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Lewes and Eastbourne
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Agenda item

Portfolio progress and performance report quarter 3 - 2018-2019

Report of Director of Regeneration and Planning

Lead Cabinet member: Councillor Elayne Merry

Decision:

(Non-key decision):

 

(1) That the council’s progress and performance for quarter 3 be received and noted.

 

(2) That the comments made by Scrutiny Committee at its meeting on the 7 February 2019 be considered.

Minutes:

The Cabinet considered the report of the Director of Regeneration and Planning regarding the Council’s progress and performance in respect of key projects and targets for the third quarter of the year (1 October – 31 December 2018), detailed at appendix 1 to the report.

 

Good news for the quarter 3 included demolition beginning on site for the North Street Quarter, footprint agreed for Downs Leisure Centre, planning going ahead for the Blue Services Hub and improvement to sickness absence rates. Further information was detailed in the report.

 

15 of the Council’s 20 key project were on target for the year end and more than 75% of the council’s key performance indicators (KPI) were either met, exceeded or within acceptable levels. The report did not reflect improvements that had been made since the 31 December 2018.

 

Section 4 of the report detailed areas of work where the Council had missed their targets including housing, benefits processing and calls. Councillor Merry reported that performance on processing benefits claims were improving to be within target for quarter 4. Significant improvements had been made for call handling times and abandonment figures and were scheduled to be within target for quarter 4.

 

As it would be their last meeting of the Cabinet, Councillor Merry expressed her thanks to officers for their effort and achievements during significant change and the support given to her as portfolio holder.

 

Visiting member and Chair of Scrutiny Committee, Councillor Gardiner echoed Councillor Merry’s comments and asked that staff be commended for their extraordinary achievement in difficult circumstances. The Chief Executive confirmed that this would be relayed to staff through the monthly newsletters.

 

Visiting member, Councillor Osborne and the Cabinet discussed the issue of fly-tipping around the District. Base line data had indicated a startling increase in fly-tipping and it was agreed that significant engagement with the County Council needed to take place to tackle the issues. Data would also be collected from other district councils to assist with the engagement.

 

Visiting member, Councillor Catlin commented on staff feedback to the joint transformation programme and increasing councillor awareness that in accordance with section 8 of the Scrutiny Procedure Rules, they can submit an agenda item to the Committee and Civic Services Manager for inclusion on the next available agenda of the Scrutiny Committee. It was confirmed that this would be included as part of the 2019/20 member induction programme.

 

In response to a question from Councillor Catlin, the Director of Service Delivery confirmed that a KPI would be created for speed of Mears Group repairs.

 

Visiting member, Councillor Chartier, commented on the KPI for the average number of days to re-let LDC Council homes.  It was suggested that information in the report to explain why certain properties were unable to be re-let immediately be relayed through the tenant’s newsletter in future editions.

 

Resolved (Non-key decision):

 

(1) That the council’s progress and performance for quarter 3 be received and noted.

 

(2) That the recommendations made by Scrutiny Committee at its meeting on the 7 February 2018 be considered.

 

Reason for decision:

 

To enable Cabinet to consider specific aspects of the Council’s progress and performance.

Supporting documents: