Issue - meetings

The Lead Councillor for Environment and Regulatory Servicesintroduced the report submitted to the Committee.  He advised the meeting of the Council’s statutory responsibility to have measures in place to respond to stray dogs found in the Borough and the appointment of Dogbusters in 2019 to provide a stray dog collection and reception service on behalf of the Council.  The Lead Councillor for Environment and Regulatory Services noted that the report set out the Council’s responsibilities, details of the stray dog service, relevant statistics, contract management, complaints, and the contract review timetable and process. 

The Senior Specialist for Licensing and Community Safety indicated that the Council had a duty to respond to stray dogs and no kennelling facilities of its own, hence the need to procure an outside contractor.  

During the ensuing discussion a number of suggestions were made and clarifications offered:

• In reply to a request to provide the cost to the Council of the contract with Dogbusters to aid scrutiny of the service, the Senior Specialist for Licensing and Community Safety indicated the commercial sensitivity of the cost and undertook to seek advice about sharing the information with Committee members.

• Members questioned Dogbusters’ handling of communications with members of the public.  With reference to another stray dog service provider operating in the county, and the lack of contact details and publicly available information for Dogbusters, a member of the Committee questioned the transparency and accountability of the Council’s contractor.  In addition, the specification used in the procurement process in 2019 was challenged given that the stray dog service provided by Dogbusters was apparently used by just one other council. 

• In reply to questions, the Senior Specialist for Licensing and Community Safety advised the meeting that since 2019 the Council had received three complaints relating to Dogbusters and that the company had dealt with over four hundred stray dogs in the same period.  He suggested that Dogbusters was careful about divulging to members of the public any details about stray dogs in its kennels due to concerns about the public accessing their facility in order to reclaim their dogs without paying the fee, as had happened with the previous contactor on a number of occasions; however, he indicated that the contractor should respond positively to finders of stray dogs contacting them to request information about whether the dog had been returned to its owner, and any matters of concern could be referred to officers to investigate. 

• In response to questions raised by the Committee, the Senior Specialist for Licensing and Community Safety advised that Dogbusters facilities were inspected regularly by Council officers, there was a contract monitoring schedule with regular meetings, and the contractor was accountable to the Council.  He indicated that Dogbusters was a licensed boarding kennels located in the Surrey area, rated as a five-star facility, the highest rating available under the Licensing Regulations, and with the exact location judged commercially sensitive for reasons of security. 

• The Senior Specialist for Licensing and Community  ...  view the full minutes text for item 43