The Committee is asked to consider the Performance Monitoring Report Quarter 2 July – September 2019.

The Vice-Chairman-in-the-chair welcomed the Leader and the Business Improvement Officer to the meeting.  He drew attention that whilst the performance figures were now out of date, due to the delayed meeting because of the General Election, it was useful to see trends.

The Leader highlighted the waste collection targets and said that whilst there had been improvements, it remained in the red.  He drew attention to chart 1 on page 7 of the report and said that although there was further improvement in the second quarter, there were still too many red flags because of the failure of the waste contract. He added that the failure had affected other targets such as phone calls in the CSC.  The Leader was encouraged by the figures achieved in planning application targets in table 4, drew attention to the tabled update on the Sittingbourne Town Centre scheme and advised that trading was due to start in March 2020.

The Vice-Chairman-in-the-chair sought clarity on how to interpret the tables on Appendix II on page 15 of the report and went through the report page by page.

Table 1, page 8

The Chairman said that he hoped the next quarter figures would show further improvement and he was disappointed that the Scrutiny Committee were only being informed of the issues with the waste contract now.  He asked how food waste had got into the residual waste stream?  The Vice-Chairman-in-the-chair raised communication issues.  In response, the Leader explained that there was a variety of issues with the contract that was approaching its end.  He highlighted vehicle and staff issues and said that the Contractors had to be more accountable.  The Leader said that there had been some improvements but the quality of service had reduced again and the Council were in a difficult position.  He said there were 2 years left to run on the contract and that he would be meeting with the Contractors again very soon.

Page 9

The Vice-Chairman-in-the-chair referred to the percentage of CSC abandoned calls and commented that digital use had not been as high as expected.  The Business Improvement officer agreed and said this was being looked at and would be reported to a future meeting.

Table 5, page 11

The Chairman sought further information on the Beach Huts and Mill Skate park.  A visiting Member said that the Beach Huts should not be amber as the project had not yet started.

Tables 8 and 9, page 13

The Business Improvement Officer confirmed that the Mid Kent Audit should be 2019-20, not 2018-19.

The Chairman asked whether staff were available to undertake audit projects?  In response, the Business Improvement Officer said that the projects were on a rolling schedule that followed a cycle and projects would be worked on when resource was available.  A visiting Member added that the process of when to carry out audits was checked by the Audit Committee.

Table 10, page 14

The Business Improvement Officer agreed to find out why the project in table 10 had been removed from the Audit Plan.

A visiting Member drew attention to point 6 on page 14 of the report, and the Leader agreed that contrary to what was written,  there were cost cutting implications.

The Vice-Chairman-in-the-Chair said that a lot of useful information could be found on the Council’s website and details of where to access this were at 1.3 on page 6 of the report.

Appendix II, page 15

A visiting Member praised the good work carried out by staff in meeting the target of bringing the number of long-term empty homes back into use.

In response to the Chairman’s clarification on long-term and short-term sickness, the Business Improvement Officer highlighted the information at BV12b on the chart.

Appendix II, page 16

The Leader confirmed that some information relating to Sittingbourne Town Centre Phase 1 was out of date, from the previous administration, and there were no plans to consider free parking on a Sunday at the multi-storey car park.

The Cabinet Member for Economy and Property confirmed that the Mill Skate park could not open in its current state, and there was no landscaping around ramps, no bins and security for the Barge Museum was not yet in place.  She advised that the site was still in the contractor’s possession.  The Cabinet Member for Community advised that the landscaping was due to be carried out in September 2020.

The Vice-Chairman-in-the-chair thanked the Leader and the Business Improvement Officer for their attendance.

POST MEETING NOTE:

The Business Improvement Officer provided responses to questions from Scrutiny Committee members, which were circulated after the meeting.

Resolved:

(1)  That the report be noted.