Agenda item

The Strategic Intelligence & Performance Advisor introduced the report to Members and briefly elaborated on the significant issues in the report.   It was confirmed that the report was the 2018/19 year-end summary.

Some of the measures presented in the report were annual measures (14) and others are taken from the  Quality of Life survey (QoL) (13).

Members made the following comments;

• There were in their view a ‘worrying number’ of downward trends.  However it was acknowledged there were difficulties involved in fixing them as some were due to wider impacts highlighted in the report itself, such as the impact of welfare benefits reform on housing figures.  

• It was suggested that some of the commentary in the report ‘wasn’t particularly helpful’ because it explained why there were problems but Members didn’t think it give enough information about what was being done about them. 

• The Chair suggested that the reduction in ‘Increase the percentage of people who feel they can influence local decisions’ (BCP315 & from QoL) was very likely to be a consequence of the Neighbourhood Partnerships (NPs) not existing anymore.  Other members agreed with this point.  The Director – Management of Place said that indicator was still being monitored by the Communities Scrutiny Commission and yes it was likely a result of the NPs stopping but there are now new teams and a redesigned service.

The Performance Officer said that she had recently worked on a Citizen’s Panel which had proven to be very popular with those involved.   She said that it was being looked at how they can be better publicised in future and recruit to as they are a positive way for people to engage in local matters.

• Members also noted the that performance indicator (BCP540): Reduce percentage of people who feel that street litter is a problem in their neighbourhood (QoL) was displaying as worse compared to same period in the previous year and much higher than the 2018/2019 target.  One Member said that about a quarter to a fifth of his local case work was residents complaining about litter and mess on the streets.  He said it hadn’t previously ever been such a problem and he wasn’t really sure what was going on.  It was said that the Mayor had said the situation would improve by means of the Clean Streets Campaign.  It was thought that the officers running the programme were very effective and so he was not sure why it appeared to be failing especially given the large amount of funding that had been placed into it.  In his view it was fair to say that the project had been a failure so far. 

Officers responded that regardless of all the resources that had been channelled into this issue, the figures for litter and graffiti were still very high and that the council were “losing the fight against tagging and graffiti.”  It was said that four teams of targeted officers with a neighbourhood approach would start in September working across all areas of the city.  Their aim was to reduce the percentage of residents who felt that street litter was a problem.  However, the new resources were still unlikely to be enough to completely eliminate the issues.  Officers also said that for first time all the teams responsible for waste and street scene were to be brought under the same directorate which would allow an improved and combined approach from now on.

A senior officer added that the underperforming results of the QoL Survey would lead to action being taken to address them and that they were already speaking to Service Managers about them.