Agenda item

(Director of Governance) to consider the attached report.

The Director of Neighbourhoods, Mr Macnab introduced the Quarter 1 update on the Key Performance indicators specific to this Select Committee. As asked for at the last meeting the tables were reproduced in colour and they contained more numeric figures rather than percentages which could be misleading.

The committee went on to review each indicator that looked to be in trouble and question any inconsistencies that they came across.

NEI001 – how much non-recycled waste was collected for every household in the district? – Councillor Neville wanted to know what kind of recyclable went in the wrong bin. He was told that about 45% of rubbish in the black bin was food waste. Officers were looking at policies to address this. There was also a problem for blocks of flats and recycling, and this was a problem across all of Essex.

Councillor Patel asked how was this measured and was told by random sampling across the area.

NEI003 – what percentage of our district had unacceptable levels of litter? – It was noted that there was a combination of factors that was stopping the council meeting this target. Agency staff have been brought in to deal with street cleansing. We were working with Biffa to improve this quickly, but it was hard to tell if the target would be met by the end of the year.

Councillor Neville noted that there was a bin in his ward that was constantly overflowing, having investigated he found that this was not on the collection schedule. Were there any other bins not being scheduled for collection?

Councillor Jon Whitehouse wanted to know if Biffa were recruiting more street cleaners and what was the Council doing about this.

The Assistant Director (Technical Services), Mr Durrani, said that this indicator had not been worded properly. They were trying to make sure that Biffa recruited more permanent staff or brought back the staff that had the local knowledge. If they did not adhere to our standards set out in the contract we could fine them. They were working with us to improve this situation.

Councillor Surtees commented that there seemed to be very little continuity of the staff involved. The new ones were not familiar with the areas they work. Mr Macnab said that they now had the capacity to start tackling these problems.

NEI008 – What % of the recorded incidences of fly-tipping…are removed within 10 working days of being recorded? – Councillor Bassett commenting on fly-tipping said it was confusing to know who was responsible for removing them. We need a clear agreement with Essex County Council as they do not turn up for a lot of the ones we think they are responsible for. There was a need to review our policy.  Officers offered to ask the Assistant Director, Neighbourhood Services to attend a future meeting to clarify what type of waste was being tipped, the complex legislation involved, and issues of land ownership.

AGREED – that the Assistant Director, Neighbourhood Services be asked to attend a future meeting to address the problems of fly-tipping.

NEI009 – what % of out of hours noise complaints are responded to within 15 minutes? – It was noted that had been some problems with the new call handling service, but these had now been resolved.

NEI010 – what was the net increase or decrease in the number of homes in the district? -  Councillor Bassett said that developers have been given permission to build but they did not. As the cost of housing was high so developers tend to wait for the optimal moment to start building. Councillor Neville asked how many were to be affordable housing. The Director of Neighbourhoods replied that the Council has a policy of asking for 40% for larger developments. Councillor Bassett said that they averaged out at about 20%.

Councillor Patel noted that the second sentence under the corrective action proposed section did not sit well by saying that “the Council can encourage more building of dwellings by granting planning permission…” this assumes an almost automatic granting of permission on the Council’s part. Officers agreed and said they would change the wording.

NEI011 – what %of the rent we were due to be paid for our commercial premises was not paid? - The Director of Neighbourhoods said they were collecting 95% of the rents and this was still a good performance.