The Panel considered the latest
trends, priorities and pressures in terms of departmental
performance as reported in the Quarterly Service Report (QSR) for
the third quarter of 2012/13 (October to December) relating to
Environment, Culture and Communities (ECC).
Major variances in revenue had
occurred in areas including the Waste Management Refuse Collection
Contract, Waste Management Disposal, Car Parking Income,
Development Control Income, Cemetery and Crematorium Income,
Landscape Services Vehicles, Coral Reef Income/closedown, Licensing
Income, Libraries Income, Supervision Fees Adoption Highways,
Traffic signals, Concessionary Fares, Building Control Chargeable
Account, and Data Capture Tree Preservation Order Files.
Capital schemes identified to
be carried forward were: Car Park Maintenance, Local Safety
Schemes, Skimped Hill/Market Street
Accessibility Improvements Town Centre to Peel Centre, Disabled
Facilities Grants, Electronic Document and Records Management
System, Westmorland Park, Bridge Structural maintenance, Suitable
Alternative Natural Greenspace enhancement works, and Forest Road
footway.
Key highlights included:
improvements to Bracknell, Binfield and Crowthorne libraries;
Public examination on the Site Allocations Development Plan
Document; Re-opening of Coral Reef; Completion of restoration work
at South Hill Park; Green flag applications; Flexible and mobile
working; and Working with Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) on
Smart Grid.
A £583,000 saving was
expected, most of which was from waste management. Coral Reef was
re-opened up to five days earlier than planned resulting in income
loss of £230,000 rather than the sum of £440,000
expected in December 2012. Although there had been more expenditure
than planned on Highways, there were various carry forwards and a
significant saving in the devolved staff budget. Tree preservation
orders would be inputted onto an IT system.
The 7% staff vacancy level was
remaining stable and there had been a low turnover of staff. Staff
sickness levels were slightly worse than usual but this was likely
due to instances of long term sickness. There had been nearly 4,000
registrations for the brown wheeled bin scheme. The expression
public realm referred to highways maintenance, street cleansing,
landscape services, street lighting, and the related contract was
for around £7-8million.
In response to Members’
questions, the following points were made:
- Coral Reef was very
well attended the first weekend following its reopening after a
three month closure.
- There would be
£56,000 net income from car parking charges at The Look Out
and an extra £20,000 from parking tickets. 25% of visitors to
The Look Out were parking elsewhere or had ceased to visit the
facility owing to limited alternative parking. Work was being
undertaken with Natural England to locate potential parking
sites.
- Work was being
undertaken with Scottish and Southern Energy regarding an
‘Electric Avenue’ project investigating the effect of
whole streets using electric vehicles and solar panels, amongst
other energy saving measures. Smart meters could detail the energy
usage of a household, and information could now be gained at
substation level. All of this information was being analysed by the
University of Reading. People would be advised regarding grants
available for energy saving measures. It was suggested that this
work could include consideration of how micro generation of
electricity by new housing estates might feed into the national
grid to meet demand.
- In relation to the
Community Infrastructure Levy, costs could be charged against
receipts received in future.
- £35,000 had
been used to repair traffic signals as more needed to be repaired
than planned. This money may be recovered through insurance over
time.
- The last booking at
the crematorium was 4pm and bookings were of a two hour duration.
The crematorium could open on Saturdays but evening and weekend
services were at the discretion of the funeral directors. A number
of slots were currently offered and not all of these were taken up.
The service was based on demand.
- Progress against
promoting the Disabled Facilities Grants scheme was graded as Amber
because the government had given more money than expected but this
money had not been spent yet. The funding was based on demand and
an Adult Social Care needs assessment.
- Performance against
indicator L146.2, concerning the percentage of the Borough where
environmental cleanliness for detritus fell below the Environmental
Protection Act standard, was slightly below target due to the
significant amount of Autumn leaf fall in the third quarter of the
year.
- Performance indicator
L048.2, relating to the ‘Number of days overrun on street
works projects’ was monitored, and enforced as much as
possible. However, the Council had limited control of overrun and
utilities companies often decided it was in their best interests to
overrun a project and incur a fine.