of the museum team.
We're a smaller team, so we can't devote 100 % of our time
to that project.
So we're doing it sort of piecemeal.
The acquisition that you were referring to,
that was an early mediaeval finger ring.
So it was, according to the Essex Finds Liaison Officer,
one of the best treasure objects to be found
in Essex over the past year.
So we obtained 22 ,000 pounds worth of funding to purchase it,
which is a fantastic thing for the museum of our size to do.
And we can't wait to really put it on display and shout about it.
I just sort of follow up.
Cllr Jon Whitehouse - 0:34:50
I wondered what the trustees saw as the sort of main priorities at the moment,
or the main risks you're trying to mitigate.
Shane McNamara - 0:35:02
I think really we are just trying to make sure that the current operation keeps running
smoothly.
Obviously we have a great deal of trust in Ian and his team in terms of the policies
that they put in place and that we oversee.
So really it's just trying to make sure that things keep running smoothly, trying to work
on those engagement figures, trying to get more people in the museum outreach to more
people as well. Okay I think that concludes, oh Councillor
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 0:35:32
Lisa Morgan. Sorry just to finish on a positive note I
just want to say it's really good to see their social media as well on Facebook and
Cllr Lisa Morgan - 0:35:41
also the Walter Mabie Historical Society quite often put up all the different things that
are happening in there so that's one really good positive thing that I've got to say last
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 0:35:58
time so I just want to finish on positive thanks let me just see Jen
Jennifer Gould - 0:36:10
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 0:36:13
would you like to add something I would just want to endorse the social media
Cllr Stephen Murray - 0:36:16
presence and next time I'm in Wolfam Abbey which is extremely rarely I can't
wait to see the Waltham Abbey Tapestry because that looked a phenomenal thing that's been
added to the museum.
Before I do go to Jen, I was just going to add my own, you know, as a Waltham Abbey Councillor
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 0:36:32
we're very lucky to have the museum in Waltham Abbey and it's fantastic to hear this evening
the wonderful work that you're doing and the success of the museum and I actually really
look forward to this report coming back with a little bit more detail, you know, really
shouting about that fantastic work but I'll just hand over to Councillor Lee.
Cllr Jeane Lea - 0:36:54
I just wanted to say about the tapestry it's not actually in the museum now it's
in the library and it's absolutely beautiful. I went to the opening.
Hello now, yeah Shane.
Shane McNamara - 0:37:11
Sorry I just want to add before we finished we do have an annual report from 24 -25 on the museum and obviously in the not too distant future we'll have
25, 26, possibly a miscommunication about what things people might have wanted to see
here to be honest. So happy to work with members and we'll come back with the sort of things
that you'd like to see. Brilliant. And I'll now pass over to Jane.
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 0:37:30
Yeah, thank you, Chairman. I think Shane's just covered it really. So I think if it's
Jennifer Gould - 0:37:35
great, we will withdraw this report and we will bring it back in the next municipal year.
The thing that I would say, and actually we ought to have linked the background papers,
it's probably worth reminding ourselves that, you know, for the reasons that we did put
it into a trust was to protect and safeguard the museum for the future.
And although the funding does, you know, is sizeable and absolutely needs to be scrutinised
and monitored, we did, I think, if people recall, make significant savings that year
from the budget and the museum was part of that along with the wider community's directorate.
And I just did want to say really, so in terms of the funding for the museum,
at the moment it runs to March 28th which is of course just before we go to
vesting for the new Unitary Authority with LGR. So we are going to be exploring
and waiting to safeguarding the museum
and giving it a bit of breathing space
while the new local government landscape takes shape.
So we'll try to, we're bringing it back in early
in the next minutes, but we will try to include
some of that in as well, which I hope will be helpful.
Thank you.
Thank you for all of that input, that is very helpful.
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 0:39:00
Okay, so thank you for all of that this evening.
So we if I give those officers a couple of moments because I think they're just
going to pack away their belongings. Thank you for your time.
Ben Johnson - Qualis - 0:39:31
Ben Johnson - 0:39:33
We will now move on to item 8, which is the QALYST performance.
We have the annual report and I will hand over to Ben Johnson if you would like to introduce

8 Qualis Performance & Business Update 2025/26

yourself and your colleague.
Thank you. Thank you chair and good evening members.
For those who don't know me, I'm Ben Johnson. I'm the managing director of Qualys Property
Solutions. I'm joined to my left by Stuart Thompson, who is our head of operations.
Usual format in terms of the reports and members. Sorry, let me just get it to move. There we
So I'm going to talk through the business plan progress, some of the key challenges
that we've faced as a service and business, our year -to -date performance, so that takes
us up to December Q3, and then what's next in terms of the next 12 months and business
plan.
So, just starting with some of the progress we've made over the first three quarters.
So community benefit funds, so we've supported over 40 organisations year to date, so 150K.
There's actually in the pack there is a map which I'll share in a minute which shows the
distribution of those where we funded different charities' organisations. We've also set up
a dynamic purchasing market, so that is around trying to obtain the best possible value for
money for Epping Forest District Council and its residents. So that is starting to work
through as we speak, so we're already starting to make savings in areas where we're delivering
works on behalf of the council. So that will continue and we've got 12 months programme of
that to get through. On the apprenticeship side, we've had three
new apprenticeships start with us in January, so some on the customer side, some within
the trades, so really good to see those young people starting. The partnership model, so
I think when we were last here we talked very briefly about the changes in that arrangement
and the governance model that sits around that.
And that is working well, and we've been able to offer
savings back to the council through that
over around a million pounds.
So that is working well and working really well
with Dawn and her team.
My Qalis, so that is our customer booking portal.
You probably heard me talk about that over the years
for those of you who have been members
for that length of time.
I'm really pleased to say, though, we will be launching this on the 1st of April.
You will start to see some comms coming out to residents around that.
We've got something in the rent statement as well.
And that will allow customers to book routine repairs online at any time that they want
live into our booking system.
So it's something that we've wanted to do for a while and we've finally got there on
there, which is great news.
On the commercial asset management side, so we've rolled out all of the service charges
and sinking funds across the portfolio and we've worked closely with Owen and the team
around the asset management strategy as well. So we've produced that which has been agreed
by officers. On the grounds maintenance side, we've almost now digitised the full service,
So we will be up and running for the grass cutting,
which we're due to start,
well, we're trying to start this week.
So that will mean that we can schedule more effectively
and share that with our colleagues at TVS as well.
So that's some of the progress.
That's just there for reference.
So that just shows the distribution
of where we've provided funding
over the lifetime of the community benefit funds.
So we've been running now almost two years.
So lots of worthy causes across the district there.
So some of the key challenges we face as a business, like
many, it's around skills and recruitment and retention.
So annually we do look at our package, our pay, and we look
at external benchmarking to make sure we remain
competitive so we can get the right balance of value for money while retaining good people
who work on the Council's properties. The new commercial arrangement I mentioned
earlier, that's obviously caused – let me just – sorry, I've got something that's
come up that says it's Microsoft. You can just postpone that. Sorry, go back. So on
On that side of things, obviously we've had to set up new reporting, get into a new regime
around that side of things, so that's caused some challenges in the first six months, but
as I said, that is working well now in terms of the model and the financial arrangement.
And of course inflation is hitting every business, so we have got increasing costs around materials
and obviously labour as well.
So there's some of the key things.
Just moving then to the performance, firstly on the repairs and maintenance side.
So you've got the first three quarters there.
So really good performance on the customer satisfaction on repairs.
So that's at an upper quartile position in Housemarque.
So that's the transactional one that we send out at the end of when repairs are completed.
Similar on the plan maintenance side, so year -to -date 97%.
And then on the grounds maintenance, we send out a survey to HRA customers.
So we're year -to -date 61, so slightly below where we want to be at 63.
But we're hopeful in Q4 that we'll pick that up and hit the target.
A fantastic performance in the customer call centre, so that's where people, customers
ring up to report their repairs. So you see there that we're averaging at 25 seconds to
answer the phone, which is a really strong performance.
First time fix, so obviously the aim is always to come round and fix things at first time,
So we're at 86%, so we're on target there
for the year to date.
