Issue - meetings

Cabinet noted that during the quarter under review, there was continued improvement with 17 measures at or exceeding their target. Members further noted that the Council had exceeded targets to the levels of detritus and graffiti on Thanet streets. This was due to targeted work by the Cleansing and Enforcement teams.

However there was still more to be done to tackle the levels of litter and public perception around this issue and the Council would be working more with the public on shared responsibility to address this through targeted campaigns. Enforcement continued to be focused in this area and over a 12 month period, the Council had issued 1,874 litter fixed penalty notices and carried out 1,310 street scene enforcement actions to reinforce the message that dropping litter was never acceptable.

Members were advised that electric pavement sweepers would soon be trialled as these were reputed to cover a larger area in shorter time periods. Staff sickness levels had gone down. Although the Legal Department was facing staffing shortages, there was some improvement in the performance target for processing Freedom of Inquiry requests (FOIs).

Work continued at pace to address the levels of homelessness in the district. Since the start of the year, the Housing team had prevented more than 300 cases and at the time of publication, Thanet had no families housed in hotel accommodation. The new duties through the Homelessness Reduction Act have made a positive impact and the Council was targeting more resources to support some of the most vulnerable people in the district. For the next Quarter, Cabinet expected to receive improved performance results as a result of the other measures taken to improve performance in this area.

It was also worth noting that recommendations from the Finance, Budget and Performance Scrutiny Panel had been taken on-board since the last meeting and that new targets would be added to the contextual measures as part of the Corporate Plan refresh next year.

Councillor Gregory proposed, Councillor Savage seconded and Cabinet noted the performance and agreed the action in relation to the Panel’s recommendations as outlined in the Cabinet report.

Hannah Thorpe, Head of Communications and Digital led the discussion by introducing the report and highlighted the following:

• The general trend for Q2 reflected an overall improvement. There were now 17 performance targets that were at or exceeding their targets (16 last quarter), three were amber (one less than last quarter) and 9 were red (which was the same as in the last quarter);
• Clean and Welcoming Environmental: Environmental Health service requests: missed bins, levels of acceptable detritus on the streets and graffiti were all measures at or exceeding their targets. The overall trend of movement was in the right direction. It was worth noting the good targeted work done by the street cleansing team to move performance measurement for graffiti from red (in the last quarter) to green;
• Waste and Recycling re-use: this was currently amber. The overall trend was improving as this had been red in the previous year.
• Levels of acceptable litter in streets –This needed improvement and a focus of resources to move the performance measurement in the right direction (from the current red). Targeted resourcing of seafront areas had affected the resourcing of other areas of the service. Due to the good weather this summer, the demand for extra resources for the seafront areas was extended into September. It was hoped that the performance for this target would improve in the next quarterly report;
• Public Opinion (survey): Satisfaction: residents generally satisfied with recycling service and parks. However residents were not satisfied with street cleansing for the period under review;

• The Enforcement Team had issued over 1,800 litter fixed penalty notices and had carried out over 1,300 enforcement actions. The Council would conduct joint anti-litter initiatives with the public including schools;
• Supporting Neighbourhoods: 10 different targets were measured. Four targets were green, one was amber and 5 were red. Empty homes, living conditions, satisfaction with repairs and homelessness cases which have been prevented: These were all at or exceeding targets. articular reference should be drawn to homelessness prevention – Over 300 cases have been prevented in the period under review;
• Anti-Social Behaviour target is Amber. This is because the team had recently been  under resourced. However the team had recruited a new member (to start at the end of this year) and it was hoped that the target would be back on track in the next quarter;

• Time taken to make decisions by the Homelessness Team and the number of days taken in hotel accommodation by homeless families - The targets were in the red. Although there was a need for improvement, it was worth noting that since the publication of the Quarter 2 report there were no more households that required housing who were in hotel accommodation that the council had a duty to place;
• East Kent Housing: The council had set out a performance plan for EK Housing and the Council was now monitoring the implementation of the plan to ensure that EK Housing performance improved;
• Tenant Arrears figure. Although it was showing below  ...  view the full minutes text for item 26