Issue - meetings

To consider the Final Report, attached as Appendix 1, and provide any comments to the Cabinet Member.

Stephanie Holt Castle (Director of Environment, Planning and Enforcement) and Helen Page (Interim Head of Countryside and Community Development) were in attendance for this item.

1.    Mr M Hill, OBE (Cabinet Member for Community and Regulatory Services) introduced the paper that set out the Final report of the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGO) following an investigation into a complaint against Kent County Council, Country Parks. Mr Hill advised the Committee that the Council had accepted the LGO’s decision and that the recommendations within the Final Report had been met.

2.       Mrs Holt-Castle advised Members that Kent County Council had an obligatory duty to submit the Final report of the LGO to an appropriate Committee of the Council (as attached at appendix 1). The Final report addressed the issue about the penalty charge notice enforcement process that was being deployed in Kent County Council’s Country Parks for non-payment of Pay and Display fees, not the right of Kent County Council Country Parks to enforce against non-payment of Pay and Display Charges, nor the right to charge Pay and Display fees. Kent County Council had accepted the LGO’s decision and met the recommendations of the Final report; this meant that the Council would continue to require visitors to pay and display across all nine Kent Country Parks but would now enforce against non-payment through English contractual law.  Mrs Holt-Castle assured the Committee that there would be no visible difference for members of the public who visited the parks and said that as long as there was adequate signage in place explaining the Pay and Display charges and the enforcement process in place, Kent County Council met the legal requirements. The LGO had already confirmed signage was adequate in the Final report.

3.       RESOLVED that final report of the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, be noted.