Agenda item

The Quarter 4 Performance Report  was introduced by Felicity Williamson, Strategic Intelligence and Performance Advisor.  Members asked questions about the following themes in the report:

• BPPM375 - Empty council properties and BPPM374a - Average relet times – were both significantly worse than target.  A Member asked how many properties were currently empty? And what was the average relet time i.e. was it days or weeks?

Action: officers said they would report back on the current number of empty properties and the relet times.

• Did the Council have a policy on under occupation of council properties or provide any incentives for people to down-size i.e. one person living in a four bedroom house that could be relet to a family.

Action: officers said they would take this question away and provide a response after the meeting.

• Actions P-HC1.2 (Page 30) Support the delivery of 1,000 low and zero carbon, affordable homes (AH) by 2024 by investing £12m this year and providing development expertise to partners: A Member commented that the explanation in the report was unclear in that it says the Council has not done what it intended to do but it didn’t explain and how much of 12m been spent or how many affordable houses had been bult.  Officers said there were numerous factors causing slippage in the programme across all forms of affordable housing delivery.  Page 30 of the report stated that in August there had been 309 AHs built, but they would provide further information about how much of the £12m funding had been spent after the meeting.

Action: Officers to provide further information about how much of £12m funding had been invested after the meeting.

• BPOM476 (QoL) Increase the number of people travelling actively to work by walking and cycling,

was shown as ‘significantly worse than target’. A Member said the explanation was said to be more people using e-scooters but asked what actual data existed on this? 

Action: Officers said they would take this question away and report back in writing after the meeting. 

• BPPM477 Increase the number of public electric vehicle charging points; The report stated none had been delivered but there would now be a change in approach.  It was not clear if the target will have been met when next reported? The interim Executive Director said that the Council was currently working with the provider colleagues and the funding was coming but they would report back further on this.   

Action: Officers to provide an up-date on the number of public electric vehicle charging points being delivered.

• (p 36) Action P-TC4.3; replacing existing streetlights with LED lighting, showing as ‘On Track’.  A Member asked if it will be possible to request lower lighting in some areas? Where will decisions be made and by whom? Officers to look into this and provide further information after the meeting.

• BPPM120 Road Safety: reduce the number of people killed or seriously injured in road traffic incidents. A Member commented that the explanation was not clear. Officers said this information was provided by the police but due to a new system that had been introduced the data was not currently up to date. It was however suggested that the figure was on a downward trend. 

• BPOM434 Reduce the proportion of deaths attributed to particulate air pollution (significantly worse than target).  A Member asked for more clarification of the data.  The Performance Officer said this was external data reported by Public Health England.  It wasn’t said to be counting actual deaths but modelled data and was a wider City outcome measure to be aware of, and officers weren’t able to go into more detail on.

• A Member raised the previously discussed empty property figures and relet times and commented they were concerned about how the situation was being dealt with.  It was suggested this needed to be ‘drilled into’ about how this was really working as they had little faith that what was being done would actually fix the situation. The Performance Officer said she had realised why the metrics were not included in the report.  It was because the information sat with the Communities Scrutiny Commission (CSC) and that was why the themes were included but not the metrics data. It was agreed that this concern would be referred to the CSC.

Action: Scrutiny Coordinator to refer the above concerns about empty property figures and relet times to the Communities Scrutiny Commission. 

• It was suggested that the issues raised about the reporting of the metrics needed to be resolved before the new committee system was in place. The Performance Officer said the new dashboard that would be in place for the next Scrutiny Commission meeting would hopefully resolves some of the issues that had been raised.

• BPPM170 - Satisfaction with the condition of road surfaces (National Highways & Transport Satisfaction Survey) - Significantly better than target.  A Member commented that although it appeared the quality of local road surfaces was satisfactory and one of the best in the country, but the baseline of target of 35% for satisfaction appeared to be set very low. 

The Commission thanked the Strategic Intelligence and Performance Advisor for the information and discussion.