Agenda item

Objective: To review the policy for how the Council will address the repairs, maintenance and renewals of existing boundary fencing and respond to fencing issues raised by tenants.

The Director of Housing – Customer and Community Services presented the draft Fencing, Hedgerow and Boundary Policy to the Committee. She explained that this had been a major area for complaints earlier in the year as we were unable to evidence we were consistently responding to requests around fencing leading to dissatisfaction among tenants. She highlighted that the policy seeks to balance the budgetary restraints of the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) whilst ensuring tenants receive a fair and consistent response that reflects the importance of fencing in creating safe and manageable spaces. She explained that a pragmatic repairs first approach will be taken that includes recognition of the importance for maintaining hedging as a more natural and sustainable boundary that supports biodiversity, with projects developed to support vulnerable tenants to maintain biodiversity.

The Committee’s discussion raised the following points:

-       A number of specific issues with the maintenance of fences and hedges were raised, which will be followed up by teams following the meeting. The council offers their apologies to tenants that some repairs have been outstanding for a significant period.

-       A capital budget of approximately £300k is in place annually for an ongoing programme of work around fencing, paths, and boundary walls. This sits alongside the repairs budget which will be used to manage day-to-day reactive repairs on fencing.

-       Issues of tenant security are considered when prioritising repairs outside of scheduled programmes of work.

-       It is significantly better from a biodiversity perspective to use native species of hedging rather than quicker growing privet and box hedges. However, this is a highly skilled area of work and can be difficult for tenants to maintain, leading to issues with pests. Without support in place many tenants would prefer to have hedging removed.

-       Education opportunities should be provided to tenants to support them to maintain hedging themselves and understand the benefits that hedging provides, potentially in partnership with the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust.

-       Additional issues in managing hedging may occur where it has been planted by Highways rather than CBC.

-       It was recommended that, with the approval of Cabinet the Policy is reviewed in a year rather than the standard four years, to allow improvements to be introduced.

-       It was felt that the Policy does not place hedging on equal terms with fencing, if only fencing is paid for by the council.

-       A cost benefit analysis of hedging vs. fencing should be carried out as part of the recommendation to Cabinet including consideration of lifespan of both.

-       It was recommended that the climate assessment be reassessed before it is presented to Cabinet.

-       Feedback from the Committee’s review should be included within the report to Cabinet recommending the Policy.

RESOLVED (unanimously) THAT

The draft Fencing, Hedgerow & Boundary Policy is recommended to Cabinet for the adoption following consideration of the comments made by the Committee.