Agenda and minutes

To note any substitution of Members made in accordance with Council Procedure Rules.

Apologies of absence were received from Cllr L Musk for whom Cllr A Chesterman attended as a substitute and Cllr Cragg.

To confirm as a correct record the Minutes of the meeting held on 25 September 2024 (previously circulated).

The minutes of the meeting held on 25 September 2024 were approved as a correct record.

No notifications of urgent business were received.

To note declarations of Members’ disclosable pecuniary interests, non-disclosable pecuniary interests and non-pecuniary interests in respect of items on the Agenda.

No notifications for urgent business were received.

To receive verbal updates from the Chairs of the Budget, Social Housing (Communal Area Maintenance) and Youth ASB/Violence Task & Finish Panels.

A Verbal update was received from the Chair of the Budget Task & Finish Panel.

The budget setting task and finish panel convened for its first meeting on Tuesday 19 November following the approval by the cabinet of the medium -term forecasts in October and the budget seminar presented last week.

It gave an overview of the forecast and the anticipated budget gap for the next three years, and it was noted there is a sizable and challenging budget gap ahead of us.

The newer pressures facing the Council were discussed, in particular the pressures on homelessness and benefit subsidy losses. These pressures have arisen rapidly due to a number of factors, including increases in statutory duties, the cost of living crisis, temporary accommodation being held for redevelopment, and the reduction in accommodation available from a strategic partner due to the redevelopment

of their site. This is compounded by the continued freezing of the caps on the level of grant that can be claimed, which for temporary accommodation is still linked to rates set in 2011.

A program has been set up to oversee five key projects aimed at reducing this pressure where possible and officers explained that since September, around £700,000 have been identified to support the reduction of the budget gap.

The budget setting principles that were agreed by cabinet in October were explained.

One of these was a full review of the capital program and capital financing, which has now been completed. Officers explained that the cost of capital, which is made up of interest costs and repayment of borrowing, has now been reduced for 25 -26 and 26 -27.

Taking this update into account, the updated budget gap for 25 -26 now stands at just over £3 million.

Members discussed opportunities for savings, including income production and cost reductions, and will discuss the progress being made on income production for culture and leisure facilities in more detail at the next meeting along with any savings proposals and updates on the settlement of government policy statements.

During the discussion the following points were raised:

• A Member raised the issue of Council Tax support: not everyone in receipt of the Personal Independence Payment or the Disability Living Allowance was necessarily poor and yet anyone in receipt of either of these benefits was currently exempt from paying Council Tax.

A Verbal update was received from the Chair of the Social Housing (Communal Area Maintenance) Task & Finish Panel.

The Task & Finish group have met once so far and there is another meeting in November.  The Scope of the Task & Finish Group was to explore:

·        Providing details around the council’s cleaning and maintenance schedules and levels of service.

·        Providing an overview of service charges

·        Providing details of chargeable services to leaseholders, service charges to tenants and leaseholders for such services.

So far the meeting has discussed:

·        What estate services should cover.

·        That we are developing quality standards for estates so that residents know what services are provided and when they take  ...  view the full minutes text for item 18.

Report of the Executive Director (Resident Services and Climate Change)

The Chair of the Grounds Maintenance Scrutiny Task & Finish Panel introduced a report outlining eleven recommendations for Cabinet to consider.

Continental Landscapes Limited (CLL) operate the grounds maintenance contract for the Council. This involves grass cutting, hedge cutting, maintenance of seasonal beds and shrubs, weed treatment and leaf clearance. The grass cutting season during the summer of 2024 proved challenging due to the weather pattern, which was also experienced across the country.  CLL were invited to meet with cabinet during the summer to discuss the issues and what improvements could be made. This resulted in many proposed improvements for the grass cutting season for 2025 which were agreed by Cabinet members, and the Executive Member for Environment in subsequent meetings with CLL. The proposed improvements have also been endorsed as recommendations by the task and finish group.

During the discussion the following points were raised:

