Agenda item

To consider the report of the Cabinet Member for Performance and Resources seeking to inform Members of the Council’s performance against key measures in Quarter 1 of 2022/23.

30.1    The Cabinet Member for Performance and Resources introduced the report and explained that its purpose was to set out the council’s performance against a set of key performance indicators (KPIs) in the first quarter of 2022/23. She explained that the performance data was set out in Appendix 1, and where targets exist, they had been included along with narrative to explain the data. The Cabinet Member for Performance and Resources further noted that as a result of the cyber incident experienced by the council in December 2021, Quarter 1 data for 5 of the 28 KPIs was not available due to some systems still being inaccessible. She informed Members that areas seeing an improvement included the percentage of customers satisfied with the service received from the council, the footfall at the Museum of Gloucester and TIC and the number of unique visitors to the Visit Gloucester website. Areas seeing a declining trend included the percentage of total waste recycled.

30.2    The Chair referred to KPI CCM-2 and asked whether the decreasing number of enviro-crime fixed penalty notices (FPNs) being issued was a positive or concerning trend. The Cabinet Member for Performance and Resources referred to the statement in the narrative confirming that the levels of FPNs issued have increased and exceeded the target. She therefore expressed her view that this was a positive trend. The Leader of the Council and Cabinet Member for Environment noted that he was aware of periods where there were lower numbers of officers in the team which could account for the reduction of FPNs being issued, however the number had now been restored and the number of FPNs may well rise in due course. He also confirmed that officers had been asked to pay particular attention to issues which often need more time to investigate, such as fly tipping. The Leader of the Council confirmed that he was happy with their performance, and he had personally seen an improvement in the city centre which he felt was testament to the hard work of the enviro-crime officers.

30.3    The Chair agreed that he had also seen a positive impact in his own ward where persistent fly tipping offenders had recently been prosecuted. He asked whether any consideration had been given to lowering the £24 bulky waste collection fee in light of difficulties some residents might experience with the increased cost of living. The Leader of the Council confirmed that the council had not increased the charges, however as this was a discretionary service rather than a statutory one, the council would continue to charge for this service as it had a responsibility to cover operating costs.

30.4    Councillor Wilson referred to H-25 and the narrative confirming that 22 affordable homes had been delivered during Quarter 1 with 199 affordable homes scheduled to be delivered in total during 2022/23. Noting that there were ongoing supply chain issues in the construction industry, he asked whether there was a realistic chance of delivering the rest of the promised affordable homes in the remaining quarters. The Director of Communities explained that this was an area of peaks and troughs, and data measuring historically had shown that affordable home delivery tended to vary across the quarters. She confirmed that if there were any concerns around this target, adjustments would be made accordingly.

30.5    Councillor Pullen also referred to H-25 and stated that he would like the Cabinet Member for Planning and Housing Strategy to attend an Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting to answer questions from Members regarding the alert KPI status and proposals for how the target would be met. The Cabinet Member for Performance and Resources stated that she would encourage Members to invite the Cabinet Member for Planning and Housing Strategy to the meeting when the Overview and Scrutiny Committee considered the Quarter 2 Performance Monitoring Report.

30.6    In response to a query from Councillor Wilson as to whether the council was legally compliant with undertaking food premises inspections, the Director of Communities explained that the data is recorded through the Food Standards Agency. She reassured Councillor Wilson that she was confident that officers are robust in upholding standards of compliance and had not changed their assessments or how the assessments were recorded. She further noted that retrospective figures would be provided once the data was available.

RESOLVED – That the Overview and Scrutiny Committee NOTE the report.