Agenda item

Report of Chief Executive (enclosed)

Councillor Adrian Lowe - Executive Member (Streetscene Services) will be in attendance at the meeting,

Members had expressed an interest in scrutinising the performance of Streetscene Services, with a particular focus on grounds maintenance, street cleansing and parks and open spaces. They considered a report of the Chief Executive which gave key performance indicators for Streetscene Services and summarised project delivery, budget investment, modernisation and customer satisfaction information.

Councillor Adrian Lowe, Executive Member for Streetscene Services attended the meeting and presented the report and also answered Members questions in the following areas:

Performance

·         In tackling off target PIs, new IT systems were in place to try and improve performance. Callbacks figures had improved following a change in mobile devices from Blackberries to iPads with a significant reduction in repeat requests.

·         In terms of the length of time taken to answer Contact Centre phone calls at busy times, Members were encouraged to log into My Account through the website to register service requests/issues as Members will be informed via email of progress and when requests etc. are resolved. This initiative was currently being promoted with Members, Parish and Town Councils and the public.

·         In response to multi issue or multi street queries which Members wanted to report, these issues appeared to take a longer time to resolve. Jamie Dixon reported that they were looking at ways to improve this.

Project Delivery

·         In response to queries regarding the prioritisation of neighbourhood projects and the length of time they were taking to deliver, Jamie Dixon reported that streetscene services were managing over 35 projects. As part of managing capacity, the projects have been staggered so that they will be delivered over a year and some would not start until September 2014 but were on course to be completed by the end of the Council year.

Budget Investment

·         Investment in new litter bins had received good feedback with larger capacity bins that could also take dog waste.

·         In terms of Buckshaw, issues with unadopted areas meant that siting litter bins was not straight forward   due to the different landowners and developers involved. However, work was ongoing in Main Square to locate bins just prior to the area being adopted.

·         In delivering the Astley 2020 project, car parking was raised as an issue. Car park infrastructure is in the current year’s programme and this will require a feasibility study and planning permission and therefore could not be completed until 2015/16.

Modernisation

·         Comments were made on the need to either cut grass more frequently or to collect the cuttings whilst mowing grassed areas. Both of these issues had cost implications. The Council could look at hotspots where this was a problem, but was also looking to start grass cutting earlier in the year and this will also help.

·         In relation to public realm improvements, LCC would not enforce obstructions on the highway unless there was a highway safety issue.

Customer Satisfaction

·         In response to queries regarding actions to improve customer satisfaction, Members were advised that IT solutions and calling cards were in place. In looking at customer feedback, officers looked for particular themes/communication issues to try and identify problems.

On behalf of the Performance Panel, Councillor Perks thanked Councillor Adrian Lowe and Jamie Dixon for attending the meeting and providing a very informative and honest presentation of Streetscene services performance.

RESOLVED – that the information be noted and the My Account initiative be promoted to Councillors, Parish and Town Councils as well as with the public.