Agenda and minutes

The Chair welcomed all attendees to the meeting and provided the relevant safety information.

No apologies were received.

None

The draft minutes of the previous meeting were not objected to by the Members. 

None

The following three Public Forum Statements were received:

• Statement 1 – from David Jepson, Clifton Down Community Association
• Statement 2 – from Merche Clark, Clifton Down Community Association
• Statement 3 – from David Redgewell, South West Transport Network (in attendance). 

Mr Redgewell spoke to his statement and the following points were raised and discussed:

• A brief discussion about waste collection statistics ensued; the Chair requested the Commission be provided with mapping data and comparisons of how other councils perform – particularly core cities.  Officers added that BCC had just entered a contract with BWC (Bristol Waste Company) and there is a new action plan they are working through to make improvements to the service.

ACTION: Officers to pursue comparative waste statistics with other core cities and bring these back to the Commission at the soonest opportunity.

• Street Scene; a Member raised concerns about how about how their local street scene group  had now stood down and how BCC works with local groups such as these in future.
• Public Toilets: Members concurred with Mr Redgewell’s statement that the current picture of availability was unclear.  Also, there is no current provision at transport interchanges.  One Member said that in Stockwood bus drivers are reportedly at times urinating in the bushes.  Members requested that ‘Public Toilets’ be added to the Commission’s Work Programme.

ACTION: A report on the short, medium and long-term provision as well as any disposals and mapping of the facilities to be brought to the January Scrutiny Commission meeting. 

•          Vice Chair of the Commission: Cllr Jo Sergeant - who was nominated by Cllr Melias, this was seconded by Cllr Bolton

•          The Terms of Reference (ToR) for the Commission were noted.

•          The Commission’s work programme and meeting dates were noted

It was confirmed that some changes in the council’s directorate structure since the Full Council meeting in May means that the Commissions Terms of Reference (ToR) now needed to be slightly amended. 

ACTION: Scrutiny Advisor to ensure the ToR are rechecked and Members are kept fully informed of any amendments.

The Acting Executive Director: Communities said that she hoped this item would be the beginning of an ongoing conversation with Members.

The Strategic Lead for Waste gave a presentation that covered the following areas:

•                 The Creation and Delivery of the Waste Services Agreement 2018 (the Contract).

•          Operational Performance against Contract Requirements.

•          Expansion of Commercial Food Waste Service.

•          BWC Commercial Offering; Direction of Travel.

•          Residual Waste.

•          Recycling Initiative update.

•          Street Cleanliness Measurement.

Following on from the presentation the following key points were discussed and Members asked a number of questions:

•          New contracts with BWC have been broken down so they can now be managed more effectively and reviewed on an annual basis more easily.

•          Officers picked up on an earlier point about offensive graffiti and said they were striving to improve the timescales for removing it. 

•                 Some of the statistics provided were questioned by Members particularly one where it stated that work was ahead of target but still getting worse.  Officers said that this related to the heatwave that had resulted in 2,000 missed collections during that period.  

•          Officers said the issue of ‘who’s land is it’ has now been resolved and it is being cleared straight away now.

•          Current policies for different types of land process etc; officers agreed that they need to help people understand what the clearance policy is. 

•          The higher than average turnover of staff was highlighted.  Officers said there had previously been too much reliance on agency staff but that figure is down to 4% - 5% now and that figure should now reduce quite swiftly.

•          Members requested to know what is happening with regards to the Cabinet decision to provide households with an extra blue box. 

ACTION: Officers to report back what the plan is with regards to the decision on the extra blue recycling box

•          Members said that residents say they can’t get through on the phone to report issues about waste and fly-tipping.  Issues then get passed on to councillors to make the reports online which creates extra work loads for them.  It was asked if a process could be devised where they could get fast tracked somehow; especially because they do so much reporting on behalf of other people.  Officers said that 85% of calls were answered in line with the current service level agreement (SLA) but this would be looked into. 

ACTION: Officers to report back on what can be done to support Councillors on this.

•          Members requested to know about the Community Liaison Team especially where staff numbers had been reduced; will there now be 3 or 4 officers and would the boundaries be changed?

ACTION: Officers said they would confirm the situation with members as soon as possible.

•          Marketing and the 20% target:  A Member pointed out that the small business shouldn’t be squeeze out by trying to achieve this figure.  Officers said they are keen to make whole streets consistent.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 122.

Officers took the members through the presentation slides.  The following points were raised and questions asked:

•          Members said they were still waiting to understand how they could feed into the system and help set the priorities and how and when they will be provided with regular reports.  Was it via scrutiny or separate drop-in session/s?

ACTION: Members and Officers to agree how in future regular reporting and input will happen.  It was suggested that the party leads discuss with officers at the next planning meeting.

•          Members asked about Kingdom – how is it tasked?  Officers said they have weekly meetings, draw on data and experience and task for the following week.

•          It was asked what happens to commercial food waste and how it is treated if not collected by BWC.

ACTION: Officers to report back on this

•          There is currently an external company measuring cleanliness in the city.  Officers will report back on the findings

•          Liaison with local street scene groups: Members say there is not enough support and communication.  This needs to happen as the council is losing good will from these groups.  

•          Members asked a number of questions about the Fixed Penalty Notices (FPN) statistics:  How many weren’t successful?  Which five wards don’t have any FPNs so far? It was explained that some numbers were low because officers had instead been going out to the less busy areas at times.  It was important to strike a balance across all areas. Officers agreed to provide and break-down the information as much as they can in future

•          Nuisance front gardens, particularly HMOs – were there many instances?

ACTION:  Officers will provide an update on this. 

•          Members asked about enforcement statistics and how many hours were spent in each ward verses how many results they have.  Officers said that enforcement figures had definitely improved in the last 1-2 years. BCC also now has some tracers to use and covert cameras to install.  As above, it needed to be agreed how councillors can influence the camera locations. 

•          The ‘Man with van’ and fly-tipping was raised; it was agreed that more enforcement on this is needed.  It was suggested that more ‘honey-trap’ type targeted operations would work.

Officers went through the information with Members and highlighted the significant points.  The following points were raised and questions asked:

•          Officers explained that the figures showed long-term trends

•          The Chair said that he would like to see comparative data between the police statistics and people’s perceptions of crime in their areas

•          Officers said that impacts were more prevalent in the most deprived wards in the city

•          Criminal exploitation was on the rise but was being addressed

•          It was confirmed the statistics were only from the police and not the council or housing associations

•          Members asked if comparisons could be made with the Quality of Life Statistics next time.

ACTION: Officers to look into this and report back at the next meeting

Communities Quarterly Performance Progress Report (Quarter 1 - 2018/19)

Members considered the report and made the following comments:

• Members asked for more information about the fuel poverty bid.  It was reported that officers are bidding for funding for an officer to recruited
• The Chair reminded Members to send questions in in advance of the meeting for the standing items.  One Member said they would need a reminder if this was needed to happen. 
• Officers said that standing item reports will be sent out in advance