Agenda item

Report of Deputy Chief Executive.

The Scrutiny Committee considered the report of the Deputy Chief Executive regarding Quarter 4 2017/18 performance against the Corporate Plan priority actions, performance indicators and targets.

Key discussions and officer actions arising from the report were detailed below:

North Street Quarter – the Project Manager would be invited to the next meeting of the committee to update members regarding how the Council were supporting businesses/social enterprises that were currently on the site, as well as further details regarding the anticipated target completion date of April 2021.

Upper Ouse Flood Protection and Water – members praised Ouse and Adur Rivers Trust and commented that the initiatives were good value for money.

Human Resources - members noted that absence figures had decreased continuously every year for the last 7 years and wished to commend staff on this.

Tenant satisfaction – members were pleased to note that surveys now included an open-ended question to ascertain what clients were dissatisfied about - this allowed the Council to write back to respondents and solve their issues more efficiently.

Local Plan Part 2 - members asked for further details on when this would be coming back to councillors for further comment and for more details on the timetable.

Recycling – members queried how residents that lived in flats were being supported to compost practicality and were informed that flats would be revisited in order to determine the practicality of the current recycling facilities. Members thanked the Customer and Neighbourhood Services team for promptly responding to recent fly-tipping incidents in Falmer and Malling.

Contact Centre – members noted that there was a 25% vacancy rate in the department and, although 5 positions were recently filled, new starters would require approximately 3 months of training and development. Due to a higher than normal call volume, a triage officer actively encouraged callers to complete their transactions online (when possible), supporting the aspirations of the Channel Shift Strategy and managing the call queue.

Website – members commented that the new website was not easily accessible, and that there were too many steps required to complete transactions. Comments would be passed to the Customer Communications and Engagement Lead and to the Web Governance Board.

Housing – members noted the following amendments to the end of year average values:

Number of Households living in temporary accommodation – 75 days

Total number of households living in emergency (nightly paid) accommodation – 12

Committee members also requested that definitions be provided for the following terms in future reports: ‘prevention duty’, ‘relief duty’ and ‘full homelessness duty’.

The following queries regarding housing development were raised during the meeting and passed on to the Development Project Manager who would be attending the Scrutiny Committee meeting on 13 September 2018.

• That an explanation be provided regarding the low 160 Net additional homes provided target for 2018/19; and
• That further information be provided regarding the Modular Temporary Accommodation project and any potential sites that had been identified.

Members thanked the Development Project Manager and his team for the delivery of 22 new homes in 2017/18.

Devolution of Open Spaces – the Director of Legal and Democratic Services informed the committee that the devolution of Landport Bottom had been completed. The 5 sites in Newhaven Town were all progressing, but were subject to the resolution of issues regarding third party rights for the industrial estates and contamination issues.

Resolved:

That the Scrutiny Committee note the achievements and progress against Corporate Plan priorities for 2017/18, as set out in this report.

Reason:

To demonstrate the discharge of the Scrutiny Committee function to monitor all aspects of performance management activities as required by Part 3 section 2.2 (7) of the Constitution of the Council.