Council bosses will be scrapping a ‘confusing’ policy which lacked the ‘teeth’ to tackle the area’s eyesores.
South Holland District Council’s (SHDC) policy development panel discussed discarding the derelict and untidy policy and replace it with a document which signposts people directly to existing reporting methods, writes Local Democracy Reporter Oliver Castle.
The policy was introduced in 2022 as a way to tackle grot spots across the area such as the former Bull and Monkie in Spalding.
Councillors say the policy duplicates existing environmental legislation and want it replaced with a ‘robust guidance signpost document’ along with plans to create a central register.
Independent leader of the opposition Coun Paul Barnes was part of a task group which looked at the policy’s effectiveness and whether it was fit for purpose.
Coun Barnes explained to a meeting on Tuesday (June 2) that reported untidy sites would go through planning, building control or environmental services to see what legislation could be used.
He said: “The proposal that we had was a lot of nice words but didn’t actually give any meat to the bone.
“We’ve cut that out and come up with a signpost that actually points directly to the department that’s actually acting out the legislation.”
The derelict and untidy sites policy was established in 2022.
It aimed to work proactively with landowners, provide guidance and escalate enforcement where necessary on unsightly and neglected properties across the district. .
Coun Barnes went on to say that the council has plans to develop a central register to report derelict and untidy sites to make it easier to tackle the issue.
He said: “I think the whole task group got a bit confused with all the different legislation that’s out there.
“So that’s the recommendation to retire a policy that didn’t actually have any teeth because you could follow it but you couldn’t actually do anything with it.
“You had to then divert off to the legislation through it. So, it wasn’t actually doing anything apart from talking about individual sites that were there at the time the original policy came out because that can change.
“So what we really want to do is just have a like a booklet – a signpost that can go parish councils that can go to members, ‘what do I do if I see this and where do I report it’ – and then let the officers deal with the legislation because they’ve already got the role of doing that.”
Coun Barnes concluded by saying he believes the proposed new register would make it more accessible for members of the public.
He added: “It will make it easier for reporting. It will make it clearer on what to report and to where.
“And it will also end up with a system where people can actually track the progress on that particular report.”
The proposed new signpost document would include where to report an issue, the relevant services to contact and predicted timescales before it is looked at.
SHDC officials will consider the proposals and will make recommendations which will be considered at a cabinet meeting at a later date.
