Agenda item

The Senior Performance Officer (Performance Management & Business Support) attended the meeting to present the ECS Performance Overview report. The performance overview update was for six months data, and any updates provided would be on an ‘exception’ basis; i.e. commentary would be limited to areas that had been rag rated red or amber. 

Members were updated regarding ECS1 which was ‘Public Satisfaction with Cleanliness’. The first areas (local streets and neighbourhoods) had improved and were above target. ‘Town Centres’ was slightly under target. This was because an on-street survey had been undertaken, and due to Covid 19 there was a lower response rate this year. There was no indication of poor performance.

The Senior Performance Officer explained that the target with respect to the number of attendees at the Beeche Educational Centre was not achievable due to the government restrictions that had been imposed because of the pandemic. This target would need to be changed if the current restrictions were not lifted.

The Senior Performance Officer provided an update regarding ECS21 and ECS 22 which were both amber rated. The former related to routine street lighting maintenance, and the latter related to highway maintenance tasks. The contractor had been asked to provide an improvement plan for the future delivery of these services.

Members were briefed regarding ECS 24: ‘Children travelling to school by foot, cycle or scooting’. Data for this had not been collected at schools this year as schools had been closed in the summer term when the count was usually made.

Members were updated regarding  ECS 32: ‘Customers using online self-serve transactions to challenge PCNs’. This was projected to be marginally below target—work was ongoing to encourage the public to use the online portal.

A Member drew attention to ECS 29, which was related to injuries or deaths caused because of road traffic accidents. He remarked that this was something that had appeared to be ongoing for the last three years. He inquired what the Council could do to reduce the number of KSIs (killed and seriously injured) to zero in line with the aims of the ‘Vision Zero’ policy. The Assistant Director for Traffic and Parking responded that KSIs were assessed over a five-year period, and that LBB had been very successful (generally speaking) in reducing the number of people injured in road traffic accidents. He hoped that the current plateau was a ‘non-statistically significant variation’. The Council would be continuing with policies to reduce the number of casualties from road traffic accidents.

The Chairman enquired if the department had a clear view of where money and resources  should be directed, and what was the process followed to make the most impact in this area. The Assistant Director responded that LBB analysed data roughly every 12 to 18 months, to try and identify where KSI incidences were occurring. Data from the previous three years would be used as a start point for the analysis. Sometimes, key sites would be identified; in other cases, perhaps where there was a high volume of traffic, it could be the case that not much could be done. Historic accidents would quite often be a good predictor for the future. The Council, after analysing the data would look for low cost and effective solutions. Attention would also be paid as to how to best support vulnerable road user groups.

The Vice Chairman commented that he was glad to see so much ‘green’ in the report, and this was a credit to staff. He also asked if there were currently any issues with staff sickness affecting Veolia, in the light of the second wave of the pandemic. The Portfolio Holder responded that currently only a few people were self-isolating, and sickness was within manageable limits. Veolia employed staff who were responsible for street cleaning, and they could be redeployed if required. Veolia would be expected to allow for, and manage normal winter sickness levels, and a phased reduction in service would only be justified if staff levels became seriously affected as they did in the first wave of the pandemic.

The Assistant Director of Environment stated that LBB had agreed business continuity plans with service providers and had learned lessons from the first wave of the pandemic. Business continuity plans would be initiated if the relevant trigger points were activated. Sickness levels and possible impacts on service were monitored on a daily basis, and at the moment there was very little impact on frontline services.

The Vice-Chairman referred to the Council’s recycling plant centres and requested that in future agenda packs, an update should be provided to see how much recycling was taking place at both sites. The Assistant Director for Environment  responded that currently, both the recycling centres at Waldo Rd and Churchfields were being used to full capacity. Information relating to the tonnage recycled could be supplied if required. 

A discussion took place with respect to ECS 10 which were the targets relating to grass and verge cutting; it was suggested that as targets had been 100% achieved for  three months consecutively, that the target levels should be reviewed. It was noted that variations in the performance achieved for ECS 10 correlated to seasonal weather variations which affected how much grass actually grew.

A Member referred to the proposed Riney improvement plan and asked that this be shared with Members. The Assistant Director for Highways responded  that talks would be taking place between officers and Riney to discuss these matters. Riney would be attending the PDS meeting that was scheduled for January 2021, and Members would be able to ask Riney questions then if performance had not improved. 

RESOLVED that the ECS Performance Overview report be noted.