Agenda item

That the report be noted and comments fed back to the Corporate Resources Overview & Scrutiny Committee which is responsible for the overview and monitoring of performance.

The Facilitator introduced the regular update report to consider progress towards the delivery of the impacts set out in the 2015/16 Improvement Plan, focussing on the areas of under-performance relevant to the Committee during the third quarter.

The Chair raised concerns at the amount of litter in the county, which she felt had increased since the introduction of the zero tolerance policy.  The Chief Officer (Streetscene & Transportation) advised that annual statistics on this were to be published later in the week but that Flintshire’s ranking had previously been low compared with other Welsh authorities.  He assured the Committee that enforcement activities were continuing, despite the reduction in resources, with reported incidents acted upon and improvements sought.  Councillor Kevin Jones acknowledged that litter was an issue and referred to a meeting due to take place to discuss progress.

Councillor Paul Shotton expressed his gratitude to Streetscene officers for their prompt response to a resident’s complaint on litter.  He also referred to the Deeside task group which was continuing to meet.

Following comments from Councillor Cindy Hinds on an increase in dog fouling incidents in her ward, the Chief Officer (Streetscene & Transportation) said that this topic would also be discussed at the forthcoming meeting.  He stressed the importance of sharing intelligence with Streetscene on regular occurrences of dog fouling.  In response to a question from the Chair, he confirmed that small quantities of dog waste bags were carried by Streetscene officers, however there was no budget for these to be more widely available.

In referring to the discussions of the Dog DNA Task Group, the Chair spoke about the need for officers to liaise with the Police to access information on hotspot areas and times.  The Chief Officer explained that he was working with the Police to highlight the problem of dog fouling in certain areas.

Following a question from Councillor Haydn Bateman, the Chief Officer (Planning & Environment) confirmed that the report on the Local Development Plan’s vision and objections had been emailed to all Council Members on 14 March 2016.

On Transport infrastructure and services, the Chair asked about funding to support the Council’s priorities for accessing employment, health, leisure and education.  The Chief Officer (Streetscene & Transportation) advised that funding would be available in May for schemes to be completed within the year.  He confirmed that plans were on track to complete all the transport schemes by the end of the year.

The Chair said that she would speak separately with the Chief Officer regarding a road resurfacing issue in her ward.

Councillor Colin Legg expressed his concerns about the enforcement of decisions made by the Planning & Development Control Committee.  The Chief Officer (Planning & Environment) explained that whilst live issues could not be discussed, there would be an opportunity to raise generic issues of non-compliance as part of the item on planning enforcement to be scheduled for a future meeting.

RESOLVED:

That the report be noted and comments fed back to the Corporate Resources Overview & Scrutiny Committee which is responsible for the overview and monitoring of performance.