Agenda item

In attendance for this item were:

John Hobbs, Director of Economy and Infrastructure (E&I)

Steph Simcox, Head of Finance

Dave Corbett, Management Information Analyst

Q1 2019/20 Budget Monitoring

The Head of Finance advised that in relation to Q1 2019/20, there were no material variances, apart from a few very minor ones, totalling £5k, which were set out in the key headlines of the Agenda.

The variances related to the positive impact of an increase in income from the archaeology service, pressure due to inflation on energy costs related to lighting, and the waste contract.

Regarding street lighting, a member suggested that the price paid by the Council per KWh for its energy was very high. The E&I Director and Head of Finance advised that energy was purchased through West Mercia Energy and that pressure from increased energy costs was being looked at corporately.

After discussion, the Panel agreed to suggest the corporate contract for energy supply be considered by the Corporate and Communities Overview and Scrutiny Panel (of which one of the Panel members present was the Chairman). The Director agreed that it would be helpful to have some analysis of how tariffs were set.

It was expected that the remaining savings relating to waste management would be funded from an additional contribution from the waste reserve. Dialogue with the waste contract provider was continuing and the detail of this could therefore not be disclosed at this stage.

In response to a question about whether Power BI was being used to drill down and analyse budget information, the Head of Finance agreed it was a powerful tool, although developing its use would take time, and the resources involved were being looked at.

It was confirmed that the variance of £124,000 for Operations, Highways and PROW was related to a staffing underspend.

Performance Information

A Panel member asked what three areas were going well and what three needed improvement and in response the Director said that areas to improve included the condition of highways, which had recently slipped slightly as shown by the graphs. The same applied to improving the rate of highways inspections, since it was important the Council was able to demonstrate inspection rates. He would also like to encourage people to reduce their waste.

Areas going well included the rate of repair of road defects and the way in which public enquiries were tracked. In general,l the Director believed the Directorate had good processes in place.

Members agreed that the Directorate had effective processes, but suggested that it was at times let down by its engagement with members, which in turn affected the public interface. Members gave the example of struggling to keep track of their enquiries on the current system, and were advised that as part of its review of systems, the Directorate aspired towards a shared CRM system and the Director agreed this work should be brought forward.

When asked about the rationale of temporary fixes to potholes, which did not last, the Director explained that this may be because the road in question was part of the long-term repair programme; members recognised the sense of this approach but pointed out the need to be informed. The Chairman suggested members should therefore be updated with longer-term repair plans for roads (and not just footways) and while the Director pointed out that this should already be available through Highways Liaison Engineers, a member pointed out that this was only two weeks in advance and was unclear.

A member suggested that the Council needed a stronger procedural approach in instances where it incurred costs for work such as trimming overgrown hedges and highways obstructions, when landowners in some areas of the county failed to respond to requests. The Director agreed and suggested that one solution may be to put a charge on the land concerned, which would then take effect when the property was being sold. The Panel agreed the issue of recharges was important, and that these instances also had health and safety implications; members looked forward to hearing how the Directorate tackled this problem.

Regarding the issue of encouraging the public to reduce waste, Cllr Jenkins highlighted a talk being given by an individual who had dramatically reduced their household waste, due to take place that week in Worcester.

A member from outside the Panel highlighted the difficulty in obtaining information on road repairs from the contractor (Ringway) and queried the value of the current job lists circulated to members. The Panel Chairman said that the Council’s Highways Liaison Engineers were helpful in these instances. He also flagged up the need to progress an IT system which would then enable members to check.

Following queries from the Chairman, the Directorate Officers undertook to look at providing further breakdown of potholes fixed on time (the three different types), and also the number of historic enquiries (PEMs) lingering on the system and the rise in PEMs for June.

Whilst praising the format of performance data, the Panel suggested that for future discussions, it would be useful for the Directorate to highlight three areas of particular success and of challenge.

The Director confirmed he would look into the queries raised on the streetlighting energy costs, recharges, numbers of public enquires (PEMs) on the system, rise in PEMs for June, transparency of the jobs list for councillors and wider use of IT to improve communication for councillors.