Issue - meetings

(a)       That the report be noted; and          

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

The Chairman introduced a report to request that the Committee consider the 2012/13 Quarter 4/Year End service performance reports, note the draft year end position of the Strategic Assessment of Risks and Challenges (SARC) and note the performance made against the Improvement Targets contained within the performance report. 

Streetscene

            The Head of Streetscene gave a short presentation on the performance within Streetscene, outlining work which had been undertaken to improve performance and areas where improvement was needed, as outlined within the report. 

Councillor Paul Shotton referred to the benefits of Saturday collections and asked whether the number of missed collections had reduced.  He welcomed the work on the resurfacing programme.  He also referred to Environment Visual Audits (EVA) and in explaining that he had attended two in his ward, queried whether all wards were participating in EVAs.  The Head of Streetscene responded that missed collection rates had improved dramatically and the rate was now 30 to 40 per 100,000 collections which was less than half the national average.  On the issue of EVAs, he said that most wards had had at least one and that he would provide information on where EVAs had occurred and where they had not. 

Councillor Ian Dunbar said that his residents had asked for their thanks to be passed on for the reduction in missed collections.  He also welcomed the improvement in the answering of calls to the contact centre.  In response to a query from Councillor Dunbar on whether Community Payback was a new initiative, the Head of Streetscene said that work on graffiti cleaning had always been undertaken as part of the scheme but it had been extended to cover other areas such as cleaning unadopted roads.  Councillor Derek Butler asked if consideration could be given to using people on Community Payback to clear the gardens of elderly Council tenants.   

Councillor Chris Dolphin asked that his thanks be passed on to Dan Arden, Harvey Mitchell and Ian Williams for their work.  He raised concern about the lack of resurfacing in Whitford and the problems faced by the residents of Holywell due to the change of day in their recycling collections to a Saturday.  He also felt that some areas required additional gully cleaning as problems had occurred when they overflowed.  In response, the Head of Streetscene explained that all roads in Flintshire were inspected for required resurfacing works to ensure that the worst affected areas were resurfaced first and added that a further review would be undertaken in September or October 2013.  On the issue of gullycleaning, he said that all gullies were cleaned on an annual basis but asked that Members let him know of any specific areas that they felt were a problem.  The number of areas having Saturday collections was increasing but it would be managed and would be phased to enable it to be reviewed following its implementation.  Maps detailing collections for all areas of Flintshire were on display at Alltami Depot and the Head of Streetscene explained  ...  view the full minutes text for item 12