Issue - meetings

Cabinet considered the report which set out the performance of the Council against the Corporate Plan for the period up to 31 December 2018.  The report had previously been considered on 14 February 2019 by the Finance, Budget and Performance Scrutiny Panel.

Councillor Crow-Brown spoke under Council Procedure 20.1.

Councillor Gregory proposed, Councillor Savage seconded and Cabinet agreed to note the Council’s performance for the period up to 31 December 2018.

Hannah Thorpe, Head of Communications & Digital introduced the report and gave some highlights of the corporate performance for the various services. The key comments made are detailed below:

A Clean and Welcoming Environment

Members were advised that performance in this area was encouraging, with some performance highs in this quarter. This included the percentage of Environmental Service requests responded to on time, the percentage of household waste sent for recycling and the levels of graffiti being maintained at a low level. The council was now issuing more notices for graffiti and also offering services to private properties thereby attracting an income.

Although missed bins had dropped below the council’s target, members were asked to note that performance was very close to the ambitious target of 0.15% at 0.16%. This figure equated to 50 missed bins out of 18,000 daily collections which compares positively at a national level. It was pointed out that this target will be reviewed for the next set of Corporate Priorities as the figure currently includes bins which had not been put out by residents and contaminated waste.

Although the level of detritus was above target, littering was below target and was a result of increased litter being dropped. Officers provided assurance that four new machines would be purchased in 2019-20 to help address this problem, along with increased messaging to the public about the shared responsibility.

Supporting Neighbourhoods

Members were informed that the measure monitored on empty properties was another performance high this quarter, with 143 properties being brought back into use over the past 12 months. Likewise, the rolling 12 month figure for homeless cases prevented by the Council was also a record high due to access to discretionary housing payments and piloting a dedicated landlord liaison officer.

Although the average figures for the time taken to make homelessness decisions and average days in hotel accommodation remained below target, members were asked to note the actual figures (the grey line in the graph) which showed a significant improvement which was expected to reflect positively in the annual figure soon.

Other than customer satisfaction with repairs, the East Kent Housing measures were below target. However Members were reminded that Cabinet had adopted an improvement plan to monitor and assist with this performance.

Promoting Inward Investment and Job Creation

Major planning application figure had gone down in the period under review and was now red. Thus was in part due to a significant rise in the number of major applications. Members were reminded that the Council’s performance of 73% was still above the national target of 70%, and was a reflection of the ambitious targets set by the Council.

Statistical Information

Generally speaking it was an improving picture with six measures now at or exceeding target and one less red target. Positives also included the measure around complaints improving and moving from red to amber, with the figure of 89% this quarter now very close to the target of 90%.

Although sickness and Freedom of Information requests  ...  view the full minutes text for item 39