• A member asked if there was a particular order for the seven zones that move around as he envisaged that people whose zone is number seven will start complaining.
• The Chair of the Task & Finish Group responded saying that it was in planning at the moment. The whole council area will be split into seven zones, and they cannot move on to the next zone until the one being worked on has been signed off by council officers and the supervisors of CLL. The plan is to publish the schedule on the website.
• With regards the Wildflower areas, it was suggested a list is circulated to all councillors so they can suggest other areas to be considered. It is also a good idea to ensure these areas are well signposted. Another member suggested we need to choose area that will not impact on the highway.
• With regards garden maintenance, a member asked if the council could send residents a letter asking them to cut their hedge where it becomes a problem overgrowing the path.
• The Executive Director (Resident Services & Climate Change) responded that where complaints of overgrown hedges causing issues have been received, we will write to the owner and our own tenants and if it is serious we can take enforcement action.
• A member asked if there is an existing protocol that permits them to cut their grass or is it only on receiving a complaint.
• The Executive Director (Resident Services & Climate Change) responded that there’s no legal requirement or protocol for any tenant or owner to cut their grass / hedge at any particular frequency but if a complaint is received and people cannot walk safely on the path then we start with a letter and it can be followed up with enforcement. We would not have the ability to set that as a protocol across the borough, there would be no legal mechanism to do that.
• A member raised the issue of complaints received regarding trees that we have a contract with County to cut. She asked if County could be contacted and asked for extra money as they trees need cutting  ...  view the full minutes text for item 19.

Report of the Executive Director (Finance and Transformation).

The Assistant Director (Customer Services & Transformation) introduced the Council’s Annual Complaints Performance and Service Improvement Report for 2023-24.

The report set out the Council’s annual complaints performance and service improvement for 2023-24. It also summarised key lessons learned, compliance against the Housing Ombudsman Complaint Handling Code and action plan to ensure improvements identified are implemented to improve complaint handling and to continue to develop a positive complaints culture across the organisation.

Following an update to the council’s constitution last October, the OSC is now responsible for monitoring and assessing complaints performance and subsequent action plans. It is also a requirement of the housing ombudsman complaint handling code that a report is provided and shared also with the social housing regulator and therefore the reports have been split into two sections, 1) housing reports and 2) non housing report, non-housing complaints which will pick up other council services.

During the discussion the following points were raised:

• At 5.1 on the report, it states how much is given out in compensation. A member asked if it was known how much is spent on managing complaints.
• The Assistant Director (Customer Services & Transformation) responded it was not something that has been recorded but it could be considered in the next annual report.
• A member asked a question about compensation and if a resident is awarded compensation due to damage caused by a contractor, who pays the compensation and how quickly and mentioned a local resident who had been waiting for 2 years for compensation to be paid.
• The Executive Director (Resident Services & Climate Change) responded that if it’s a fault by the council we will pay and will do so quickly within a couple of weeks and offered to look into the resident’s case.
• A member asked if we have a benchmark of how we perform against other authorities?
• The Assistant Director (Customer Services & Transformation) responded that the best measurement is shown in the Ombudsman reports provided in Appendix B and C

RESOLVED

Members noted the contents of the report in Appendix A and recommended to Cabinet to note the contents of the report and to approve the Action Plan as detailed in Section 7 of Appendix 1.

Presentation of the Assistant Director (Customer Service & Transformation)

The Assistant Director (Customer Service & Transformation) introduced a presentation on consultations with our communities and ensuring effective community engagement.

Key Points:

• Over the last 12 months the Customer Service Project Board has been looking at key objectives, i.e. what we want to achieve and the approach and overseeing what that communication plan looks like. By reviewing consultations and surveys done over the past 18 months, what has gone well and not so well, this information has been used to develop a new community engagement toolkit for staff to use.
• Four levels of engagement defined

a)    Inform – making sure websites are accessible, press releases, social media channels, newsletters, committee papers.

b)    How to start to talk to our community about our services by looking at surveys, consultations, satisfaction surveys.

c)    How we empower support community action to do things. By introducing self serve, how we support our volunteers and community catch up days.

d)    Collaborating and forming partnerships with other stakeholders.

• Response rate looking for when undertake a survey. Survey design and approach will be different for each survey type.
• The new toolkit will have a clear comms and marketing plan, look and feel more aligned with the council branding. Summary documents for consulting on strategies that are quite long. Mid survey reviews looking at responses coming in and capture and target various groups.
• Improving survey feedback by working closer with service teams. Develop key stakeholder list for each survey type, promotion in social media, internal newsletter so councillors know what surveys are live and help promote them.  promotional offers, ensuring the survey is easy to complete, asking simple questions and ensuring we feedback.
• Next steps – We have developed an engagement calendar overseen by the community engagement group. Develop council-wide engagement strategy, the action plan will be reviewed by the Customer Service Project Board and then go to Cabinet. The final version of the toolkit will be reviewed by the Customer Service Project Board.

During the discussion the following points were raised:

• A member asked if they could have percentage rates of survey responses.
• A member suggested putting something in the magazine every quarter listing what is coming soon.
• A member asked if they could see the survey results in Core News.
• The Assistant Director (Customer Service & Transformation) responded that they have been updating the website with a one page gateway to all live consultations and surveys and you can see results of past ones.

RESOLVED

Members noted the presentation.