Agenda and minutes

When the continuous alarm sounds you must evacuate the building by the nearest available fire exit. Members and visitors should proceed to the visitors’ car park at the front of the building and await further instructions (during office hours staff should proceed to their usual assembly point; outside of office hours proceed to the visitors’ car park). Please do not re-enter the building unless instructed to do so.

In the event of a fire any person with a disability should be assisted in leaving the building.

25.1           The evacuation procedure, as noted on the Agenda, was advised to those present. 

25.2           The Chair welcomed Gareth Edmundson, Managing Director of Ubico, and Rachel Capon and Julie Davies from the Joint Waste Team to the meeting and indicated that they were in attendance for Agenda Item 7 – Ubico Update Report.  Councillor Mrs S E Hillier-Richardson was also in attendance for Agenda Item 9 – Tewkesbury Borough News Review Report as a Member of the Working Group that had undertaken the review.

26.1           Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Mrs J E Day and T A Spencer.  There were no substitutions for the meeting. 

27.1           The Committee’s attention was drawn to the Tewkesbury Borough Council Code of Conduct which was adopted by the Council on 26 June 2012 and took effect from 1 July 2012.

27.2           There were no declarations made on this occasion.

To approve the Minutes of the meeting held on 18 July 2017.

28.1           The Minutes of the meeting held on 18 July 2017, copies of which had been circulated, were approved as a correct record and signed by the Chair. 

28.2           It was noted that the Council’s representative on the Gloucestershire Health and Care Overview and Scrutiny Committee was unable to attend the next meeting on 12 September 2017.  No reserve had been nominated at the Annual Council meeting in May and, as such, there was currently nobody to represent the Council at that meeting.  Councillor R E Allen indicated that he would like to be the reserve on that Committee.  This was duly proposed and seconded and, upon being put to the vote, it was

RESOLVED          That Councillor R E Allen be appointed as the Council’s reserve representative on the Gloucestershire Health and Care Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

To determine whether there are any questions for the relevant Lead Members and what support the Overview and Scrutiny Committee can give to work contained within the Plan.

29.1           Attention was drawn to the Executive Committee Forward Plan, circulated at Pages No. 10-15. Members were asked to determine whether there were any questions for the relevant Lead Members and what support the Overview and Scrutiny Committee could give to the work contained within the plan.

29.2           The Head of Community Services anticipated that he would be taking two additional items to the Executive Committee meeting on 11 October 2017; Waste Policy and Environmental Health Fixed Penalty Notice Policy.

29.3           It was

RESOLVED          That the Executive Committee Forward Plan be NOTED.

To consider the forthcoming work of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

30.1           Attention was drawn to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee Work Programme 2017/18, circulated at Pages No. 16-21, which Members were asked to consider.

30.2           The Head of Corporate Services drew attention to the Public Health Annual Report 2016/17 which was a pending item in the Work Programme following the presentation of the report covering the period 2014/15-2015/16 at the last meeting of the Committee.  Rather than bringing it to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee, it was proposed that the 2016/17 report be taken to Council on the basis that it would be of interest to the wider membership and that it was for information as opposed to scrutiny.  It was subsequently

RESOLVED          1.   That the Overview and Scrutiny Committee Work                            Programme 2017/18 be NOTED.

2.   That the Public Health Annual Report 2016/17 be removed from the pending items and included on the Agenda for a future meeting of the Council.

To consider the 2016/17 outturn and 2017/18 quarter 1 performance update on the services provided by Ubico.

31.1           The report of the Head of Community Services, circulated at Pages No. 22-31, provided Members with an interim update on the Ubico contract for waste and recycling, street cleaning and grounds maintenance services.  Members were asked to consider the 2016/17 outturn and the 2017/18 Quarter 1 performance update.

31.2           The Head of Community Services explained that the 2016/17 annual Ubico report provided to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee in May 2017 had not included Quarter 4 figures due to the timings of the report.  It had been agreed that, going forward, reports would be prepared for the July Committee meetings to enable full year performance figures to be included and to allow for comparison year on year.  Members had requested that an interim report on the performance of Ubico be provided to the September meeting of the Committee, given that the next annual report was not due until July 2018.  The high level figures were set out at Page No. 24 of the report and Members who had attended the seminar following the roll-out of the new waste collection service in April would be aware that there had been some issues.  Table 2 at Paragraph 3.3.4 of the report showed 2,034 missed bins in Quarter 1 of 2017/18 which surpassed the figure for the previous year; it was noted that there had been 2,240 missed collections for the whole of 2016/17 so this was a significant reduction in performance.  Whilst this was common after a service change, any issues were expected to be resolved, and performance to return to normal, within a two month period which had not been the case.  At the end of Quarter 1, Officers had met with Ubico to agree an improvement plan which was outlined at Page No. 25, Paragraph 3.3.8 of the report and there had been a considerable improvement in recent weeks.  Whilst 150 missed collections per week was a very small percentage of the 86,000 collections across the Borough, for the residents affected by repeated missed collections, this was an unacceptable level of service.  Ubico had put considerable resource into the Tewkesbury Borough contract to ensure that the issue was addressed and he was pleased to report there had been 78 missed bins in the last week so it was a steady decline.  With regard to grounds maintenance, the Head of Community Services recognised this as an area of concern as there seemed to be no consistency in the work being undertaken or the monitoring of the contract.  He was in the process of advertising for a dedicated resource to work with the grounds maintenance supervisors at Ubico to come up with an action plan to address the situation.  It was noted that there were currently no meaningful Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for grounds maintenance which made it difficult for the Council to hold the contractor to account.  He hoped to see a considerable improvement in this area over the next six to 12 months, in time for the next growing  ...  view the full minutes text for item 31.