Repairs, so completion is on time.
Now you'll remember last time I was in the Chamber,
this was an area of challenge.
So a lot of work has gone into that
and I think I said last time, next time we come,
we'll be in a much stronger position.
And this is some of the feedback we had also through the TSM
was length of time for people.
So I'm really pleased to say we've got that back into Target and we carry very few jobs
now in our work in progress.
Voids on Target, so slightly behind there.
So we did change, EFDC did change some of the methodology in line with best practise.
So we were on working days, we've now moved to calendar days.
So that does mean that we have where there's like Easter holidays or Christmas, the clock
is still ticking.
So there was a bit of an adjustment with the team to get used to that arrangement, but
as you can see there, they've certainly adapted over the course of the three quarters there.
So we won't quite hit the target there, but we'll be fairly close and moving into the
financial year, very confident that that will continue in a positive way.
Voids, so turnaround time, so that's been coming down, so we're at 28 days, so we're
hitting the target in terms of supporting the relets for tenants.
And then on the plan maintenance budget, so we've over -delivered, and what that means
is, so we're given, say we're given 3 million, often what happens is there's additional money
that gets given and we're now in the process of spending that in the last quarter. So we
will hit the programme with the extra money that's been provided, which is positive.
Contract standards, so that's the visual standard that we run and we grade against, so it's
98 % year to date on that.
And then the two areas of compliance
that we support the council on.
So electrical testing has gradually been improving
and we've worked really collaboratively
with the housing team, Dawn's team there.
And we're at 97 .78.
So we're working hard together to get into
as many properties as possible.
And then a really positive piece of work again
in partnership with housing.
So the gas annual servicing. So we've hit 100 % in Q3 and that's actually continuing.
So that's the first time we've done that over the course of the financial year. So really
pleasing. And that is in partnership. That's not just us.
So that's the R &M side. Just briefly on the commercial assets side of things. So we've
managed to increase the rental income to 11 .76 million, you'll see there. And Ian and the
team did a lot of work alongside council colleagues to secure the important income from the market
as well. So that would have taken a hit had that work and partnership not happened. So
that was good. And occupancy is relatively high at 97 .37. You see a slight drop there.
So that does drop and that's because there's a number of assets over in Waltham Abbey that
have come back which were previously thought to be developed but now need to be refurbished
and re -let.
So that's why there's a slight dip there.
On the Qalis commercial assets, everything is running as it should do.
Rental income is coming in, occupancy remains strong and there are no rent arrears.
So, yeah, just a couple of notes there.
So over the last, since 2022, we've added three million of additional rent in terms
of income for the Council.
And also as a result of that work, that has also added additional value to the assets
themselves in the region of around 30 million as well.
So that's the other up side.
So that's the performance side.
Just a couple of slides on complaints and compliments. I always like to show this one.
So over the last 12 months we had 25 ,000 repairs completed, so it's a high transactional activity.
So of course we don't always get that right. We sent out in that period 4 ,300 surveys and
and we received 216 complaints. Those complaints generally related to repeat visits, length
of time should also be on there and communication. But we also in that period received 2 ,753
compliments which is really good. And this graph shows the relationship between number
of surveys, completed jobs and percentage sent. So it just sort of gives you an idea
of the volumes that we're working with. That's a quick graph on the call centre and how the
answer time has reduced, so we're really proud of the work that's gone on there from the
team. And moving just finally then to the business plan over the next 12 months. So
in terms of the business plan, we plan to bring that through scrutiny at the right moment,
We're just working with Owen to determine when that is.
So we're also reviewing in light of the relevant changes
and the landscape with LGR coming up, of course.
Just making sure that everything that we're doing
is still aligned to the council.
We've also been given some new work streams as well.
So windows and doors and roofing planned programmes.
So as I mentioned before,
we're working with Dawn and the team to procure those through our DPM, the Dynamic Purchasing
Market. And we've got some other work streams, so we're pretty much re -procuring most of
our subcontracted arrangements to make sure we're getting best possible value. So it's
working really well so far and we've had, we've appointed four new contractors and they
are all fairly local, some are in districts as well, so that's really good as well.
External business, so we're always looking to push that. We are looking at trying to
offer our handyman service and garden care service to the broader district as well, so
that's something that Stuart is working on with Maria.
And then finally, just in terms of technology, so there's a number of things we're doing
with our system. We're doing some quite major updates at the moment around a product that
we use called Total Mobile.
So that will help operatives in the field.
It will give them better information, better view
from their portable devices.
We're also using a lot of AI to help with customer analysis.
So we've done a piece of work, for example,
on complaints to try and get under the skin.
So using that to our benefit.
Stuart is also working on a couple of pilots
around damp and mould.
So having sensors in properties,
see that's so important with the changes in legislation
and AWABs law.
So I'm working with Dawn's team on that.
So a lot going on, busy time.
Happy to open up to any questions.
Thank you for your report, Councillor Sharif.
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 0:54:14
Thank you, Chair.
Cllr Razia Sharif - 0:54:18
Thank you, Ben, for that detailed report.
Just on the customer satisfaction, why was the target set so low?
Surely should be aiming high 100%, reach for the stars and all of that.
So why was it set so low?
Thank you for that question.
Ben Johnson - 0:54:41
So 94 is very high in the R &M repairs world.
So we benchmark and the council benchmarks using HouseMark.
So HouseMark says upper quartile,
so it looks at councils, housing associations,
says that 94 % is best in class.
With the volume of transactions that we get,
there will always be things that go wrong, unfortunately.
If I said to Stuart about achieving 100%,
I can see his face already.
So it would be a very challenging thing.
So that is considered very good performance.
Sorry, Chair.
I have a few more questions, if that's OK.
Cllr Razia Sharif - 0:55:26
Also on the electrical compliance, to me,
that would be very, very important, getting that right.
Why is that still below 100 %?
Ben Johnson - 0:55:41
Stuart Thompson - 0:55:44
Thank you for the query. Thanks for the query. Yes, it's probably the lowest it's been since
our time of dealing with this. We've done an awful lot of work with the housing about
people who aren't letting us in and we've improved our data management around this as
well. So yeah, I think we'll see significant improvements in the next six months in this
as well.
Cllr Razia Sharif - 0:56:14
One last question please, Jo, if I may. With regards to the complaints and the problems
not being resolved on the first visit, I had a resident in Leidenbois who had this issue.
It was resolved in the end and all credit to Qualis, they were very good with her. What
operational changes are you making to rectify that? Because that's still quite a lot of
complaints to 216. Is it a lack of communication? Is that what it is?
I think it's a very good point and something that we're working on all the time. We've
Stuart Thompson - 0:56:52
done an awful lot in the last 18 months about our material management, making sure that
operatives have the right materials at the right time, and that's improved things. We've
also reduced the amount of works in progress that we hold, and that's at the lowest levels
as it's ever been, which allows us to really focus
on those jobs which are at risk,
that aren't done at that first point.
There's a lot more closer.
We have a materials coordinator helping with that.
So 86 % of first time fix.
Again, it's a good performance,
but we think we can push this a little bit further.
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 0:57:29
Councillor Morgan.
I've got a few points.
Cllr Lisa Morgan - 0:57:34
Do you want me to do them all in one go?
or one at a time? I think one at a time. Okay, well the first one you've actually answered part of
which was about the Niki tickets, electrical certificates. Great news about the gas certificates
I've got to say. The electrical certificates I do appreciate having an electrical company,
not everybody lecturing, but is this not something that EFDC, as they are council residents, we should
be telling them they have to go in and you know you've got to give them chance, I appreciate that,
but we need to have some kind of system to say,
one, okay, we appreciate, two, strike three,
the council needs to do something.
I think that's a Dawn thing, but it's a, thank you Dawn.
I think Dawn's happy to take this question.
Thanks, Councillor Morgan, it is.
Dawn Harrisson - 0:58:20
And we're treating electrical tests
in the same way that we do with gas.
We write to people three times
and then we go down the legal route
because legislation has now changed
and it permits us to be able to do that now.
Thank you.
Cllr Lisa Morgan - 0:58:33
The second one was about the customer satisfaction,
which we'd already heard about, but I'm concerned as well.
