Home > Agenda and minutes

Agenda and minutes

Venue: This meeting was held remotely via Microsoft Teams

Contact: Stephanie Davis
020 8726 6000 x84384  Email: stephanie.davis@croydon.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

24/21

Minutes of the Previous Meeting pdf icon PDF 314 KB

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 16 March 2021 as an accurate record.

Minutes:

The minutes of the meeting held on 16 March 2021 were agreed as an accurate record.

25/21

Disclosure of Interests

In accordance with the Council’s Code of Conduct and the statutory provisions of the Localism Act, Members and co-opted Members of the Council are reminded that it is a requirement to register disclosable pecuniary interests (DPIs) and gifts and hospitality to the value of which exceeds £50 or multiple gifts and/or instances of hospitality with a cumulative value of £50 or more when received from a single donor within a rolling twelve month period. In addition, Members and co-opted Members are reminded that unless their disclosable pecuniary interest is registered on the register of interests or is the subject of a pending notification to the Monitoring Officer, they are required to disclose those disclosable pecuniary interests at the meeting. This should be done by completing the Disclosure of Interest form and handing it to the Democratic Services representative at the start of the meeting. The Chair will then invite Members to make their disclosure orally at the commencement of Agenda item 3. Completed disclosure forms will be provided to the Monitoring Officer for inclusion on the Register of Members’ Interests.

Minutes:

There were none.

26/21

Urgent Business (if any)

To receive notice of any business not on the agenda which in the opinion of the Chair, by reason of special circumstances, be considered as a matter of urgency.

Minutes:

There were no items of urgent business.

27/21

Place Department Update pdf icon PDF 1 MB

To receive an update on the Place departments Budget, Staff and Service Impact.

(Presentation to Follow)

Minutes:

The Interim Executive Director of Place introduced the item and details were outlined by relevant Directors in a Presentation

Following the presentation, Members had the opportunity to ask questions

During the consideration of the recommendations, the Committee discussed the following:

  • Growth on income had been built into the budget in relation to ANPR cameras, camera enforcement was an efficient way to ensure people were abiding by the law. Income for enforcement would be a significant increase on previous years. Parking income was used to offset concessionary travel such as the freedom pass scheme which contribution for is laid to London Councils
  • Once motorists start to comply with restrictions, there may be a reduction in projected revenue from penalty charges in areas where ANPR ‘s operated. This had been built into the model as income projection was based on a compliance process which had been over and under estimated at different periods.
  • After the deduction of the cost of running the service, all surplus funds goes into the freedom pass scheme, once the surplus exceeds the cost of the freedom pass, the Council is required to put the funds into other road schemes.
  • The Council has shifted from a reactive service on maintenance of highways. The budget to deal with reactive maintenance such as effects of potholes as a result of adverse weather was amended to allow for growth in the budget to allow for the repairs to be made.
  • The majority of money for Croydon works initially came from the growth fund
  • The end of furlough and reversal of uplift to universal credit was concerning and there were a number of strategies that had been out in place by the Council to mitigate the knock on effect such as additional funding which had been secured from DWP to keep Croydon Works running. Working with adult learning, Croydon College and John Ruskin colleges to ensure delivering what needed for residents in terms of training. Working with DWP and other providers such as SWLP to blend different approaches from different providers.
  • The development of the community safety strategy would address and target resources in the right way in the antisocial behaviour teams. In being very clear about roles and responsibilities, work had been undertaken to ensure that queries were being routed to the right departments to make sure queries were dealt with more quickly and efficiently. All information on had been made clear on the Councils website.

 

Request for information

  1. Briefing from Public Realm on projected income from ANPR
  2. Briefing on fee income and total expenditure on the Planning Service

The Sub-Committee concluded that

  1. The Place department always achieved savings as required. There was however a concern about the impact this was having on the department such as the increase in complaints in some of its service areas. Consideration to be given to the possibility of a deep dive to be undertaken by the Sub-Committee on plans to address issues arising from cuts to the budget to be undertaken.
  2. There was a  ...  view the full minutes text for item 27/21

28/21

South London Waste Partnership Contract pdf icon PDF 948 KB

To review Veolia’s performance under its contract for the waste, recycling collection service and street cleansing. Additionally to review the Council’s management of the contract.

( Report to Follow)

 

 

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Cabinet Member for Sustainable Croydon introduced the item by providing context and advised that the contract was entered into in 2018 for waste collection as well as street cleaning. Veolia collect 1.8million household waste collections per month, and 2703 miles of streets were cleansed monthly. Recycling rates had improved significantly over the years, this was attributed to implementing different ways to encourage residents to take ownership and recycle more.  A service improvement plan had been put into place following the Pandemic to address issues and improve on service delivery. This plan had been impacted by the National HGV shortage issue. Growth increase due increased households and increased waste remained a challenge.

The General Manager and the Resilience Contract Manager from Veolia outlined details in a Presentation

Following the presentation, Members had the opportunity to ask questions

During the consideration of the recommendations, the Committee discussed the following:

  • Officers stated that prior to the National issues with HGV drivers, there has been improvements in collections performance in the last year despite challenges and the service had performed well.
  • Reporting of missed collections were  usually completed online but the small number of residents that are unable to complete reporting online they are able to report by calling the contact centres to report.
  • Useful breakdown on street cleansing per borough, similar information on bin collection  per borough and missed per ward would be useful
  • Concerning reports regarding behaviour of crew by some residents and officers were clear that any behavioural issues that were reported were dealt with. There were cameras on vehicles to capture any issues. Members welcomed the information of on board cameras and felt this should be publicised. Officers were exploring ways to update the cameras to enable direct feed to the office or live feedback as this was currently not possible. There were factors to be considered such as costs, data protection and resources which would be part of upgrading of the systems.
  • Officers clarified that there were many reasons that fed into the shortage of HGV drivers, in 2019 road haulage association published that there were approximately 60K shortage, this had now risen to approximately 100k. This was desperate and challenging times as agency providers did not have the staff available to provide in this current climate from a backdrop of an already struggling industry .Veolia had been exploring several ways to address the issues such as overhauling recruitment process, upskilling current staff through a bespoke programme to assist them in obtaining the appropriate licensing. A retention bonus had been provided and increase in recruitment package. Prices had to be increased for commercial partners to be able to fund the additional money that was going into recruitment and retention of staff.
  • Croydon internal staff as well as some DWP staff were currently being trained in Croydon. This commenced as of June 2021 as were not able to train any staff in 2019.  Prior to 2019 there had been an apprentice training scheme in place but not on the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 28/21

29/21

Work Programme 2021/2022 pdf icon PDF 153 KB

The Streets Environment and Homes Scrutiny Sub-Committee is asked to:-

1. Note the current position of its Work Programme for 2021-22,

2. To consider whether there are any other items that should be added to the work programme.

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Sub-Committee NOTED the work programme for the reamainder municipal year.

30/21

Exclusion of the Press and Public

The following motion is to be moved and seconded where it is proposed to exclude the press and public from the remainder of a meeting:

 

“That, under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act, 1972, the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information falling within those paragraphs indicated in Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972, as amended.”