To review and scrutinise the performance management information and, where appropriate, to require response or action from the Executive Committee. 

32.1           The report of the Head of Corporate Services, circulated at Pages No. 32-69, attached performance management information for Quarter 1 of 2017/18.  The Overview and Scrutiny Committee was asked to review and scrutinise the performance information and, where appropriate, identify any issues to refer to the Executive Committee for clarification or further action to be taken. 

32.2           Members were advised that this was the first quarterly monitoring report for 2017/18 and progress against delivering the objectives and actions for each of the Council Plan priorities was reported through the Performance Tracker, attached at Appendix 1 to the report.  Key actions for the quarter were highlighted at Paragraph 2.3 of the report and included: installation of signage for three walks in Tewkesbury; introduction of a new business grants scheme; appointment of Thinking Places to create a vision for the Junction 9 area and BDP to produce a masterplan; successful business event held at Porsche at Junction 9, including the launch of a new business video; 59 affordable homes built across the borough; four successful fly-tipping prosecutions; and securing a tenant for a third of the Public Service Centre top floor.  Due to the complex nature of the actions being delivered, it was inevitable that some would not progress as smoothly or quickly as envisaged and Paragraph 2.4 of the report highlighted a delay with the review of the discretionary trade waste service.   Members were informed that the Association of Public Service Excellence (APSE) review, commissioned by Ubico, was in the final stages and should be with the Council by the end of August.  In terms of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), Members were informed that the status of each indicator was set out at Paragraph 3.2 of the report.  Of the 16 indicators with targets, 13 indicators were performing better than the previous year with only three performing worse than the previous year.  Areas of interest included: KPIs 13 and 15 relating to the determination of major and ‘other’ planning applications which were exceeding target; KPI 22 in relation to the processing of new benefit claims which was at 13.22 days compared to the national average of 21 days; and KPI 28 in respect of sickness absence which had fallen, reducing the number of working days lost by 75.5%.  With regard to KPI 27, number of overall crime incidents, it was noted that there had been a 15% increase in overall crime compared to Quarter 1 of 2016/17; however, crime levels in the borough were not significantly high generally.

32.3           During the debate which ensured, the following queries and comments were made in relation to the Performance Tracker:

To endorse the Tewkesbury Borough News Review Report and recommend to the Executive Committee that it be adopted.

33.1           Attention was drawn to the report of the Tewkesbury Borough News Review Working Group, circulated at Pages No, 70-81.  Members were asked to endorse the review report, as set out at Appendix 1 to the report, and to recommend to the Executive Committee that it be adopted.

33.2           The Chair indicated that the Tewkesbury Borough News Review Working Group had been chaired by Councillor M Dean who was unfortunately unable to attend the meeting.  He had prepared a short briefing note to accompany the main report and this had been circulated around the table.  A Member of the Working Group wished to endorse the points raised by the Chair of the Working Group.  He made particular reference to the fact that the proposal to move from three to two editions per year, and a magazine format, would make annual savings of £4,066 and would result in a publication which residents were more likely to keep for reference than a newspaper which could be seen as more disposable.  It was also considered that a magazine format had greater potential to attract income from advertising. 

33.3           Another Member of the Working Group drew attention to the final recommendations set out at Page No. 81 of the report.  These included seeking views of the Citizens’ Panel following circulation of the first edition - it was noted that the Panel had been asked for feedback on three editions of the current publication during the course of the review - and a report was being taken to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee to review the implementation of the recommendations and how the arrangements had worked over the initial 12 month period.  One particularly important element of the review which had contributed significantly to the Working Group’s decision to retain the Tewkesbury Borough News, despite it being a discretionary service, was cost avoidance.  As it was delivered to every household in the borough, the Tewkesbury Borough News was an ideal way to communicate key messages, for example, changes to waste collection rounds and consultation on the Joint Core Strategy.  If the Council stopped producing Tewkesbury Borough News, it would still have a duty to communicate certain information to residents which would involve a significant cost.

33.4           A Member noted that the briefing note circulated by the Chair of the Working Group referred to the ‘Tewkesbury News’ and clarification was provided that this was a typographical error on his part and the published report referred to the Tewkesbury Borough News.  Another Member highlighted the need to ensure that the publication was checked for any errors prior to circulation to residents and assurance was given that it would be subject to thorough proof-reading.  It was

RESOLVED          That the Tewkesbury Borough News Review Report be ENDORSED and that it be RECOMMENDED TO THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE that the report be ADOPTED.

To consider the annual complaints report and any further action required.

34.1           The report of the Head of Corporate Services, circulated at Pages No. 82-93, provided a summary of complaints received during 2016/17 and included the annual letter received from the Local Government Ombudsman.  Members were asked to consider the information provided and any further action required.

34.2           Members were reminded that a new formal complaints framework had been introduced in April 2016 which included a new policy and reporting and monitoring system to ensure that complaints were effectively managed. 111 formal complaints had been received within the period April 2016 and March 2017 of which 106 related to Council services; 92% had been responded to within the approved 20 day timeframe which was positive.  77 of the complaints had been found to be justified or partially justified and 11 had been subject to a stage 2 review – this happened when a complainant was unhappy with the original response and the complaint was assigned to another Head of Service for independent review.  A breakdown of the complaints by service area, nature and remedy was attached at Appendix 1 to the report.  In terms of the Council’s performance compared to other local authorities, Tewkesbury Borough Council was consistently within the top ten for the lowest number of complaints.  The Local Government Ombudsman’s annual review letter detailing the number of complaints and enquiries received, and decisions made, was attached at Appendix 2 to the report.  It was pleasing to note that none of the complaints had been upheld.

34.3           It was

RESOLVED          That the annual complaints report be NOTED.