We're looking at 8 % down on 24, 25,
but at the moment we're below 10%.
And I don't think that's actually good enough.
You know, we should be saying we are looking at...
Oh, I appreciate you can't look at the 94,
but we should be looking at least in the 80s
To say we're looking at 63%, I don't think is good enough.
And I'd like to say really, I don't appreciate the answer.
Or we didn't get a good enough answer, I believe.
So I'd like some more clarification on that, please.
Councillor, are you referring
to the grounds maintenance satisfaction score there?
Ben Johnson - 0:59:19
Is it just the satisfaction of GN?
Cllr Lisa Morgan - 0:59:22
GN.
Yeah, sorry.
I've got no idea how much it's not a good score
Ben Johnson - 0:59:33
Yeah, so I mean on grounds maintenance that has been improving steadily over the last
couple of years that we've had it. I agree I would like us to be higher on that. It is
a challenging one because there is of course confusion often around who does what and what
we're being judged against because of the differences, you know, with county and there's
It's a land that may be perceived to be owned by us that are not.
Obviously, we have a contract standard that we apply, but customers don't always know
that, and why should they know that, to be honest?
So it's always a tough one.
My experience is if you're hitting sort of mid -70s, you're doing really well on that
side of things.
Cllr Lisa Morgan - 1:00:27
Thank you for that. The other one was on the fly tipping, you've mentioned Chigwell,
which is my area, and we have got that and a lot of you've said that we've had commercial
and household. Are you putting cameras and things in place? Because there are some tenants
that are deliberately flighting time and time again.
And people are trying to report it,
but actually they don't know who to report it to
to effectively say who it is that's doing it.
They want to tell QALYST that they've tried to apparently report QALYST
and it's not worked.
And the second bit of that was, I've just got to say,
I have got one more question after this,
but congratulations, compliments 2753.
and the complaints was only 8 % of that figure.
I'm really, really impressed by that.
And I think that's a real good thing
that we should be celebrating.
Just on the ASB fly tipping side of things,
Ben Johnson - 1:01:26
that isn't something that we is in within our service.
So that would be through the council, yeah.
This is the very last one, thank you.
Cllr Lisa Morgan - 1:01:39
You said about changing the doors and windows, which is really good.
Are we looking at the insulation for the walls and lofts for people as well? Is that something that we're looking
forward to do? And you mentioned about the dampened mould and you did send leaflets out to people.
Did they help? Because I know a few people just
picked them up and went, oh, I don't know what to do with it.
With the installation we need to ensure that people know if we put the installation in
as well that you actually have to open trickle vents on your windows and things which I think
was one of the big issues that we probably had with the mould.
Ben Johnson - 1:02:28
Just to pick up on the programming side of things, that is part of the Council's 30
year business plan and they've got funding for external wall insulation, heat pumps,
that side which has been delivered by a third party. So yes, that is all part of it and
there is the aim to achieve EPCC by 2030 which is where the government's standards are. I'll
let Stuart pick up on the damper mould.
Stuart Thompson - 1:02:54
Yes, so since the changes with ARAB's law came into place, I'm pleased to say that we
We were working with those guidelines probably for at least 12 months beforehand, so we were
ready for them.
We have seen a rise in damper mould cases come in.
We are giving out leaflets as well when we're going out to do property inspections.
We're doing an awful lot of our customer education and how we treat these works, but we seem
to be coping with it.
We're in the peak of damper mould season at the moment.
We're just coming out the back of it.
Hopefully with the weather getting a bit warmer, we should start to calm down then.
But yeah, I think we've coped quite well over the winter.
Thank you, Councillor Morgan.
And I was just gonna add to one of your questions actually
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 1:03:39
on the grounds maintenance.
And just to comment for members,
there's a good opportunity to go around to actually,
I think we're invited along
to see the grounds maintenance in our areas.
And I have attended where possible
because sometimes I do in my work hours,
but it's really good for members
to actually get maybe a better reflection because we are seeing the work that's being
carried out, just like what Ben Johnson was saying there, that actually, yeah, he's correct
that it may not be a true representation.
It may be, but I'm just saying for my area that I've seen the grounds maintenance when
I have been, I've been very impressed.
So I just wanted to add that response.
Please.
Yeah, thank you.
Cllr Lisa Morgan - 1:04:21
I've been on them and they're really, really good and I've got one in about two weeks'
time, which I've got to say is fantastic.
I don't know if it's something that we possibly can do, but I do spend a lot of my time explaining
to residents what belongs to parish, we have a parish road, what belongs to parish, what
EFDC do, what highways do for the different areas. Is there any way that maybe quality
can put on their website saying exactly what areas are those to help customers, or is that
a big ask?
Ben Johnson - 1:04:58
It's a big ask because what we need to do is put all of the mapping on our website.
We do share that with councillors, so hopefully you've got that.
It is a bit of an ongoing battle, it's a difficult one to deal with really.
Okay, so we'll move questions now to Councillor Murray.
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 1:05:16
Cllr Stephen Murray - 1:05:18
Yes, thank you, Chairman. I'm really quite pleased that all the difficult questions have
been asked and I can be Mr Positive for once. But having said that, can I just make what
I think is a very fair point? I'm very disappointed that we don't have a single member of the
cabinets here tonight and I would have thought it wouldn't have been unreasonable to have
expected the relevant portfolio holders to be here. Unless they're all on an away day,
I don't mean a jolly, I mean a focused, hard -working away day.
I just think it's a reasonable expectation when I compare, you know, if we had housing
items here tonight, we know exactly who would be sitting here and presenting the initial
report.
So I don't think it's an unfair comment to say that we've noticed that there's not a
single member of the cabinet here tonight.
I thought this was a really good report to read beforehand to the meeting, and that was
really good.
I have got a couple of questions, but I really want to just make some comments, so I am just
going to go through the presentation.
The first one is a question, actually.
Three new apprenticeships started in January 26, which is always great, and I realise there
might be employment law around the issue, but are they always offered to residents of
Epping Forest?
Ben Johnson - 1:06:46
They are not directly offered because we have to obviously be open, transparent to anybody
who applies, but you generally find they are local because of obviously the travelling,
They need to be generally into the depot.
So most of our apprentices are local young people.
Okay, thank you for that.
Cllr Stephen Murray - 1:07:10
I thought the slide that showed the groups that had benefited from the Community Benefit Fund was really interesting.
I was aware of some of them, but obviously not all of them, and that was very impressive.
I don't know whether I can mention staff by name here because it's all going to be very
positive but I might just mention them by initial and being a good managing director
you'll know exactly who I'm talking to about.
I have to say about any concerns that I've had as regards repairs and I do seem to only
hear about complaints but I suppose that's what all councillors are here for.
I have to say that DC has always responded in a fantastic fashion, in a very timely fashion,
a very good fashion.
As regards ground maintenance, I was surprised by that relatively low customer satisfaction
because certainly since grounds maintenance, though I was against the transfer of grounds
maintenance I have to say that once Qualis got it under its belt I think it
has stabilised and it has improved and when I walk around the areas that
they're doing for for housing I can see an improvement. Oakwood Hill Estate would
be a really good example of where that's improved and other parts of my patch and
I have to say CB and I hope those initials mean something to you has
always been fantastically responsive, not only in trying to do what is a reasonable
request but doing it in a timely fashion.
So I wanted to acknowledge that tonight.
We've had a problem with the retail park.
It's been coming for a little while and I have to say again, IM has been really responsive
on the issue and he's trying to tackle the boy races that seem to be dominating
the year and I was I was very impressed by quarters qualities action and if we
can just reinforce the point to to that needs still to be you know an attempt
was made to try and deal with it and they circumvented it it's something that
we need to tackle.
This is one for the council to learn from.
I was amazed by that average speeds of answer.
Now, whether it's just a staffing issue and whatever,
but perhaps you can talk to our call centre
because they're nowhere near 30 seconds.
I don't know what their measured response is,
but to be honest, I don't phone the district council.
Haven't got the time.
I do an email and hope for a reply.
I just don't have the length of time available to me during the day to phone the district
council.
