Items
No. |
Item |
38/23 |
Welcome and Introductions
Minutes:
The Panel Members, Councillors
and officers in attendance introduced themselves.
|
39/23 |
Disclosure of Interest
Members are invited to declare
any disclosable pecuniary interests (DPIs) and other registrable
and non-registrable interests they may have in relation to any
item(s) of business on today’s agenda.
Minutes:
There were no disclosures at
this meeting.
|
40/23 |
Minutes of Previous Meeting PDF 106 KB
To
approve the minutes of the meeting held on Tuesday, 7 February 2023
as an accurate record.
Minutes:
The minutes of the meeting held
on Tuesday, 7 February 2023 were agreed as an accurate
record.
|
41/23 |
Report on Waste Management PDF 4 MB
Written report from Steve
Isles, Director of Sustainable Communities
Sustainable
Communities.
Minutes:
The Chair introduced the item
and invited the Head of Environmental Services and Sustainable
Communities to provide the Panel with an update on waste
management.
The Head of Environmental
Services and Sustainable Communities conducted a presentation to
the Panel, which can be found via the following link:
https://civico.net/croydon/17473-Tenant-Leaseholder-Panel
Councillor Clive Fraser (having already given apologies for
lateness) attended the meeting at 6.57pm.
In response to questions from
Panel members, officers informed the Panel that:
- The bin provision was
outdated as the amount of waste produced had increased over time.
Officers would review the existing structure and 0would formulate a
plan for each estate which may require capital
investment.
- Cleaning of the bins
would be down to the individual manager agents and housing
services. Under the current provisions the contractor was not
required to clean the bins.
- The standard
provision of keys should be generic across all the collection crews
including fire brigade keys. Some estates may have unique keys or
passcodes, officers would need to log this information for each
estate so that the collection crews can collect waste
efficiently.
- The replacement of
bin containers currently took 10 weeks, this was an improvement but it was still outside of the
Service-level agreement (SLA).
- If a bin collection
was missed, then the crews would need to tag the bin and state why
that particular bin was not collected.
In future, officers and the collection crew would now identify the
bins that weren’t collected and explain to the residents why
they weren’t collected to avoid future missed collections.
This was more challenging with communal waste collections as there
was not an individual that could be approached to advise on how to
prevent contamination of the bins.
- Officers would be
willing to review the size of the bins on each estate, they could
change the shape of the lids on the communal recycling bins but the challenge was that the apertures needed
to be small to avoid contamination from black bag refuse
waste.
- The frequency of
collection was a challenge, but the council had tried to ensure
that the frequency of collections met the average need within the
borough. Officers would be able to review their service design, but
it was unlikely that they would increase the frequency of
collections. Officers would likely look for other innovations to
try and address issues.
- Within the contract
there were 29 key performance indicators (KPI’s) and they were divided into waste and street
cleansing. Residents had 48 hours to report a missed collection and
the KPI was for the rectification within that time period. Street cleansing – rectifying
streets blow grade and the KPI was for rectification within 24
hours. These KPI’s were reviewed on a
monthly basis which fed back into a quarterly review which
the contractor was measured against.
- The 79% missed bulky
waste collections was borough wide, this measured the missed bulky
waste collections within the SLA. If the collection was missed
completely then the resident would be reimbursed however if
...
view the full minutes text for item 41/23
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42/23 |
Update on Mould and Damp pilot scheme for London councils PDF 1 MB
Written report from Stephen
Tate, Director of Housing - Estates & Improvement.
Minutes:
The Chair introduced the item
and invited the Head of Repairs Housing Estates & Improvement
and the and Mould Manager to provide the Panel with an update on
the mould and damp pilot scheme.
The Head of Repairs, Housing
Estates & Improvement conducted a presentation to the Panel,
which can be found via the following link:
https://civico.net/croydon/17473-Tenant-Leaseholder-Panel
In response to questions from
Panel members, officers informed the Panel that:
- The council were
doing 70 stage one visits (mould visits) per week.
- A stage 1 visit
consisted of a mould wash and paint to remove the spores. A Stage 2
visit would consist of remedial work such as damp proofing and
ventilation. Officers were targeting the most severe cases first
and the mould spores had to be removed in the first instance for
the safety of the resident. Officers would then need to assess the
property before remedial works could be carried out.
- HHSRS was the housing
health and safety rating system.
- Category 1 cases were
potentially fatal situations where the family would have to
relocated within 24hrs.
- There was a weekly
decant meeting in which officers assessed high priority
cases.
- If the surveyor felt
as though the property was uninhabitable then the property would be
reported to officers and the resident would be relocated
immediately.
- Officers only undergo
stage 1 visits once, before strategizing on how to tackle the
issues within the property.
- The aim was to devise
a tailored plan for each family home to ensure that it was fit for
purpose.
- Officers were using
local intelligence and working with tenancy to identify which
properties were having problems with leaks.
- Officers had been
working through the backlog of the cases in their damp and mould
inbox.
- Officers were in the
process of increasing their voids specification, the surveys
included a ground survey of the gutter, but they did not currently
include an inspection of the lofts due to health and safety risks
as the officer would often be alone.
- Officers had taken
money from the capital budget to enable them to provide 2000
properties with new fans as well as conduct remedial
work.
- Officers aimed to
visit a reported property within 6 days however they currently
achieved this in 20 days due to the volume of cases, but they had
increased the size of the team to meet the demand.
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43/23 |
Report on new fire regulations PDF 746 KB
Written report from Sam Pullen,
Compliance Manager.
Minutes:
The Chair introduced the item
and invited the Compliance Manager - Housing Estates and
Improvement to provide the Panel with an update on the new fire
regulations.
The Compliance Manager
conducted a presentation to the Panel, which can be found via the
following link:
https://civico.net/croydon/17473-Tenant-Leaseholder-Panel
In response to questions from
Panel members, officers informed the Panel that:
- Officers were unsure
whether emergency lighting was going to be installed as part of the
new fire regulations.
- Officers would
consider alternatives to the use of drop keys.
- Croydon did not have
a housing specific fire policy, however,
officers were currently drafting a housing specific fire
policy.
- The London Fire
Brigade had a zero tolerance on items stored in communal
areas.
- Officers wanted to
draft a communal areas policy; this would likely be completed
within three months before being shown to residents for
consultation.
- Scooters were a major
fire hazard when being stored in the hallways. The possibility of
storing these internally or externally had been explored but this
was not straightforward as the layout of certain housing estates
made this difficult.
- The Council had
carried out 100% of their inspections over the quarter, these
inspections were conducted by the compliance team. The council had
several options on how to conduct future inspections, the Council
could sub-contract the inspections or hire apprentices who could be
trained to conduct inspections.
- The data and the
outcomes from the inspections would be collated and provided to the
performance monitoring group.
- The front door to a
block was not a fire door, fire doors were internal
doors.
|
44/23 |
Report from resident representatives PDF 94 KB
Minutes:
The Chair explained to the
Panel that he represented Croydon Council on the Association of
Retained Council Housing (ARCH) and that the next ARCH conference
was in September.
The Chair stated that he also
sat on the Stop Socialising Stigma Committee and had been invited
to speak on issues to do with stigma at the social housing
conference in May.
|
45/23 |
Any Other Business
To discuss any other business
at the discretion of the Chair.
|
46/23 |
Date of next meeting
Tuesday, 18 July 2023 at 6:30pm
in the Council Chamber, Town Hall, Katharine Street, Croydon CR0
1NX.
Minutes:
Tuesday, 18 July 2023 at 6:30pm
in the Council Chamber, Town Hall, Katharine Street, Croydon CR0
1NX.
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