Essex council will receive an update Monday evening on bylaw enforcement conducted during the first six months of 2025.
From January to June, bylaw enforcement conducted a total of 382 investigations on residential, agricultural and commercial properties throughout the municipality.
Of the 382 potential violations, 161 were based on complaints received from members of the public and/or Council members. The additional 221 issues were investigated proactively.
There were 161 calls for parking issues and Essex mayor Sherry Bondy says it shows that enforcement is working.
"We have parking regulations for a reason, for maintenance of roads, to make sure that our street cleaner is going to one side of the street, and then going to the other, making sure that we're treating both sides of the street equally when it comes to snow removal, so that is an important bylaw even though traditionally we might of not enforced it, people want us to enforce it more and more, and we are," Bondy said.
Bondy says residents are encouraged to use the town's 'report a problem' online submission to submit complaints, rather than go to their councillor, which can slow down the process.
"When somebody goes to a member of council we work hard to direct them back to the report a problem so that every issue in the Town of Essex gets tracked, and then we know where staff resources are going, we know where there's problem areas, if we're getting an amount of reported potholes on a particular street, we know that that street may need to be moved up in terms of replacement," she said.
Of the cases investigated, 170 fell under property standards issues, which has a wide range; however, the main offences consisted of tall grass/weeds and exterior property debris.
Bondy says she will introduce a motion Monday looking to update the property standards bylaw.
"I think it's time to go back to the community and say 'what type of town do you want to live in, what do you want your streets to look like', and then we can fill it, resource it as such, maybe we need to bring in more resources, or maybe residents are happy with the look and feel of our community as they are," Bondy said.
Essex council meets Monday at 6 p.m.