Agenda and minutes

To confirm Judy Roberts to chair the first meeting, and the arrangements for future meetings.

The committee will be co-chaired by Richard Pullen, the chair of the South Scrutiny committee, and Judy Roberts, the chair of Vale Scrutiny committee. They will take it in turns, where possible, to preside at joint meetings, and there will be no vice chair.

To record the attendance of substitute members, if any, who have been authorised to attend in accordance with the provisions of standing order 17(1), with notification having been given to the proper officer before the start of the meeting and to receive apologies for absence.

South councillor John Woodley Shead has resigned as a councillor, so there is a vacancy at this committee. The place will remain vacant until after a by-election, and it is not permissible to substitute to a vacancy.

South councillor Martin Akehurst will be absent for a period of months and has sent his apologies.

Vale councillor Katie Finch has sent her apologies and Ed Blagrove is here as her substitute.

This is the first meeting of this committee, so there are no minutes, actions arising or referral for consideration.

There were no minutes for this meeting to consider. Generally, minutes of Scrutiny Committee will take the form of action points and referral of items forward to Cabinet or elsewhere for further consideration. Members will have the opportunity to consider the progress of items at the following meeting.

To receive any declarations of disclosable pecuniary interests in respect of items on the agenda for this meeting; and of any other relevant interests.

David Dodds noted that he had received hospitality from Biffa when he had been the Cabinet member for waste.

To receive notification of any matters, which the chair determines, should be considered as urgent business and the special circumstances, which have made the matters urgent, and to receive any announcements from the chair.

None.

Any statements and/or petitions from the public under standing order 32 will be made or presented at the meeting.

No member of the public has given notice that they wish to make a statement, petition or question.

To review the attached scrutiny work schedule. Please note, although the dates are confirmed, the items under consideration are subject to being withdrawn, added to or rearranged without further notice.

The document on page 9 of the agenda pack, outlines all meetings of the three scrutiny committees and allows members to see how the committees interact with one another.

The schedule is fluid and members were advised to keep up to date with the schedule which will be appended to all scrutiny agendas and is also available from democratic services.

If members have any items which they feel should be subject to scrutiny, they can either be raised at committee or communicated to the chair/s and democratic services for consideration for inclusion at future meetings.

To receive the report of the head of corporate strategy.

Minutes of the previous Scrutiny review meetings

Vale 20.3.2013

Reg Waite, Cabinet member for waste, Ian Matten, and Simon Chown from Biffa were available to answer questions from the committee on the contractor’s performance, and the council’s management of it during 2013:

The committee considered that “fair” was a harsh outcome for 30 missed collections per 100,000 and would like the bench marking for this KPT to be reviewed.

Last year’s minutes reviewing this contract stated:

·               There had been an increase in the amount of non-recyclable waste.  The committee suggested that there should be a further publicity campaign, reminding householders of what could be recycled. The committee asked the Cabinet member and the contractor to monitor the effect of this campaign and report back to the committee in due course. 

Following this, Biffa undertook to:

·               Report back to the committee on the impact of the publicity.

·               Include more literature when sacks are delivered to residents who use the sacks.

·               Provide information on the recycling of detritus: the scheme started in September/October last year.

·               Liaise with town and parish councils on issues such as Christmas tree recycling.

Further discussions points were as follows:

·               Food waste as recycling has decreased, but there is no evidence of it going into recycling or landfill and there may be a reduction in the amount of food wasted.

·               There is an overall (and across Oxfordshire) increase in landfill, but there are no discernable reasons: the percentage of recycling has not changed

·               If data is available, it will be broken down on an area basis next year.

·               The situation of contamination at Dalton Barracks has been successfully addressed.

·               There have been no ongoing complaints about the removal of the bring sites and contamination of former sites has improved.

·               360 degree cameras with audio will be fitted into vehicles to record data and pick up information. This will comply with the Data Protection Act and management of information. Biffa, not Vale is controlling the data and legality remains with Biffa.

·               Biffa have had 26 compliments and ten complaints.

·               Committee noted that communication between Vale staff and Biffa is improved on street cleansing.

The committee requested the following:

·               Improved information for new tenants/residents on absent bins when they took over a property.

·               A further improvement at Dalton Barracks next year.

·               That details of broken down vehicles is notified to ward councillor/ public.

·               Information on the recycling of detritus, landfill tax and recycling credits to be provided next year.

·               For arrangements to be made for councillors wanting to see a demonstration of the new technology.

RESOLVED: 

(a)          to recommend the Cabinet member for waste to award a “good” performance rating to the waste management contractor Biffa (and wished to add its comment “tending towards excellent”),  for its performance in 2013; and

(b)          to ask the officers to follow up the actions listed in the bullet points above. 

