Issue - meetings

(a)       That the report be noted;

(b)       That the Cabinet Member and officers be invited to take away the comments and provide responses; and

(c)       That the comments/observations of the Committee are fed back to the Corporate Resources Overview & Scrutiny Committee who are responsible for the overview and monitoring of performance.

The Committee received a report to note and consider the 2014/15 mid year service performance reports produced at Chief Officer level for their respective portfolios covering the period April to September 2014.  The Chief Officers each gave a short presentation on performance, outlining work which had been undertaken to improve performance and areas where improvement was needed, as outlined within the report.

Streetscene & Transportation

Councillor Carolyn Thomas referred to an overspend of £149K reported at Month 5 due to additional overtime costs and use of agency workers as a result of vacancies within Waste Disposal & Collection Services.  Having raised concerns at the recent Corporate Resources Overview & Scrutiny Committee, she felt that this should have been followed up by Cabinet and reported back to this Committee.  She sought assurance that resources were not being diverted to Waste Disposal & Collection at the detriment of other Streetscene services, such as drainage and grass cutting, as this would present further problems.  Councillor Thomas also commented on the potential for Town and Community Councils to be offered an opportunity to assume responsibility of grass cutting services in view of the current budgetary pressures.

The Chief Officer explained that following a realignment of the budget, teams within Streetscene were now generic, operating from a single depot and that despite some minor budget adjustments such as the example given, the services were being delivered as before.  He pointed out that the £149K overspend was not significant given the overall budget and gave assurance that the adjustment was not at the expense of other Streetscene services but would be accounted for by the allocation of staffing and depot overhead costs across the service.  He asked if any particular concerns on areas of the service could be reported to him but went on to say that there were now more employees in the service than before and that the work was being undertaken in line with the standards set by Members of this Committee.

In response to other queries, the Chief Officer explained that work on ‘The Nant’ had been awaiting clearance of the river and that information would be emailed to all Members on the consultation exercise on local transport priorities, with a link to the Regional Transport Plan.  A drop-in event would also be held on 15 December 2014 at Mold Town Hall to view the priorities for Flintshire.  On Highways, it was clarified that Welsh Government (WG) funding had been available for prudential borrowing, however this funding ended this year, which represented a risk to the condition of the highway network.  The centralising of Streetscene winter maintenance operations at the Alltami Depot would enable more effective control of services and there would be a future report to the Committee on new arrangements for the Council’s Household Recycling Centres.

Due to Members’ concerns around changes in Area Supervisors, the Chief Officer provided explanation on the need to balance service need and the expectations of individuals who had applied for voluntary redundancy.  He gave assurance that this was  ...  view the full minutes text for item 33