To receive and respond to the findings of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee’s review of the quarter 4 performance management information.  

That the Overview and Scrutiny Committee’s comments on the Performance Management Report for Quarter Four of 2015/16 be NOTED.  

18.1           The report of the Corporate Services Group Manager, circulated at Pages No. 12-64, asked Members to review and, if appropriate, take action on the observations of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee following its review of the 2015/16 quarter four performance management information.

18.2           Attention was drawn to the observations made by the Overview and Scrutiny Committee, attached to the report at Appendix 1; the Council Plan Performance Tracker, attached at Appendix 2; the Key Performance Indicator Set, attached at Appendix 3; the Revenue and Budget Summary Statement, attached at Appendix 4; the Capital Monitoring Statement, attached at Appendix 5; and the Revenues Position Summary which was attached to the report at Appendix 6.

18.3           The Overview and Scrutiny Committee Chair explained that this had been the last monitoring report of the Council Plan 2012-2016 and it had shown significant achievements over the last four years. Assurance had been given to Members that, although a number of the actions within the old Council Plan did not feature within the new Plan, they would still be monitored by Members in some form. Regarding the monitoring of the new Council Plan, the Overview and Scrutiny Committee had been assured that Officers were working on the new Performance Tracker. The Chair indicated that his Committee had found the Performance Tracker to be a useful tool in understanding the breadth of actions being delivered within the Plan and then to provide challenge where necessary. In terms of information specific to quarter four, Members had noted the actions that had progressed well such as those that would be of benefit to customers like the new Customer Care Strategy, the new complaints framework, approval of the Digital Strategy, handover of the leisure centre, agreement of project work for Tewkesbury Town regeneration, approval of the Community Infrastructure Levy draft charging schedule and the impact of the new Community Funding Officer. The Overview and Scrutiny Committee had been realistic and understood that, given the complexity and range of services, some actions may not progress as quickly as expected and the performance report presented had provided exceptions analysis of those. The majority had been reported and explained previously, i.e. rental of top floor, progression of Joint Core Strategy and Tewkesbury Borough Plan, recycling rate and Workforce Development Strategy. Members had noted that the roll out of the Place Programme had yet to be fully established but the Chair understood that the dates of the meetings had now been set. Members of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee who sat in the east area had spoken positively about their experience which was good news. In terms of planning performance, this had only briefly been discussed as the Committee was scheduled to have a presentation at its next meeting on the planning service review. Members had, however, acknowledged the pressures that the planning team was currently working under. With regards to the financial information presented, the Chair explained that this would now be reported to the Executive Committee directly. This would ensure Members had the financial data promptly so as to aid the decision-making process but the Overview and Scrutiny Committee would still retain authority to scrutinise the information if the need arose. The Chair indicated that Ann Reeder, Frontline Consulting, had attended the last meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee and had provided critique on its effectiveness. She was very diplomatic in her feedback and had identified some good strengths of the Committee as well as some weaknesses; her final report was awaited which would include her recommended areas for improvement. As Chair of Overview and Scrutiny, he had been encouraged by the attendance of Executive Members at the meeting; Councillor Allen had attended to support the item on Health and Wellbeing and Councillor MacTiernan because she oversaw scrutiny as part of her portfolio responsibilities. She had been impressed with the coverage of work of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee. The Chair looked forward to the future development of the Committee and he knew Officers had more training in the pipeline which would ensure it continued to add value. As the role of Overview and Scrutiny was to scrutinise and act as a ‘critical friend’ to the Executive Committee, he intended to reduce the lengthy presentations that the Committee had received to date and to focus more on questioning; as Chair he used his Agenda briefings to ensure this remained the case.

18.4           A Member expressed some concern that the Overview and Scrutiny Committee had not commented on flytipping which was an increasing problem within the Borough. She was of the view that a question should be raised about the possibility of stopping the charge that was currently placed on vans to use the recycling centre. The Member understood that a lot of people took their waste home and burned it as they did not want to pay the gate fee but there were others who would be less responsible and just left it on the side of roads etc. She questioned how cost effective the gate fee was in comparison to what the Council had to pay to clear up fly tipped waste, not to mention the reputational issues suffered from residents’ poor perception of the Council. The Member suggested that a pilot of not charging for vans to use the recycling centres could be a good way forward. In response, the Overview and Scrutiny Chair reassured Members that flytipping, and enviro-crimes in general, did feature heavily at the Committee; in fact it was receiving a report at its next meeting on the subject. The Deputy Chief Executive indicated that flytipping was a problem in the Borough but it was also a national trend and work was being done to try and address it. She felt that the suspension of the gate fee could be a good experiment; however, the recycling centre was a County Council service so it was not within the Borough Council’s gift to change the fees. Officers were looking at a project with the County Council to try and address the issues faced and the idea of an amnesty on gate fees for tradespeople could be explored as part of that project. In addition, the Lead Member explained that the recycling centres looked to recycle as much as they could and to do that they had a workforce which they needed to pay for. He also noted that flytipping was a national blight on the landscape which cost local authorities a considerable amount of money. He did, therefore, concede that funding needed to be gained from somewhere in order to make the service work. In terms of the Borough, Sandhurst was a blackspot and Officers were working to try and address this. The Lead Member was of the view that convictions would be the best deterrent; however, it took time to assemble the evidence needed to take legal action. In terms of costs, a Member noted that the report which was to be considered by the Overview and Scrutiny Committee at its next meeting stated that the clear up costs for flytipping had been around £30,000 per year for the last three years. In respect of the solution to the problem, she was unsure what would be most effective but she did feel the approach of prosecuting offenders seemed like it could work well.  Some Members expressed the view that it was illogical and nonsensical that a householder could take their rubbish for disposal for free whilst a tradesperson, taking the same rubbish, would have to pay. The Deputy Chief Executive indicated that there was a cost to the disposal of waste and many tradespeople would build that cost into their charges and then dispose of it appropriately; if the service was free to everyone this could lead to an increase in the amount of waste being brought to the site therefore increasing the costs to the County Council. The Lead Member indicated that he was happy to take Members’ comments to the next meeting of the Joint Waste Committee, however it needed to be understood that, whatever solution was agreed, there had to be a balance between stopping flytipping and finding an economic way forward.

18.5           Referring to Page No. 24 of the report, a Member expressed concern that the Council was not achieving its savings targets. Referring to the increased number of claimant errors in terms of revenues and benefits, the Deputy Chief Executive explained that the non-achievement of the target was about claimant error and there was a national push to make improvements in this regard. The current system was not designed to accommodate the degree of change in the employment circumstances of claimants that was currently seen. Officers were doing their best to address this but the labour market was very fluid so claims had to be updated very frequently. The time it took to process new claims was much improved, the problem came when the claim was live and it was up to the claimant to inform the Council of changes. Members felt that it was important to recognise the continued improvements in the revenues and benefits section and the Chair advised that the Overview and Scrutiny Committee had continued to do this.

18.6           In terms of Page No. 31, (d) Work with the newly formed Tewkesbury Regeneration Partnership to progress the regeneration of Tewkesbury Town, a Member asked that as much information as possible be fed through from the Borough Council to that meeting. He felt that an open and transparent way of working meant there was much less suspicion between the Town and Borough Councils allowing them to work together much more easily. The Member was assured that as much information as possible was shared but there were times when commercial sensitivities had to be taken into account. Communication was the key and it was understood by all involved that this needed to be handled carefully.

18.7           The Executive Committee Chair thanked the Overview and Scrutiny Committee for its work and, accordingly, it was