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Lewes and Eastbourne
Councils

Agenda item

Portfolio progress and performance report quarter 4 - 2018-2019

Report of Director of Regeneration and Planning

Lead Cabinet member: Councillor Phil Davis

Decision:

(Non-key decision):

 

(1) To note progress and performance for quarter 4 as well as the overall performance for 2018/19 and to note comments made by the Scrutiny Committee at its meeting on 27 June 2019.

 

(2) To agree the 2019/20 performance measures.

Minutes:

The Cabinet considered the report of the Director of Regeneration and Planning considering the Council’s progress and performance in respect of key projects and targets for the fourth quarter of the year (January to March 2019) and annual out-turn as shown at appendix 1 to the report.

 

Good news for the quarter and annual out-turn included new bungalows delivered in Peacehaven as part of the modular accommodation project, series of high profile event events associated with Vote 100, implementation of co-mingled recycling and single-use plastics project. 14 of the 18 key projects were on track. Further details were contained in the report.

 

Issues during the quarter four period where targets had been missed included emergency accommodation figures, time taken to re-let housing accommodation and call answering times. Intervention work had taken place and improvements had been made in those areas. Further commentary was detailed in the report.

 

Visiting member, Councillor Denis, Chair of Scrutiny Committee addressed the Cabinet and outlined the comments of Scrutiny Committee at its meeting on 27 June 2019. In response to a question about waste collection staff sickness figures, it was advised that future quarters would include a comparison between Eastbourne and Lewes.

 

It was also confirmed that in terms of Newhaven Enterprise Zone, there would be no impact on the project or any current programmes due to the transition to South East Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP). This follows the implementation of central government’s requirement that there would be no overlapping LEP boundaries. Successful negotiations had taken place between Coast to Capital LEP and South East LEP over a two year period of transition.

 

The Cabinet agreed that the performance and project measures detailed at appendix 2 to the report were not final and would be subject to review and amendments at a future date.

 

The Director of Service Delivery advised that performance on the number of days taken to process new housing/council tax benefit claims was on target for the first few months of 2019/20, building on the tremendous improvement since quarter two of 2018/19 period. Addressing the call answering times, the Director of Service Delivery added that the Customer Contact Team were now fully resourced and on a current trajectory to match the target associated with the relevant key performance indicators. These were in response to questions by visiting member, Councillor Nicholson.

 

In response to a question from visiting member, Councillor Banks on the local knowledge of the Customer Advisors when answering calls, the Director of Service Delivery confirmed that a report could be run that could identify how many calls were responded to and resolved without the customer being transferred to another officer.

Visiting member, Councillor Saunders remained concerned about the call answering times and automated messages. He suggested that improvements could be made to the options for customers who call the main Council number.

 

Resolved (Non-key decision):

 

(1) To note progress and performance for quarter 4 as well as the overall performance for 2018/19 and to note the comments made by the Scrutiny Committee at its meeting on 27 June 2019.

 

(2) To agree the 2019/20 performance measures.

 

Reason for decisions:

 

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

Supporting documents: