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Agenda and minutes

Venue: Council Chamber, Town Hall, Katharine Street, Croydon CR0 1NX. View directions

Contact: Tariq Aniemeka-Bailey  Email: tariq.aniemeka-bailey@croydon.gov.uk

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 icon 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 icon 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  • The bin provision was outdated as the amount of waste produced had increased over time.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

42/23

Update on Mould and Damp pilot scheme for London councils pdf icon 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.

 

43/23

Report on new fire regulations pdf icon 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 icon 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.