South 22.4.2014

Mr Ian Matten, Waste and Parks Service Manager, and Mr  ...  view the full agenda text for item 8.

The following people came to the table to answer questions from the committee:

From Biffa: Brian Ashby, Regional Manager

Scott Newman – Business Manager

Ian Gillott – Operations Manager

Council officers: Ian Matten, waste and parks service manager and Clare Kingston, head of corporate strategy.

Vale Cabinet member for waste and parks, Elaine Ware, introduced the report. Apologies were received from the South Cabinet member for waste and parks, Tony Harbour.

This item was previously heard at the district scrutiny committees and the minutes were included from these meetings to assist the members of the committee in their scrutiny.

The committee discussed this item and asked questions of the contractor.

The key issues were recognised to be:

Key Performance Indicators (KPTs)

Satisfaction surveys

Areas perceived to be in need of improvement.

Dimension 1: Key Performance Targets

All Key Performance Targets were discussed, those with action points are recorded.

KPT 2: Rectification of missed collections.

No data was available on this KPT, due to a systems failure.

Action: The part year information available for the current review period, would be added to next year’s review to give a more complete picture (Biffa/ waste services manager).

KPT 3: Percentage of household waste sent for reuse, recycling and composting

Action: Proactively target areas with lower recycling rates (Biffa)

Note: small electrical items and textiles will be included in the next few weeks.

Agreed

The committee agreed that the overall assessment for Dimension 1 should be Good.

Dimension 2: Customer satisfaction

The committee considered the report on Dimension 2.

Agreed:

The committee agreed that the overall assessment for Dimension 2 should be Good.

Dimension 3: Council Satisfaction.

Some responses to the council level of satisfaction with the contractor were “neither satisfied nor dissatisfied”. The committee was concerned to understand whether these were items for improvement, or whether the category should be changed to “not applicable”.

Action: To change the heading to “not applicable” for future reports so that any response other than “satisfied” or “very satisfied” could be identified as an area for improvement.

Areas for improvement: The six items outlined in the report were from the calendar year 2014. Since then, a new team had taken over the work and Biffa, and the officers, were confident that these matters would be improved.

RESOLVED: to endorse the head of corporate strategy’s recommendation that the category of “Good” should be awarded to Biffa for their performance during 2014.

To receive the report of the head of corporate strategy.

Extract from minutes of the previous Scrutiny review meetings

Vale 20.3.14

Councillor Reg Waite, the Cabinet member for commercial services; Ian Matten, waste and parks service manager, and Matthew Fowler, regional director with Sodexo, came to the table to introduce the report and to assist the discussion.

Councillor Waite introduced the report to the Committee. Sodexo had completed 13 of the 15 points which were in their action plan for the year, and the other two items were on track.

The Committee discussed this item and below is a summary of the main points:

·               The contractors are showing continuous improvement against contract and there has been a low level of complaints: the complaints which have been received show no particular pattern.

·               Town and parish councils have been consulted for their views on the performance of the contract as per last year’s Scrutiny Committee request.

·               The committee was pleased with the apprenticeship scheme run by the contractor.

·               There may need to be a review of time-scales on notifications by the council to address issues; it needs to be considered in agreement with the contractor, rather than imposed by the council as at present.

·               The committee was pleased with the retention of the Green Flag status in Abbey Gardens.

·               Dissatisfaction from the public relating to parks may not necessarily be issues related to this contract.

·               Committee asked to know whether customers who were dissatisfied with the parks were dissatisfied with the same or different parks.

·               Abbey Meadows is cleared frequently of litter but has very high usage. Additional bins will be provided in the summer. There were very few comments in the customer satisfaction survey about litter in Abbey Meadows.

·               A new tracking system will be introduced to show where the crews are located, and the council will have access to this information.

·               The contractor is able to draw resources across contracts where need.

·               The contractor has requested that the council “support with winter works to retain our (sic) seasonal workforce”. In response to the committee’s request for clarification, the contractor is looking for work to undertake during the non-growing season to enable them to retain the expertise of their workforce from one year to the next. The committee recognised that this was an operational matter, not a Scrutiny one, but saw that this could be beneficial in some circumstances.

The committee requested the following:

For the next annual review to provide the following information:

·               To include consultation with the town and parish councils, even where they are not the owners of the parks, as some customer comments may go to them.

For next year’s action plan to contain the following information:

·               Communications

·               Time/response targets

·               Tracking of operations technology

·               Play areas – annual report and weekly visual inspection

·               To know whether customers who were dissatisfied with the parks where dissatisfied with the same or different parks.

RESOLVED:

(a)          To recommend the Cabinet member for waste to award a “good” performance  ...  view the full agenda text for item 9.

