Issue - meetings

To receive and consider the report of the Director (Policy and Governance).

The Chair, Councillor John Walker, welcomed Asim Khan, Director (Customer and Digital) and Adrian Lowe, Executive Member (Customer, Advice and Streetscene Services) and Alistair Morwood, Executive Member (Public Protection) to the meeting.

The Performance Panel received a report from Asim Khan, Director (Customer and Digital), which outlined performance at quarter four 2018/19. Rebecca Aziz-Brook, Transformation Programme Co-Ordinator, presented the report.

The services within the directorate are;

·         Planning

·         Customer services

·         Streetscene

·         ICT

·         Enforcement

Asim Khan welcomed Cllr Alistair Morwood as the new Executive Member for Public Protection which included the responsibility for the regulatory services. Customer and Digital is a diverse directorate which consisted of the majority of front-line services. Performance had been successful, and the directorate continued to meet aspirations. With regards to the financial position, the budget for the Directorate underspent by £60,000 which had created a 0.9% variance against the original cash budget.

Enforcement

Asim Khan advised that over the last year the new Enforcement Team had been established and the enforcement services were consolidated to deliver services in an effective way. Additional powers such as Section 215 notices have been exercised, and a continued focus and response to community concerns to address fly tipping and dog fouling is being made.

ICT

Work to support the delivery of the council’s ICT and Digital strategies had continued, including the roll out of worksmart principles to many teams in the council and the delivery of Office 365. In order to support this work, additional ICT staffing had been appointed to, to ensure that the team could support this work effectively. A notable successful project has been the introduction of public town centre Wi-Fi which was completed on time.

Council Tax

At 98.14%, the percentage of council tax collected was slightly behind target at quarter four in comparison to 2017/18, although this was in line with the trend across other Lancashire authorities. Following queries, Asim Khan ensured Members that any arrears were tracked and advised on the recovery cycle with regards to Council Tax and the debt policy in place for circumstances where payment couldn’t be made.

Streetscene and Waste

With regards to Streetscene and waste, a new waste procurement exercise had been concluded with a focus during the fourth quarter to mobilise the contract in April 2019. New refuse collection vehicles had been ordered and supported with technology realising significant savings for the council.

Following Member queries, Asim Khan advised that the annual target for garden waste subscriptions was circa £710,000. There had been 22,370 subscriptions last year which indicated a shortfall against projected figures.

Promotion had taken place but further marketing had been scheduled later on in the year as greater focus had been made on the mobilisation of the new waste contract to mitigate the impact of this. However, in the fourth quarter a paper-based direct debit campaign had taken place to provide support to senior citizens unable to pay by card but could do so through the bank. This exercise had proved successful and was commended by  ...  view the full minutes text for item 19