Poor enforcement and inadequately resourced enforcement are now emerging as key issues in many of the areas concerning residents.
Without an effective enforcement regime in place all other regulations and regulatory actions become meaningless. For instance:
All licensed premises should be made to adhere strictly to their licence conditions. However licensing officers only inspect premises relatively infrequently and often not during the hours where breaches are most likely.
All licensed premises should comply with planning conditions but decisions of the planning authority are too often flouted for considerable time before effective enforcement action is taken.
Excessive noise from music, observable both on the street and in the nearest premises is routine in the City centre in the early hours of the morning. However, Environmental Protection Officers are not available at all at night when most noise nuisance happens. Environmental protection is not proactive in enforcement only acting on reported nuisance. Other enforcement agencies, such as the police, on the whole ignore noise as an issue
The Council’s Air Quality Management plan calls for improvements to the enforcement of the Traffic Regulation Orders designed to reduce pollution from heavy goods vehicles and with rising levels of pollution damaging both human health and the historic fabric of the city implementing these improvements is long overdue.
Too often regulations are made with little or no planning of how they will be enforced – A Boards and 20 mph zone spring to mind. This does nothing for the credibility of the regulators or the regulations and leaves residents feeling short change and abandoned.