To receive and respond to the findings of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee‘s review of the 2022/23 quarter four performance management information. 

That the findings of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee’s review of the quarter four 2022/23 performance management information be NOTED.    

19.1           The report of the Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee, circulated at Pages No. 20-82, asked Members to review and respond to the findings of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee’s review of the quarter four 2022/23 performance management information.

19.2           The Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee introduced himself and the Vice-Chair of the Committee and gave a short presentation during which he explained that the Committee’s ambition was to be an effective and intelligent mirror for the Borough Council and to act as a critical friend.  The Committee also recognised the breadth and depth of work faced by the Council and wished to support the Executive Committee in any way it could.  The Committee also recognised the requirement for constant learning and would be working with the Director: Corporate Resources and Democratic Services to create a programme of development to assist Members in carrying out their scrutiny role.  He made reference to the number of environment-associated issues which Members had picked up from the performance tracker such as the waste vehicle fleet, reduction in the recycling rate, grass cutting, the Grange Field and ‘greening’ in relation to the High Street Heritage Action Zone.  The Committee had also noted there was very little within the Executive Committee Forward Plan to reflect the Council’s recent motion declaring a climate and ecological emergency.  He went on to explain that, going forward, the Committee intended to be more selective in calling for briefings on particular topics as, historically, many of the presentations would have been relevant to the whole Membership.  On that basis, some of those which had been included within the Overview and Scrutiny Committee Work Programme for 2023/24 had been removed and referred to the Director: Corporate Resources who was compiling a programme of briefings for all Members.

19.3           Moving to the performance tracker, the Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee advised that the Committee had noted and applauded a number of positive outcomes including the solar canopy, supermarket vouchers, planning application tracker, national recognition, affordable housing, planning enforcement, freedom of information, High Street Heritage Action Zone payments, improvements to the Licensing service, visitor numbers to Tewkesbury and Winchcombe Tourist Information Centres, use of the Growth Hub and work with the Voluntary and Community Sector.  In terms of finance and resources, Members had been keen to continue to monitor the Trade Waste project, particularly in terms of the timeframe for exiting the service and how it was being communicated as there were a number of associated risks which needed to be monitored.  With regard to economic growth, the Committee looked forward to scrutinising the Economic Development and Tourism Strategy in September and he welcomed the Lead Member for Economic Development/Promotion attending the meeting for that item.  Members had discussed the business grants scheme and, in recognition of the fact that £100,000 which had been put aside was no longer needed and had been returned to the pot, had questioned the Executive Director: Resources and S151 about uncommitted resources and the extent that money could be spent to support businesses in the borough.  The Committee had also been keen to see work to attract future Tour of Britain cycle races and similar events to the borough.  In terms of housing and communities, Members had raised concern about the slippage in the Joint Core Strategy timetable which had been discussed during the previous two items at today's meeting, they had also identified the need for community interaction via the Gloucestershire Rural Community Council in relation to the housing needs assessment and how that was conducted to ensure the correct information was captured – they hoped to see work between the Head of Service: Housing and the Lead Member for Housing, Health and Wellbeing to improve that.  The Committee had recognised the need for relevant Members to be updated in relation to North West Cheltenham and West Cheltenham projects in particular and hoped that additional briefings could be arranged.  Despite the considerable work that had been done within the Planning department over the last year to improve its processes, Members continued to have concerns that determination of non-major applications was still some way off meeting its target.  It was noted that the Committee had scrutinised the Annual Workforce Strategy at its meeting the previous day and, at the same meeting, there had been a very comprehensive review of the Ubico Annual Report where Members had questioned the reasons for the disappointing outturns in relation to the amount of waste reused, recycled and composted – no historical or comparative data from other authorities had been provided but the Committee had felt it was important to flag these concerns to the Executive Committee.  The Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee indicated that the Committee was keen to undertake work on behalf of the Executive Committee, and the wider Council, and he asked what the Executive Committee would like from the Overview and Scrutiny Committee in terms of facilitating that.  He pointed out that the Chair had historically attended the Executive Committee on a quarterly basis but he felt that may not be often enough in terms of the value which the Executive Committee was getting from the Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