And that's really quite sad that you've got a district council here saying that they won't
call the generic call centre, because I just don't have that length of time and also the
uncertainty of how long you're going to wait.
but your average speed is very impressive.
And the one last question I've got,
and it might be an unfair question
to expect you to know the answer,
and if you don't, that's fine.
Our email, IM tomorrow.
But we do have one very large unit
on the boardway where the factory shop was,
and I know there were plans to fill that,
but it doesn't seem to have happened.
Are you able to, in a public setting, say how near you are to having that really large
unit tenanted?
But I do realise I wouldn't necessarily expect you to know that.
Yeah, I do know the answer to that one, Councillor.
Ben Johnson - 1:11:19
So there was a provider, a gym, that was going to move into that.
Unfortunately that didn't happen.
That deal fell through.
We then found another gym provider which has unfortunately also fallen through.
So it is back being marketed.
So yeah, we're obviously very keen to get that let because that's an important part
for the Broadway there.
Thank you, Chairman.
Cllr Stephen Murray - 1:11:46
Thank you for those questions and comments.
Councillor Dadd.
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 1:11:49
Thank you.
Cllr Mary Dadd - 1:11:53
Some of the comments have already been said, so I will be quite brief.
I wanted to thank you for an excellent report and also the improvements,
where you have done quite a lot of improvements from quarter one to quarter three.
My dealings with the same staff that Councillor Mummy has mentioned
have been excellent and responsive very quickly.
I want to just say a little bit more
about grounds maintenance because I reiterate
what Council Lucas has said,
that going around the grounds maintenance,
which has also been with EFDC,
has been really, really useful
and does actually highlight that in each,
from the mapping, as you know,
even the parish or town council
aren't sure what their responsibilities are.
ECC, in the Onga Ward, they put in trees without consulting EFDC at all and then didn't water
them.
So it is very difficult.
I also know that ECC give money for the weeding, for example, but then they cut it down.
So when my residents say, you know, the curbs have got weeds growing around them, etcetera,
it's not necessarily Qualis' fault.
But I do think that the suggestion that if you can have a generic thing on what you do
and for example certain things from highways or Essex County Council they delegate to you
to do.
They don't do it to the same standards I know but I have seen in the two years I've got
two separate years I've gone round the Onge the difference when I pointed out a few things
the difference in the maintenance of the area has been really, really positive, particularly
areas where there's been overgrown shrubs and ivy and that sort of thing that was under
the old EFDC presumably. And I'm hoping that they will now put in a maintenance programme
as opposed to we're just going to, you know, cut back the things that we're told to do,
but a 10 -year maintenance and what you're going to do,
because I think that would be really positive
as any sort of garden and things would do.
Because it's not just the grass.
It's the landscape bits as well.
The other thing I wanted to point, and it's...
I've lost my phone bit here.
And that was...
I'm sorry, I've just got to get into this again.
And that was to do with the voids.
It was on page 25.
Return in target.
What do you mean by returned in target?
Who sets the targets?
I mean that's obviously an improvement but obviously any voids are costing us money or
costing you money.
So that is how is that set and the other thing is I see that it's still the average days
come down to 26 .7 days and I was told when I queried this before oh sometimes they're
in a terrible state, blah, blah, blah.
But you have the subcontractors there ready.
You know when they're going out.
Have you now got a different programme
so as soon as that becomes vacant?
I mean, in the private sector, you do an inspection before.
And in the commercial one, you do dilapidations before.
Is that not being done before people go in?
And can you not have you looked to see
how you can actually reduce that number of days further.
Thank you.
Thank you for those questions, Councillor.
Ben Johnson - 1:15:58
So just on the, in terms of the target,
so those are set by EFDC,
and it's dependent on the size and complexity of the works.
So that's within our SLA with the Council.
And we work closely with the Council
around that overall re -let time.
To your point around the, it was around contractors, sorry I've lost the, what was the second bit?
Cllr Mary Dadd - 1:16:28
The second bit was actually relating to the number of days of the average turnaround time
and what you're doing to reduce that because that's really what it's doing.
Ben Johnson - 1:16:39
Yeah, so we work closely with Dawn's team on that and the housing team.
So a pre -inspection is done before the resident leaves,
so we get an understanding of how much work is needed.
The challenge, I suppose, with social housing
is sometimes people have refused works
in the past, for example.
So we end up needing to put, say, a new kitchen bathroom in
because actually that tenant didn't want works.
So that can elongate the time.
It just depends on the condition.
Often we do get issues with gardens
that they need quite big clearance
if people haven't been maintaining.
I mean, I'd be quite happy to maybe take you round
to have a look at some of the voids.
I think that would be quite useful
so you can kind of see some of the condition and standard
and then the reason for why that length of time is.
But we're always working with the teams
around how can we reduce that time,
return them, because obviously we want to get them re -lit,
I'll hand it back to the council so we can get customers in there.
Yes, I would appreciate that.
Cllr Mary Dadd - 1:17:47
But I mean, obviously, you've got a lot of in -house different skills, and they don't
have to be one necessary...
Not normally one after the other.
You can have a whole team of different people going in, which would reduce the time, if
you know when they're going to be moving out.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Councillor Nariuki.
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 1:18:11
Thank you, Chair.
Cllr Chidi Nweke - 1:18:16
I remember during the full Council I raised issue around repeat visits, which someone
in my ward is very upset about because he's lost a lot of earnings waiting for qualities
to come back over and over again to look at the same issue he has reported, even though
he has sent a lot of pictures to highlight what the issue is. He could not understand
why there is so much visit for a simple repair. One question in that, because I saw the report,
which is a good report, and 94 % satisfaction rate in terms of repair is very good, but
Again, there's a concern about the 216 complaints
around repeat visits.
So my question on that is just,
what are we doing to address that?
Bear in mind that this is impacting a lot of residents
who have to take time off work to stay at home,
to wait for a visit to be done,
and then a repeat visit to be arranged
for the same visit to be done twice
before a repair is actually scheduled.
Ben Johnson - 1:19:31
Stuart Thompson - 1:19:34
Thanks for the query. As I said earlier, we're doing a lot about our materials management.
We're also with our resource planning. When an operative needs to follow on a job, they'll
need to justify that. We're also, the new system that we're working on is that that
property will be able to book that return visit with the customer while they're there.
So reducing the inconvenience about having to remake that appointment, get the materials
in and then remake the appointment to try and shorten that period as well. We are reducing
our work in progress. So we're shortening the time, the actual original waiting time.
We're down to I think about 20 days for our key trades of plumbing, carbon tree, electricians.
So the vast majority of our jobs are being done quicker and you can see the trend coming
down.
But yeah, we are focusing rather than just having our satisfaction and our completion
rates, the amount of time people are actually waiting for these repairs, we're looking at
that and trying to reach where that is coming down.
Thank you for the response.
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 1:20:39
Councillor Njeri, did you want to come back?
Cllr Chidi Nweke - 1:20:43
Yes, perhaps we should consider the opportunity that will save more time, for instance, when
residents have a simple repair request and they've sent the pictures of what the request
is.
Perhaps we can use those photographs to kind of make assessment rather than delaying and
booking appointment to visit and see something
that's already in the pictures and use that
as a way of reducing the amount of weight.
Thank you, I mean, that's a really good point.
Ben Johnson - 1:21:19
So part of the MyQALYST portal will allow residents
to upload photos and I think video as well.
So the more information we can get
and the more we can see in terms of what materials required,
that we can then turn up with the right thing.
So yeah, it's a good point.
We do need to utilise more of that sort of technology
and photos and that side of things.
Council Nariuki.
Thank you, Chair.
My last question.
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 1:21:47
Cllr Chidi Nweke - 1:21:47
This came up a few days ago
when I was out and about in Toronton Drive.
And a resident came to me and said,
he's a bit concerned and worried
that whenever a flat is empty,
the quality practise is to remove the windows in the balcony because most of
the properties they have windows on the balcony to help keep the flats warm
during the winter and the question is why is that the practise because
whenever I reason moving he said on it in his in his case he has to pay a lot
of money to put back the window that was removed from the property flat and the
balcony and the question is why is those windows being removed when properties
are empty in Torentine Drive. I'm not aware of that Councillor so if you've
Ben Johnson - 1:22:35
got a specific example you could send we can obviously investigate that because it sounds
very strange to me why we'll be taking out windows so if you could give me the details
we can look into that and respond to you. Yes I've emailed the resident asking for permission
Cllr Chidi Nweke - 1:22:53
to share the email with officers because for me I think that's a concern institution where
we are forcing residents to spend more money
to fix something that is already there.