The following people came to the table to answer questions from the committee:

Matthew Fowler, the regional director from Sodexo.

Council officers: Ian Matten, waste and parks service manager and Clare Kingston, head of corporate strategy.

Vale Cabinet member for waste and parks, Elaine Ware, introduced the report. Apologies were received from the South Cabinet member for waste and parks, Tony Harbour.

This item was previously heard at the district scrutiny committees and the minutes were included from these meetings to assist the members of the committee in their scrutiny.

The committee discussed this item and asked questions of the contractor.

The portfolio holder introduced the item. The report covered the period January to December 2014.

The key issues were:

Key Performance Targets (KPTs)

Satisfaction surveys

Action plan.

The committee noted that Abbey Gardens and received a Green Flag Award once again.

All Dimensions were discussed, those with action points are recorded.

Dimension 1 – Key Performance Targets

Dimension 2 – Customer Satisfaction

This was down from excellent in the previous year to good in the year under review. The contractor feels that this is due to the fact that double the number of customers were surveyed and that the sites at which they were surveyed has changed.

Dimension 3: Council Satisfaction.

Some responses to the council level of satisfaction with the contractor were “neither satisfied nor dissatisfied”. The committee was concerned to understand whether these were items for improvement, or whether the category should be changed to “not applicable”.

Action: To change the heading to “not applicable” for future reports so that any response other than “satisfied” or “very satisfied” could be identified as an area for improvement.

RESOLVED: to endorse the head of corporate strategy’s recommendation that the category of “Good” should be awarded to Sodexo for their performance during 2014.

Attached to this agenda is an introduction to scrutiny. The terms of reference for this committee, agreed by both annual councils, is laid out below (extract from original report).

There will be full training for councillors on scrutiny matters, in November, which will be delivered by the Local Government Association. At this joint scrutiny meeting, councillors are encouraged to ask questions on the role of scrutiny and also to consider practical ways of supporting the work of the joint committee, within the terms of reference of the committee.

Joint Scrutiny Committee

1.    Council is invited to consider the establishment of a joint scrutiny committee to meet at least twice a year to review a number of standing items that affect both councils as set out below:

·           Performance reviews of joint contracts

·           Other issues that affect both councils jointly

2.    Joint Scrutiny may meet on additional occasions if the need arises.

3.    The purpose of a joint scrutiny committee is to ensure a consistent approach, avoid duplication of resources and improve joint working between both councils. This committee will only seek to address matters which are being progressed across both councils.

4.    The creation of a joint scrutiny committee meeting initially twice a year, with an option of increasing joint meetings as we go forward, would reduce the number of reports being written and the number of evening meetings staff have to attend and would enable contractors to attend just one meeting a year. Running joint meetings in addition to those already scheduled at each council would have resource implications in terms of staff capacity. Officers therefore propose a reduction in the number of Vale scrutiny committee meetings by two.

5.    The information below sets out the proposed membership of the joint committee, arrangements for the location and regularity of meetings, the proposed chairing arrangements and the proposed terms of reference.

Membership

·           Five councillors from Vale of White Horse District Council (not cabinet members); and

·           Five councillors from South Oxfordshire District Council (not cabinet members).

·           Politically balanced in accordance with the provisions of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989. (Politically balanced by council, not necessarily across both councils).

·           Substitutes from the political groups (not cabinet members).

Quorum

Four members, two from each council.

Regularity of meetings

At least two per year, with additional meetings on an ad hoc basis.

Location of meetings: At the councils’ offices in Milton Park.

Chairmanship

·           The committee will be co-chaired (one from each council) and the person presiding at any meeting will alternate between the two councils. These shall be non ruling group and non Cabinet members and their will be no vice chair.

Terms of reference

·           to monitor the performance of contractors delivering joint contracts;

·           to consider any matter affecting both areas or their inhabitants jointly (subject to the agreement of the chairmen of each council’s scrutiny committee).

The establishment of a joint scrutiny committee will not impact upon the ability of each council’s scrutiny committee to review specific issues covered by the  ...  view the full agenda text for item 10.

It was noted that the terms of reference for the joint committee had been agreed by both full councils in May 2015, however, there were some matters which would need to be resolved as part of the current constitution review. These included the call-in procedures and the time guillotine for meetings. In the meantime, the committee agreed to adopt the Vale’s guillotine rules for Scrutiny, which can be found in the currently published version of the Vale’s constitution.

Members of the committee were advised to keep up to date with the current Cabinet work programmes, in case there were items which they wished to come to Scrutiny.

RESOLVED: to review the South and Vale Citizens’ Advice Bureaux and the Wantage Independent Advice Centre in March/April next year prior to grant agreement.