Issue - meetings

The Corporate Performance Report provides an analysis of the Council’s performance for the second quarter of 2023-24. The report, set out at Annexe 1, is being presented to each of the Overview and Scrutiny Committees for comment and any recommendations they may wish to make to the Executive.

Areas for the Committee to consider are on pages 29-88 of the agenda pack.

30.1     The Policy & Performance Officer introduced the Corporate Performance Report and advised there were no specific areas to highlight. The committee went through the service areas under their remit and commented on any areas of interest.

Regeneration and Planning Policy

No comments were raised.

Commercial Services

30.2     Members were advised that the number of visitors to leisure centres had been temporarily removed from this section as the new contractor (Everyone Active) uses a data collection methodology that is significantly different from that of the previous contractor, meaning that the data cannot be meaningfully compared.

30.3     Cllr Munro asked if the standard parking charge of £1.10/hour in Waverley car parks could be reviewed. The Policy and Performance Officer agreed to pass this to the Executive Head of Commercial Services.

30.4     Cllr Long queried the recent impact on car parking revenue considering their usage as bottled water distribution stations during the recent water supply outage. Members also asked if parking had returned to pre-pandemic rates and for the reasons if this was not the case.  Members then discussed how to manage raising car parking income while simultaneously encouraging greater public transport adoption as part of our Carbon Neutrality Action Plan.

30.5     Non-voting member Cllr Hyman registered to speak on this item. He asked if there would be electric car charging stations at Brightwells Yard, Farnham, and requested an update on the status of the planned foot and cycle bridge there.

Community Services

30.6     Members queried the causes of the rise in safeguarding cases. The Executive Head of Community Services advised that there had been an increase correlated to the worsening cost-of-living crisis and that the threshold for intervention employed by Surrey County Council is very high, meaning that Waverley Borough Council now receive more referrals. A growth bid for a Safeguarding Coordinator post was approved at Executive on 28 November 2023, and it was noted that the addition of Community Triggers to case reviews will improve outcomes. It was suggested that increases in ASB since the Covid-19 pandemic could be considered at a future meeting.

30.7     Cllr Robini advised he would advise the Police and Crime Commissioner of his views when attending the Policing your communities event at the Farnham Maltings on Monday 4 December 2023.

Environmental Services

30.8     Members congratulated the Countryside Rangers service for their work over the summer, discussed the KPIs at E3a and E3b regarding missed bin collections, and stated that they felt that the target of 40 missed collections out of 100,000 is prohibitively difficult to meet. It was noted that missed bin collections are often associated a crew covering a route that is unfamiliar to them.

30.9     Cllr Keen noted an apparent decrease in street cleaning this year and asked that it be addressed.

Planning Development

30.10   Cllr Hyman noted that it would be useful for members to better understand the Planning Advisory Service (PAS) Development Management (DM) Challenge Toolkit. The Executive Head of Planning Development advised a recent workshop with the Planning Team had captured  ...  view the full minutes text for item 30