And the example was showed to be an empty property
next to his flat and his view was the window was there.
Once the resident, the property became empty,
the first thing qualities did was to remove the window
at the balcony, which makes no sense.
Okay, thank you, Councillor Nariuki.
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 1:23:24
Councillor Kaufman.
Thank you, Chair.
I'm just going to change tack
Cllr Will Kauffman - 1:23:31
ever so slightly. I don't know if there's anyone
else that wants to sort of follow in and that and I'll
come back later. It was just
to see whether or not there's any
clarity
yet on the works programme for the
Princess of Wales or the
Pearls Lane Nursery.
Two fairly big sites in my
ward. It might not
quite be the appropriate platform, but
The window sounds like maybe that was because the restrictors need to be replaced.
Thank you, Councillor.
Ben Johnson - 1:24:05
Neither of those sites are in Qualis' ownership, so I couldn't comment on those.
They are with the EFDC development team.
Okay.
Councillor Sheehan.
Thank you, Chair.
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 1:24:16
Cllr Razia Sharif - 1:24:19
Just going back to the MyQolis portal and online bookends,
I don't think I'm the only one that's IT and IT dinosaurs.
So there will be people that either don't have access to
computers or a smartphone or simply can't do the
booking online.
How are you going to accommodate those people?
And I'm sure there's not going to be many,
but there will be still certain numbers.
And then I have other questions on the community
fund, if I may ask those later, thank you. Thank you, Councillor, for that question.
Ben Johnson - 1:24:53
We're not changing anything in our service, so people who don't have access to computer
internet, they can ring up as they normally would for our call centre, so they're obviously
getting a quick response there. We still have our out of hours. Myqualis is really there
for people who want to do things digitally. It's not digital by default, we're not going
down that route.
Cllr Razia Sharif - 1:25:21
Now just for the community benefit fund, and I love these funds, I think they're really
very, very important and they're great if you've got the money to put into the fund.
I know qualities have a few issues which we're not going to go into. Which profitable income
income stream is that money that £150 ,000 coming from?
Ben Johnson - 1:25:48
Yeah, so the 150 comes directly from our surpluses
that Qalis Property Solution makes.
So Qalis Property Solutions has been profitable
for the last three or four years.
So it paid back the initial investment quite early on
within the first couple of years of its existence.
So that comes directly out of our surplus
and is part of why we were set up to offer that community benefit, which of course you
wouldn't get in the same way through an outsourced service.
Who decides on where that money goes in terms of the applications that presumably you get
Cllr Razia Sharif - 1:26:24
quite a lot? So who actually makes that decision? Where does the money go? Who is going to get
that fund and what portion of that fund? Who decides on that, the percentages? Thank you.
Ben Johnson - 1:26:42
Thank you for that. So we have a criteria which we work with EFDC to set up, which is
on our website. So we actually have a panel which I chair, but that's made up of councillors,
EFDC officers and some QALYS officers as well. And we did have a tenant rep on as well from
the HRA which we're looking at. So it's very much a sort of cross slice of the different
stakeholders who make the decision on the application.
But wouldn't having councillors on that panel be a compliance issue?
Cllr Razia Sharif - 1:27:18
Ben Johnson - 1:27:25
I don't believe so. So what we do is we do ask if there's any conflicts of interest.
So if they, and obviously councillors will know different organisations because of the nature of their work,
but let's say that they were, say, a trustee of a particular charity, they'd have to declare that in the meeting.
So that's one of the things that we ask and minute, as does the council around any conflict of interest.
So we do avoid any of those issues.
Okay, thank you. And one final question, if I may. This is the last one.
Cllr Razia Sharif - 1:27:54
and this is just going back to the 150 ,000 pounds.
I know some residents will say,
well, actually, if you have that money
and you've got this profitable income stream,
why are you not paying back your loans?
I'm just being devil's advocate.
Qualis Property Solutions doesn't have any loans.
Ben Johnson - 1:28:15
Thank you.
Thank you for those questions.
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 1:28:20
Councillor Lee.
Thank you, Chairman. You mentioned, sorry, I've not got a good voice at the moment,
Cllr Jeane Lea - 1:28:27
you mentioned about your handyman service. Now before Qalis came on the scene, we used
to have a handyman service that was brilliant and the private people could also use it,
they could ring up and they paid a fee which was fine because there's lots and lots of
elderly people that are frightened of having workmen in but when they come through the
or they feel quite safe.
Are you going to be doing that part in the service?
So when will this sort of be started
or have you started it already?
Hi, yeah, we are looking to expand the service
so we can sell the bits of the service on.
Stuart Thompson - 1:29:08
We're touching out to make contact
with some local organisations,
see what the need is and how we can do this.
Oh, good, because you know, obviously working
in the communities, so many people are nervous.
There was just one other thing I wanted to mention.
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 1:29:23
When I've gone around, there are some council properties
and the gardens have got cars and doors
and so much rubbish in the front.
Is there anything that we can do about that
or is it not something we can do?
Yes, that would be within our own.
Ben Johnson - 1:29:45
Thank you Councillor. So that actually wouldn't be within our remit and if
councillors are noticing that they should go through the housing team
and Chris Walsh they'll be able to support on that side of things.
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 1:30:04
Thank you. Councillor Janet Whitehouse. Thank you Chairman. Can I just start by answering
Cllr Janet Whitehouse - 1:30:08
Councillor Lee's question. The handyman service you mentioned still exists. It's
still given by volunteer action in Pea Forest.
And in fact, I had to serve this today.
So there used to be two handymen.
The one for the owner occupiers stayed with VAF,
and the one for the tenants moved to Qualis.
So just go to VAF and make your booking.
It's still there.
But yes, to move to my questions,
I was going to ask about voids.
That's been answered, but I would very much like to do
the visit that Councillor Dadd is doing.
With regard to the Communities Fund, you've just mentioned that some councillors are on
that and they have knowledge of organisations in their area.
But what about all the councillors who are not on it who also have knowledge of the organisations
in their area?
When we had a grant aid panel, which I used to sit on, councillors whose ward the applicant
was in used to be invited to make a comment about the organisation and perhaps you could
adopt that so those of us who are not on this panel have the
opportunity to stand up for organisations that are there who
are not in the area of the councils you have.
It just doesn't seem fair on the organisation that some have
someone to speak for them and some don't.
But my other question was about the handyman scheme and the
gardening scheme.
When it was done by VAF, I knew very clearly what they did and I
referred people to them.
I have absolutely no idea what the criteria is for the service under you, who is eligible
and what exactly they do.
So if you could just either briefly answer now or email me later knowing what the time
is.
Yeah, thank you, Councillor.
Ben Johnson - 1:31:51
Just on the community benefit funds, so that's something we'll have a think about.
In terms of the members, so generally what we've done is with the portfolio holders,
and obviously we want to be as nimble as possible
so that we get the money to the relevant charities
in a timely way, but that's something we can look at.
In terms of the handyman service,
we can absolutely send you the scope.
I think we've got a leaflet around that we can send to you
rather than go through that today.
We can do that, yeah, no worries.
Thank you, and we have finally,
Councillor John Whitehouse.
Yeah, thanks.
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 1:32:26
Cllr Jon Whitehouse - 1:32:29
It's really good to see the response times in the contacts centre come back.
And it's also good to see that what you've identified from the complaints are the same
issues that have come up to me because it shows you're aware of what these persistent
issues were.
I think one of the causes of frustration is when it always comes down to the tenant to
chase to see what's happening.
And I just wondered if there was any prospect of having a system where someone in Qantas took ownership of a particular issue
and it was their responsibility to update the tenant on when things were due to happen or if things had been delayed
and presumably these things are tracked on systems and so forth.
And some systems I know can automatically do these things but you may not have that.