19.4           The Chair of the Executive Committee thanked the Chair and Vice-Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee for their attendance and undertook to respond in due course with the Executive Committee’s thoughts in terms of its direction for the Committee.  A Member indicated that he was impressed by what he had heard; he felt it was always an interesting exercise to balance overview with scrutiny and questioned whether it was necessary to have a number of scrutiny committees as opposed to a series of ad hoc working groups.   The Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee welcomed the question and indicated that he was trying to get to grips with governance across the Council in terms of the number of Committees and Working Groups and how they interacted so he would take this point away to work with Officers as to whether there was a need for more than one scrutiny committee.  The Chair of the Executive Committee indicated that an alternative option may be to meet more frequently and he suggested that could also be explored.  Another Member asked what the Lead Members could do to assist the Overview and Scrutiny Committee and indicated that he was happy to be scrutinised by the Committee regarding his portfolio.  The Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee welcomed this comment and indicated that the Committee was on hand to assist when Lead Members were tackling difficult problems or needed alternative views from Members.  He encouraged Lead Members to attend Overview and Scrutiny Committee meetings if there was a relevant topic on the Agenda.

19.5           In terms of the points raised by the Overview and Scrutiny Committee in its consideration of the performance tracker, a Member drew attention to Page No. 42 of the report and the action to deliver projects as part of the High Street Heritage Action Zone.  She noted there were 48 live premises applications but only two completed grants and a further two in progress and she questioned whether there was a risk in terms of a cut off time for projects.   As Lead Member for Economic Development/Promotion, the Chair acknowledged the concern that people who had applied may not obtain funding; however, he provided assurance that point had not yet been reached.  The scheme was still open to new applicants and he had confidence in Officers to manage the process carefully.  With regard to the Tour of Britain, as a local Ward Councillor, the Member expressed the view that an opportunity had been missed when the race had last come to the borough – a stage of the women’s race had started in Tewkesbury Town and she felt a lot more could have been done in terms of promotion so she hoped lessons would be learnt from that when it returned.  The Director: Corporate Resources indicated that the Lead Member for Economic Development/Promotion would pick this up with the relevant Officer to ensure lessons learnt were deployed, if and when Tewkesbury Borough was selected to hold the next race.  The Member went on to note the comment regarding the need to update relevant Members on the position with North West Cheltenham and North Cheltenham and expressed the view that this was relevant to all Members.  In respect of waste services, she would like to see the Overview and Scrutiny Committee undertake a deep-dive into waste collection to establish why the figures for KPI 40 – Percentage of waste reused, recycled or composted were reducing.   In relation to this, another Member queried the extent to which the Overview and Scrutiny Committee was able to question the assumptions behind each Key Performance Indicator (KPI) and pointed out that KPI 40 gave a single percentage for three entirely distinct categories which would each have their own figures.  He would like the Council to review how the KPIs were defined in order for Members to gain a better understanding of what was really happening within services.  In terms of the decision to cease the trade waste service, he felt this was a missed opportunity for the local authority and would like to see it revisited as a project.  A Member explained that, whilst it may have worked for other authorities, provision of a trade waste service had been thoroughly explored by Tewkesbury Borough Council and did not stack up financially.  Another Member questioned whether the service included recycling and the Executive Director: Resources and S151 advised that a recycling service was one of the options that had been investigated through the project.  The Member pointed out that a lot of businesses did not recycle, despite wanting to, so she felt there was an opportunity which should be looked at.  The Chief Executive explained that, when he had taken up his post with the authority, his recommendation had been that there was no market failure in the borough, so it would not be good use of public money for the Council to undercut a private service – he was not saying there were no opportunities in waste but the approach the authority had been taking could not be considered as good use of public money.  The Member explained that any material recycled would not be incinerated, therefore, providing that service would help businesses to reduce their carbon emissions.  The Chair advised that the Member should take up this matter with the Lead Member for Clean and Green Environment outside of the meeting. 

19.6           In terms of his comment regarding KPI 40, a Member proposed that, going forward, this be broken down into three separate figures for material recycled, reused and composted as Members needed to know what was happening in terms of the service being provided to residents.  In response, the Chief Executive explained that there was wider involvement outside of the authority in terms of obtaining these figures - he was unsure how the reuse figure in particular would be calculated – so this would need to be considered and a report brought back to the Lead Member for Clean and Green Environment in terms of what the KPI could be.  Another Member expressed the view that the KPIs used catch-all phrases rather than tangible things that could be measured and tracked and he recommended that all KPIs be revisited as part of the process of reviewing the Council Plan.  The Chief Executive confirmed that he was discussing with the Leader and Deputy Leader what meaningful performance would look like for the Council, and the outcomes that it would strive to achieve through the new Council Plan, and deliverable KPIs would form an important part of that.

19.7           The Chair thanked the Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee for his presentation and hoped he would feel the comments put forward had been well discussed by the Executive Committee.  Accordingly, it was