Issue - meetings

This report provides an overview of the Sustainable Communities, Regeneration & Economic Recovery Directorate to inform the development of the Committee’s work programme including key priorities for the year; budget; performance; key risks and mitigations.

The Sub-Committee considered a report set out on pages 15 to 22 of the agenda, along with a supplement, which provided an overview of the Sustainable Communities, Regeneration & Economic Recovery Directorate to inform the development of the Committee’s work programme for the coming year. The report was introduced by the Corporate Director, Sustainable Communities, Regeneration & Economic Recovery by way of a short summary.

The Cabinet Member for Streets and Environment thanked the emergency services and officers for their response across the borough and in difficult circumstances in the last few days. The Cabinet Member for Streets and Environment went through their initial priorities in post including Graffiti Removal, working with community groups, residents’ associations, and parks Friends Groups. This work was to identify these groups’ priorities and to rebuild trust and relationships with the Council. Work had begun on ‘Clean Up Croydon’ and the Veolia contract to identify issues and develop plans with officers.

The Cabinet Member for Planning and Regeneration introduced themselves and stated that they were looking at improvements that could be made in the Planning Service with the Planning Advisory Service review due to be published imminently. The Sub-Committee heard that the Town Centre Regeneration plan was being updated to bring it in line with current circumstances.

The Chair stated that they would not be focussing on a number of areas as these would be substantive items at future meetings of the Sub-Committee or Scrutiny and Overview Committee. The Sub-Committee had attended an officer briefing on Grounds Maintenance and a summary of this had been published in the Supplementary Agenda as an Appendix to this item.

The Chair asked about departmental priorities and why these were so high level and lacked outcome focus; it was asked whether a business plan would be developed to focus these with concrete objectives. The Corporate Director of Sustainable Communities, Regeneration & Economic Recovery agreed that these were high level but that more detailed Service Plans had been produced by Heads of Service and these would all be reviewed as part of the business planning process to ensure these were in line with the emerging priorities of the Elected Mayor.

The Sub-Committee directed questions on ‘Clean up Croydon’ and asked when copies of the Service Improvement Notice and Plan for Veolia would be provided and were informed that these would be provided following the meeting. The Improvement Notice had been delivered in February 2022 and focussed on three key areas which were missed collections, repeat missed collections and delivery of containers; these had been a point of contention and the notice was in line with the contract as part of the escalation process which had triggered the production of a Service Improvement Plan. There had been a 45-50% improvement in missed collections, although this did fluctuate, but was travelling in the right direction and regular conversations were taking place with Veolia. There were challenges in the industry around staff recruitment and retention as well as recruitment of HGV drivers. Incentives were in place  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5

This report provides an overview of the Sustainable Communities, Regeneration & Economic Recovery Directorate to inform the development of the Committee’s work programme including key priorities for the year; budget; performance; key risks and mitigations.