But that would seem to get around a lot of frustration
where something's not done on the first fix and then
sort of disappears into a black hole.
And that, I think, is causing frustration.
If we have to wait but know for how long, it's a lot easier.
Yeah, thank you.
It's a very good point.
Ben Johnson - 1:33:37
And I think we all agree that a lot of our complaints
are about the lack of information
that customers have had in the past.
And I've mentioned it a few times,
our work in progress with the reduction, we now have our resource planning team looking
at the jobs which are at risk, so not the ones that have just about gone out of target,
the ones at that seven day risk contacting customers to making sure that they're more
informed about what's happening with their repairs.
Just to add to that, just in terms of the digital option, so obviously we need to be
calling people who are not using that, but it does also give the status of things, so
we're waiting for materials if the job is in progress when the next appointment
is booked so that is also another way that people can track and we recognise
that the digital is not for everyone but that is a different option as well
Cllr Stephen Murray - 1:34:33
I'm going to make a point and then one question and it is on the community
benefit fund. I don't think we want to over complicate it because otherwise it
makes it quite cumbersome to work. I think what we as members want to be
concerned about is the criteria and I think that's published. I think I read it
it is published I think it's on the website the criteria is you're judging
applications against. I'm sure the panel that you've got are quite able to judge
applications, vis -à -vis the criteria. I do think it's a reasonable question
to ask and without naming organisations, have there been applications made to the
that you haven't felt able to support?
And what were the kind of reasons,
without mentioning Pacifics,
that, you know, the reason why they haven't been supported?
Thanks for that question.
Ben Johnson - 1:35:43
So some of the reasons we haven't supported
is the sustainability sometimes of the charity.
So we wanna try and fund projects.
We don't want charities to be too self reliant on us
for just revenue income, if that makes at all sense.
That's one of the reasons.
We have also, we did change the criteria a little bit
so that people couldn't apply
in the same financial year as well,
because we were getting repeat people coming back for more.
And obviously we want to spread that money
as much as we possibly can across the district.
We had, just to give an example without the specifics,
but we had a group of businesses come to us around a defib,
but actually thought, well, they could commercially fund that themselves.
So again, we didn't feel that that met the criteria within the fund
and benefit HRA tenants.
So a lot of it's around the criteria or trying to make the money go further, really.
Okay. Thank you, members.
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 1:36:51
and thank you Ben and Stuart for being with us this evening.
I know that was quite lengthy but very useful,
so thank you very much and I'm sure members
know the contents of the report.
Okay, I'll just give those a couple of moments to pack away.
Okay.
Okay, I am aware of the time, but I hope we will take this into good consideration because
we have a really important item to consider now.
So we've got the Community Safety Partnership here.

9 CSP Strategic Assessment and Annual Report

It's going to be discussed in two parts.
We're going to have the public session, which is on the annual report, and then we will
move into the private session to cover the strategic assessment.
So what I will do is I will pass over to Caroline to introduce herself if there are other officers
present who would like to introduce yourself and if we could first have the annual report
please.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Caroline Wiggins - 1:38:15
Obviously I'm Caroline Wiggins, the direct specialist here at EFDC and my responsibilities
are community safety and safeguarding.
Good evening.
My name is Brian Ehrlich.
Brian Ellick - 1:38:24
I'm the service manager for community resilience and that encompasses ASB safeguarding and
environmental crime.
Good evening.
Good evening, Bandy Thompson.
Mandy Thompson - 1:38:38
I'm service director for regulatory services.
Good evening, I'm Michelle Kerr, the anti -social behaviour team manager.
Caroline Wiggins - 1:38:52
I would like to note that this is different to previous years scrutiny meetings where
the police have been in attendance.
I am here tonight to present these reports on behalf of the CSP in my capacity as the
CSP Manager.
The CSP annual report gives a really good snapshot of everything we delivered together
across the district in 2025.
It shows just how wide ranging our work is, whether that's keeping high streets safe,
tackling fly tipping, shining a light on hate crime and antisocial behaviour during awareness
weeks or working with Epping Forest Youth Council. We also supported residents through
our Stay Safe and Well events, winter events. The report highlights two local policing operations,
Operation Marilyn, which focuses on retail crime and Operation Territory, which supports
the Government's neighbourhood policing guarantee. I've started to produce a quarterly CSP
managers report which you are now seeing in the members
bulletin alongside the CSP action plan after every
CSP meeting.
This will give everyone a consistent and accessible
overview of our progress.
Essex Police have also committed to provide regular
updates and I sent the first one of those updates to the
members bulletin last month.
At our February CSP meeting Essex Police shared some
encouraging figures from the last 12 months to December
All crime, excluding fraud, is down 7 .7%, dropping from 9 ,599 offences to 8 ,864.
And police -recorded antisocial behaviour is down 10 .6%, from 917 to 820 incidents.
To give some wider context, the false -wife picture shows a 3 % reduction in crime overall,
but a 2 .7 % increase in police -recorded ASB.
Locally, we are performing strongly and that is a direct reflection of the work we are
doing across the CSP.
In contrast, the latest Essex Police Public Perception Survey shows that only 37 % of respondents
in the district feel Essex Police are effectively dealing with crime and antisocial behaviour
compared to an Essex wide average of 48 .4%.
This highlights a gap between policing activity and public confidence and the district commander
is developing a confidence improvement plan which the CSP will have the opportunity to
review the plan and provide oversight and challenge, identify opportunities for joint
working and support communication and reassurance activity.
Open to questions, Chair.
Thank you.
Okay, Councillor Dadd.
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 1:41:29
Thank you, Chairman.
Cllr Mary Dadd - 1:41:33
My question relates to your report on page 38, the ASB Awareness Week.
And you've got a photograph there and you relate to Shelley.
Really what I'd like to know is what report you have coming back from that
and what you've learnt from that event, because I attended that
and it was very last minute.
It was at a time near the shops in Shelley between 10 and 1.
I arrived just before 10, they were still setting up.
They took it down by 1 o 'clock.
Hardly anybody came because it's not a time
when people actually visit there in the week.
If it had been by the school and been properly advertised,
you would have had a much better support.
So it's not particularly typical.
I know that a lot of the people who came did knock on doors in Shelley Close only, but
that's only one little area.
Yes, there are issues there, but what I'm reading here, if I hadn't been there, I'd
have thought, well, that was a really good event, and I really wanted to know what you've
done with the outcome of that and what you've learnt for the future.
Thank you.
Can I just add, overall I know you do a tremendous amount of work and it's very difficult, I'm
sorry I started streaking with the criticism.
That's okay, I was at that event with you.
We had done it the year before at school time and although lots of parents had come past
with their children we didn't really have much uptake on the stall in terms of similar
to what we did.
Michelle Kerr - 1:43:23
We always take away, I mean like this year, we would obviously try and do it again a different time.
I think unfortunately that day was one of the hottest days of the year.
And we did do door knocks. We took a lot away from those door knocks.
So we had a lot of reports of antisocial behaviour that was followed up afterwards.
But again we've got another event, we've got another week like that coming up in July.
So we'll think about what we did and try and change it.
Can I just come back and say, can I talk to you afterwards about the feedback piece?
Cllr Mary Dadd - 1:43:54
Thank you.
Yes, no problem.
Councillor Murray.
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 1:43:59
Thank you, Chairman.
A few points.
Cllr Stephen Murray - 1:44:03
Can I just get my head around, because I was surprised that a policeman wasn't here tonight,
or the Chief Inspector.
What's the right term?
Chief Inspector, that's the rank, isn't it?
Does that mean we are never going to get the police or it's just been done in this manner
this year?
Caroline Wiggins - 1:44:28
Just for the purposes of these reports that's been done, we spoke to the district commander
today, the Chief Inspector, and we suggested that we could either do a drop -in session
or if there's a particular reason for scrutiny on the forward plan that you'd like the police
to attend we can arrange that as well.
So it's just for the purpose of the CSP reports that I'm here to do that.
Yeah, I do think that's important. I think it's important for the police
Cllr Stephen Murray - 1:44:52
and I also think it's important for members of the public to see elected representatives
holding our police to account is probably too strong a word because partnership is important.
