Chris Lee, Director for Environment and Regeneration, provided an introduction to the item highlighting that this wouldn’t focus of waste as this had been covered elsewhere on the agenda:

·         (SP041) Service requests replied to in five working days: this is only just below the target demonstrating that despite there now being a high volume of requests, these are being met;

·         (SP066/067/065) Waste volumes: residential waste per household was below the maximum threshold in December and is only just above the maximum for the year to date.  Municipal solid waste sent to landfill is doing better than the target and household waste recycled and composted is improving and doing better than at the same point last year.  There has also been an unexpected expenditure dividend.  The new Energy from Waste (EFW) facility at Beddington Lane is being tested with a lower gate fee providing a £150K one off benefit; and

·         (SP024) % vacancy rate of property owned by the Council: this is low and significantly better than the target.  The debt owned by Council tenants is also better than target although not reflected in the provided figures since billing dates and payment terms affect the report.  This shows how the Council is working to maximise the benefit of its assets.

Cllr Holden, in his capacity as performance monitoring lead for the Panel, highlighted the following points as a result of his meeting with officers:

·         Library visitor numbers are slightly down but are expected to increase;

·         The library partnerships target figure will be removed and updated to something more meaningful as a KPI;

·         The income from libraries has jumped up recently;

·         Adult Learning enrolments were just under the target last year but are anticipated to increase during this municipal year.  It was noted that these figures need to be annualised (rather than reported quarterly) to make them more meaningful;

·         Parking permits issued in five working days are likely to be further affected by increasing CPZs and the ongoing impact of the diesel surcharge;

·         The PATAS KPIs are being revised and will only feature the cases won in the future;

·         Leisure income has been affected by the closure of the Ridgeway Stables;

·         Visitor numbers to the Polka Theatre have been affected by an unpopular show;

·         Building control applications and income are both down.  However, it is thought unlikely that the Council will lose its responsibility for this service; and

·         The share of building control cases being retained by the Council has increased which it is thought might be the result of investigations into the Grenfell fire.

In response to member questions, officers clarified:

·         (Chris Lee) The decrease in household waste is not as a result of missed bin collections.  These are marginal and are caught up so have no impact on overall volumes;

·         (John Hill, Assistant Director Public Protection) The focus of food premises inspections is on those deemed high risk;

·         (Chris Lee) The business case for the payment of fixed penalty notices is based on a rate of around 61/62% (which means the costs of the Kingdom contract are all covered with no additional cost passed onto the Council).  The payment rate has increased over time.  This reflects policies such as prosecution of those that don’t pay and publicly naming those where prosecutions are successful.  However, this has to be balanced against the costs of prosecution and the knowledge that some give false addresses or do not have the money to pay fines;

·         (John Hill) The cost of the free Christmas Parking initiative to the Council is around £60K per annum; and

·         (Chris Lee) The contract with Capital to address the backlog of building control enforcement cases is just about to start.  Highlighted the difficulties of staff recruitment in development control.