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10 July 2013

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24 July 2013

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7 August 2013

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21 August 2013

(a)

the Environmental Services department which employed 550 members of staff and on a yearly basis undertook the following –

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cut six million metres of grass;

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maintained over 60,000 trees, 28 parks and 80 sports pitches;

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helped to dispose of over 128,000 tonnes of waste;

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Inspected over 1000 business and ensured compliance of over 32 pieces of legislation around food safety, health and safety and trading standards;

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made 170,000 collections each week for refuse and recycling;

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provided first class facilities for the disposal of waste at the Household Waste Recycling Centre at both Chelson Meadow and Weston Mill;

(b)

major achievements of the Environmental Services department over the last few years, which included –

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successful roll out of pilot kerbside household glass collection service;

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successful ‘Pickles Pot’ bid of £4m to maintain weekly refuse collection service;

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a £980k investment in new minibuses and a £1.7m investment in plant and equipment;

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five star rating for Street Cleansing;

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gold medal for South West in Bloom and 44 neighbourhood awards;

(c)

key performance trends which included the following -

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reduction in the amount of waste produced per household continued;

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the rate for recycling was over 34 per cent;

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the bin collection rate remained at 99.9 per cent completed the first time;

(d)

the Planning Services department undertook the following -

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the launch of Plymouth Energy Community;

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approval of the plans for the completion of the fourth stand at Home Park and related development;

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creation of a Green Space Trust;

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the Plymouth Plan (one integrated plan for the city which will enable a rationalisation of over 130 existing plans and strategies);

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continued monitoring of Section 106 agreements;

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inspector’s report on the Derriford Area Action Plan;

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consideration of a forthcoming planning application for Seaton Neighbourhood which included 873 homes, employment space, community park and educational resource centre;

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major developments including Sherford, Plymstock Quarry and Plymouth Argyle;

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Derriford Area Action Plan, Seaton Neighbourhood, North West Quadrant Appeal, city Centre;

(e)

due to the topography of Plymouth, road closures and inconsiderate parking, it was not possible to collect 100 per cent of bins first time; local knowledge was invaluable and where possible a pool of agency staff were used (the service was always striving to achieve a 100 per cent collection rate);

(f)

several options had been investigated relating to the most suitable container/bag for the disposal of garden waste; members of staff were continually reminded to put the bags inside the bins where it was possible to do so;

(g)

during the hot weather members of staff had been encouraged to guard against the sun by ensuring that they were suitably dressed and had access to drinks;

(h)

currently there was no significant  ...  view the full minutes text for item 59.

(a)

the estimated revenue overspend forecast for the year end was £1.701m as at the end of July 2013;

(b)

the current estimated position showed an overspend of £1.184m within the People Directorate and an overspend of £0.517m within the Place Directorate;

(c)

there was an estimated net spend of £214.261m against a budget of £212.560m which was an adverse variance of 0.8 per cent;

(d)

the latest capital programme covering 2013/14 to 2015/16 stood at £122.670m which was approved by Cabinet on 21 May 2013 (£129,477m including the Tamar Bridge and Torpoint Ferry);

(e)

the forecast capital programme for 2013/14 to 2016/17 would be £160.044m;

(f)

the council was on target for a reduction in posts of 300 by the end of the financial year;

(g)

sixteen apprenticeship positions had been recruited for customer service frontline;

(h)

two departments (Joint Commissioning and Adult Social Care and Children’s Social Care) were above the current threshold for sickness absence (a review of management actions and cases had been undertaken).

(i)

the age group of the 16 newly recruited apprentices was mixed;

(j)

an undertaking was given to provide information relating to how many 16 to 19 year olds (apprentices) fell into the looked after children category;

(k)

measures had been taken to mitigate the impact of the continued reduction of the workforce, such as planning changes in advance and changing working practices to increase productivity;

(l)

the corporate sickness target had been set at a realistic level of 8.5 days per full time equivalent post; one of the factors taking into consideration when setting the target was the age profile of the workforce;

(m)

managers had been tasked with managing sickness absence effectively.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

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economic growth initiatives that would provide financial dividends for the council, a more commercial approach to the way that the council runs its services and smarter procurement and commissioning;

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customer-led service design, transforming the way the council interacts with customers to meet their demands and preferences;

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creating an integrated approach to health, wellbeing and social care commissioning, working co-operatively across all local communities and partners;

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smarter, evidence based decision-making for the council using co-operative principles and support services delivering against the Council’s new organisational requirements.

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better use of the council’s physical and technical infrastructure and assets to better service the needs of the organisation now and into the future;

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ensuring that Members and staff are engaged and supported through the Transformation Programme and that they have the necessary skills to deliver.

(a)

the cuts from Central Government were unprecedented and as such there would be reductions in council services although currently no decisions had been taken; however the three year plan outlined how this would be achieved;

(b)

engagement with the local community would continue as part of the scrutiny process;

(c)

this situation provided a good opportunity to undertake more effective working with neighbouring authorities (such as the council administering the Business Rates Scheme for the whole of Devon);

(d)

the Corporate Management Team was undertaking a series of road shows (73 in total) across the whole authority, to share the values, objectives and outlining the new Corporate Plan; members of staff would be asked to make a commitment to be open to change and not to dismiss it;

(e)

an undertaking was made to provide a detailed breakdown of the estimated funding gap of circa £65m.

(1)

the Missing Young People’s team present the ‘Be-Wise to Sexual Exploitation’ programme to the Youth Cabinet to receive feedback on the programme’s content from young people prior to delivering any sessions in schools;

(2)

an update on the Missing Young People’s team and the delivery of the ‘Be-Wise to Sexual Exploitation’ programme is provided to the panel in February 2014.