But asking questions of the police and how they prioritise things and what they've done
and so on. I just think that is really important that members of the public see that. Informal
briefings and them holding coffee mornings and so on is fine, but I think, I'm very aware
that the police are independent, but I think it's equally very important within each locality
and Epi -Froise is a big locality that elected representatives are publicly holding, you
and difficult questions and giving the police an opportunity to share their successes and
so on.
So I certainly would want to see that on a future work programme because I think it's
good for the police and I think it's good for relationships between the public and the
police.
And that brings me on to my other issue, my other point I was going to make about perception.
I think it will help with perception because there is obviously a difference in people's
perception of what is happening
and what the statistics are telling us.
And I'm not expecting the officer to comment on this,
but I will also make the point,
without identifying the particular group
I am talking about,
but I think it will be fairly obvious once I've made my point,
there is a political group throughout the United Kingdom
that very strongly sell the idea of a broken Britain.
And that's part of the agenda.
You know, Britain is broke, nothing is going right,
and therefore crime is far worse than, you know...
I mean, if you looked at what you saw on social media
about London, you would never get on a tube train again.
And I walk around London quite a bit,
and I feel perfectly safe.
So the police have got a difficult job
because there's lots of people there with an agenda
that want to portray the situation as being far worse than it really is.
So it's always going to be a difficult one.
I just wanted to acknowledge and thank those involved in the work on the Oakwood Hill estate.
That has been a real success storey.
And I also wanted just to acknowledge, because I happen to be there so you see things, I
there in the teaching role the youth council or the youth conference rather which the youth council
played a key role in was was very successful. I do have some questions on the part two agenda.
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 1:47:59
Thank you chairman. Thank you. Thank you Councillor Murray and I know your recommendation for the
Thank you very much for that report.
Cllr Razia Sharif - 1:48:06
The reductions are great, very positive, so well done.
But how are you going to maintain those long term?
Then I have one other question, thank you.
That's a really challenging thing.
Caroline Wiggins - 1:48:21
I think we'd win the elections with that one if we knew.
I think there's a lot more exciting things going on
for this year with the CSPs just agreed
to develop women's safety charter for Epping Forest.
That work will start after the election.
I think what we've done, and I know that Councillor Murray mentioned Oakwood Hill and what we've
done at Nine Fields, is we've tried to make sure that it's sustainable and that we don't
just do a little bit of work and then run away.
I think it's sort of reinforcing and trying to support those groups.
supporting our local partners in the area.
Sync Hearts have just received funding from the Community
Safety Development Fund of 20 ,000 pounds for activities
for young people.
I know that Lime's Farm, Youth Unity have just received funding
for their work they do at the youth club there for violence
and vulnerability.
So I think it's about knowing what's working,
trying to really support those partners in what is challenging
time and working together as a partnership.
It has been a challenging year, I think, you know, with the hotel protests and other things.
But I've got to say that I wrote my first manager report in November,
feeling that we spent the whole year working on other things, and actually it was great to see what was going on.
It's a really strong partnership in Epping Forest.
We are considered by the PFCC's office as a great example.
they often come to visit us and buy us some guidance.
So I think we've just got to continue that work
and continue that momentum.
Thank you.
This is probably going to be an even more challenging question
Cllr Razia Sharif - 1:50:04
and I apologise for that.
So with the local government reorganisation approaching,
and a year away, but that year will go very, very quickly,
how will CSP maintain effective partnership
and working with governance and delivery against its 2026,
27 priorities, if that makes sense.
Thank you.
I'm involved in some discussions at Safer Essex.
Caroline Wiggins - 1:50:35
I think what all the CSPs and Safer Essex is worried about is
that we lose all the good work where things are stopped because
okay, we've got LGR coming and that's that.
So I think it's about, again, I think it goes back to what I said about supporting what works well,
making sure that we don't stop working because we think this is going to happen in 18 months time
and we can't do anything in that time.
I was at a meeting today about sexual violence and that partnership.
So I think the PFCC's office and Safe Ressex, there's a strong drive of working with the CSPs and partners
to make sure that we don't lose what good practise we do have in Essex as we split into
the different LDR.
Jen, would you like to add to that response?
Yes, thank you, Chair.
Jennifer Gould - 1:51:25
Just two reassure members.
There's a number of different working groups that have been formed across Greater Essex,
so with representation from all of the 15 local authorities, one of which is the system
and Collaboration Working Group,
which I represent EFDC for.
And that is absolutely, the purpose of that group
is looking at partnerships that already exist
across the county, whether that might be
in pockets of partnerships or those that exist
across the whole of Greater Essex.
And it is designed really to, A, maximise the partnerships
that are already in existence and kind of build on those
and strengthen them where possible,
as well as looking at opportunities for new partnerships.
So I just want to reassure members that, you know,
our partnership with the police and the PFCC
will absolutely form part of that.
And the police are also represented on that group.
Thank you, Jim.
Councillor Morgan.
Thank you.
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 1:52:32
Cllr Lisa Morgan - 1:52:35
First of all, I'd like to say it's great news
about the funding for Youth Unity,
because I do go there quite often on a Friday evening to see them and it has helped a huge
amount with the anti -social behaviour with the children and obviously it was brought
in originally to help with the county lines that was trying to infiltrate the state. So
it was really, really good news. 37 % of residents said they don't feel supported. I might
a negative thing at all. I think it's actually the fact that they don't feel
supported because a lot of the residents aren't reporting the things. We do have
quite a lot of anti -social behaviour and the people are quite happy to report it
on Facebook, to contact me as a councillor, to contact me as their
neighbourhood watch coordinator, but they're not happy about contacting the
police. They're not happy about contacting the council when it's a council tenant.
They feel that there's walls put up and there's barriers.
What can we do to really work with them to say,
we're not going to tell the residents that it was you that reported it?
And a lot of people really upset,
and I find that mainly on the state,
but there is anti -social behaviour and they don't want to report it
because they feel that people are going to find out it's them.
Thank you.
That's quite a typical response that we get from social behaviour.
Michelle Kerr - 1:54:07
We have done events on the lions that stay in particular.
We've done dropping sessions at schools,
which is advertised through the schools,
where people can come in and talk to us confidentially.
We can take on board your feedback
and maybe do include it in more events in the area.
But it is about educating people and getting the word out there.
We've leafleted through doors.
We've sent ASB flyers out in the post.
but I guess it's just about being a presence and talking to as many residents as we can.
Cllr Lisa Morgan - 1:54:43
Thank you, yeah that is really good to know and I know also, and it's not only just on the estate either
because we have found weapons and things in various other places throughout Chigwell and Grange Hill
in bushes and bits and pieces on different parts of council land.
And it's really about how can we,
well I suppose as a council as well really,
because we pay a part as councillors as well as officers
to find out what we can do.
How can we say to them, yeah, it is safe.
And it would be really nice to get some kind of feedback.
You don't have to give it to me now,
but some kind of feedback that you know,
what you would like councillors to do as well as officers,
because I feel that we do,
we have to play a part in this as well.
Thank you.
Councillor Nariuki.
Thank you, Chair.
Cllr Chidi Nweke - 1:55:37
And I just want to thank the officers for the report,
which I did enjoy reading.
And as you will be aware,
I'm one of the councillors for Oakwood Hill.
And that's where,
and it's supported by what councillor,
what he said about the fantastic work
that's been going on in the area and the engagement that the officers have been having in Oakwood
Hill which has made a positive change.
Reading this report I just had two questions on it and I just want to find out about the
challenges and adjustments that have been made in the area.
For instance, my first question is about what challenges were encountered during the implementation
of the project and how were these obstacles addressed.
and the second question is about where have there been any unexpected outcomes
positive or negative from the project and what were meant for that exploration
if you don't mind and I might come back with one more question if you don't mind Chair.
Caroline Wiggins - 1:56:44
Is this directly related to the Oakwood Hill project? I think a lot of the
challenges we had we ironed out because we did nine fields first. Nine fields Safer Street.
So there was a lot of learning from that for when we went to Oakwood Hill. I would say
that the member involvement with yourselves and Councillor Murray and that input about
what's needed was great. I think Communities and Partnerships and Claire Evans and Vanessa
and the team, I think our Safer Streets projects have been some of the best cross service and
with housing and Cheryl Conter and Tennessee Estates,
that partnership working in the council
has been second to none.
And I think that's why we were successful
in getting two lots of Safer Streets funding,
to be honest, so they had that feedback from members
and officers and across services.
And it truly was a cross -service project,
really good working groups.
I don't know about unexpected.
No, I think, you know, going back to basics that we talked about grounds maintenance,
about keeping the estate tidy and the broken window syndrome and so on.
They're not big things, but when they do it makes a big difference to the people who live there.
And I think we should remember that, you know, and I look locally for where I live, you know,
And if there's not litter and there's not graffiti and there's
not, I think that makes a big difference to where you live
and how you view where you live.
And I think the activities that Communities in Partnership are
delivering in the community hall where there's a place for people
to meet and an identity about I live at Oakwood Hill and this is
what we're doing and this is for us.
I know I've gone round it a bit, but I do think they're two of
best projects we've done with the PFCC. Thank you.
Thank you. Councillor Nariki.
Yes, I'll just make a comment on that. And I think I agree with what has been said.
Cllr Chidi Nweke - 1:58:55
Perception matters a lot in terms of how people feel in the local area. They live,
they're safe, they feel. And like you said, keeping the area clean is one thing that makes
people feel proud of where they live. And once you're happy and proud of where you live,
you feel a bit safer and happy to engage with any activities going on.
And that brings me into one thing that has been brought to my attention by residents in terms of abandoned vehicles in the estate,
which is something that quite a few residents have raised that makes them feel that the area is not looked at.
If you have vehicles abandoned in the estate, not being looked at, and residents are looking for places to park,
and it's giving that feeling that you can just abandon your vehicle in the
in the estate and no one would do anything about it. So on that aspect is there
anything that can be done to improve the issue of abandoned vehicles in the estate?
Thank you Councillor Nowocki. Yeah so that would be our estate's team that would
Michelle Kerr - 2:00:02
manage the abandoned vehicles so what residents need to do is report that
directly to them.
So what I can do is send you their email
and then you could pass that on to residents.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Councillor Dadd.
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 2:00:19
It's okay, I'll do it in part two, thank you.
Cllr Mary Dadd - 2:00:23
Okay, so I think that can,
Councillor John Whitehouse.
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 2:00:27
Thanks, yeah, I mean I think partnership working
Cllr Jon Whitehouse - 2:00:29
in this area has always been a strength for the council
and that comes across in the report.
I did want to ask about the partnership working in the fly tipping area.
It's noticed the Environment Agency isn't mentioned as one of the partners that the
Council has worked with.
Obviously they have a role particularly in the large fly tipping.
I just wondered if you could comment on that.
Is that because they tend to work to their own planner in their own silo or what's behind
that?
So we do work closely with the Environment Agency.
Brian Ellick - 2:01:04
As you know, they mainly pick up the larger scale, more organised type of fly -tipping.
What we try to do there is ensure where it's localised, we have that direct monitoring
and support mechanisms in place to support their larger investigations.
They are particularly challenging.
I know there's a couple of this particular, there's a particular incident in Epping that
is currently ongoing and we're working very closely with them at the moment to sustain
what they've got in place to tackle that issue.
So they are a key partner.
I think there's areas where we can strengthen those partnerships, not just with the EA but
with the police and across borders, to be honest with you.
But there is, I think, a very good baseline
of partnership work that we've got in place to work from.
That's good.
I think what's sometimes surprising to people
is how long it seems to take the government agency
Cllr Jon Whitehouse - 2:02:12
to stop waste moving onto a site,
even when they are aware.
The other question I had was,
I noticed one of the six or five or six priorities for the forthcoming year is community restoration.
And that's also a topic that comes up in the risk register and elsewhere.
It's always been a bit vague when it's been asked what exactly that means in practise,
what resources we're applying to that, you know, what the measure of progress with that is.
So I just wondered if you could expand a bit on what community restoration will mean.
So, is this to do with fly tipping or just...
Sorry, no, I've moved on to the...
All parties, apologies.
So, we're at the early stages of that piece of work, which...
Brian Ellick - 2:03:07
Yeah.
Jem, would you like to come in?
Yeah, Jem, would you like me to answer?
Yeah.
Jennifer Gould - 2:03:16
So I think it's a really good question and one that as officers have been asking ourselves and debating quite a bit.
So there are, because of some of the issues that we experienced over the course of the last year,
there are two groups that have emerged.
One much more sort of locally that Caroline and Mandy
are involved in and that's looking at sort of community
cohesion within the district.
And then there is also one at counter wide,
which myself and Mandy are both involved in as well.
And because that's looking at all of the different issues
across Essex, we are experiencing some of the
the similar and related issues,
not least as a result of the bell
and the silence is being accommodated
in varying different parts of the county.
What I've said at those groups is that
when we talk about community cohesion
and what that means
and how we may bring our communities together,
I'm not sure that as a district,
we are quite at that stage
because we have experienced, our communities in our residents have experienced quite a lot of
upset over the course of the last year and I think there's something around restoring a bit of trust
and a bit of faith and a bit of and feelings of kind of safety and giving people a bit of a space
to talk a bit more openly and honestly about how they're feeling about things and how the events
over the last year have impacted. And that's what I mean about restoration really. I think
there's something about restoring a bit of a safer environment for people to come forward and really
tell us how they're feeling and what they want to see before we can then take the action and deliver
some of the activity that will get us to a more cohesive place.
But it is, you know, the thing that I would say is that it is an emerging piece of work
and, you know, we are finding it a little bit with it, but it is very much a collaborative piece of work
and it is quite iterative.
So as it emerges, we will absolutely keep this committee and members up to speed with it.
but I think we've got some certainly some work to do
over the course of the next year or so.
I hope that answers the question a bit,
appreciate it's still slightly vague,
but as I say, it is a bit of an emerging picture.
Are you happy with that response, Councillor Whitehouse?
Well, no, I'm grateful for the response, thanks.
Thank you.
Cllr Jon Whitehouse - 2:06:14
Councillor Janet Whitehouse.
Oh, okay, no problem.
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 2:06:17
Cllr Janet Whitehouse - 2:06:19
Okay, so I think that concludes the questions on part one.
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 2:06:21
So I will now move to excluding the press and public.

10 Exclusion of Press and Public

So the public and press are hereby excluded under
paragraph three of the local government act 1972.
For information, the monitoring officer has made
an assessment and found that the disclosure of the
information would be prejudicial to the conduct
of public affairs, hence the restricted access.
If we could please pause the webcast in.
Thank you.
Cllr Richard Bassett
District councillor for Roydon and Lower Nazeing ward
Conservative Party
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Cllr Rose Brookes
District councillor for Buckhurst Hill East and Whitebridge ward
Loughton Residents Association
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Cllr Mary Dadd
District councillor for Ongar ward
Conservative Party
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Jennifer Gould
Strategic Director - Chief Operating Officer
Epping Forest District Council
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Dawn Harrisson
Service Director Housing & Property
Epping Forest District Council
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Cllr Will Kauffman
District councillor for Loughton Fairmead ward
Loughton Residents Association
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Cllr Jeane Lea
District councillor for Waltham Abbey North ward
Conservative Party
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Cllr Jodie Lucas
District councillor for Waltham Abbey West ward
Conservative Party
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Cllr Lisa Morgan
District councillor for Grange Hill ward
Independent
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Cllr Richard Morgan
District councillor for Rural East ward
Conservative Party
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Cllr Martin Morris
District councillor for Waltham Abbey North ward
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Cllr Stephen Murray
District councillor for Loughton Roding ward
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Cllr Chidi Nweke
District councillor for Loughton Roding ward
Loughton Residents Association
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Serena Shani
Democratic Services Officer
Epping Forest District Council
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Cllr Razia Sharif
District councillor for Epping West and Rural ward
Liberal Democrats
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Cllr Janet Whitehouse
District councillor for Epping East ward
Liberal Democrats
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Cllr Jon Whitehouse
District councillor for Epping East ward
Liberal Democrats
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