Agenda item

Medway’s Council Plan 2022/23 sets out the Council’s three priorities. This report and appendices summarise how we performed in Q1 2022/23 on the delivery of the programmes and measures which fall under the remit of this committee which are: Place and Growth.

Discussion:

The Committee received a report setting out performance for Quarter 1 against the Council's two priorities Place and Growth insofar as they fell within the remit of this Committee, along with a review of the Council’s Risk Register.

The following issues were discussed:

HollieGuard vouchers and Safety in Action Day - A Member asked how the HollieGuard vouchers, for victims of domestic abuse, were funded. The Member also considered that the Safety in Action Day held at Chatham Historic Dockyard had been a very good event and asked whether it would be repeated.

The Assistant Director, Frontline Services said that HollieGuard vouchers were paid for by Safer Streets funding. Lessons to be learnt would be considered from the Safety in Action Day to consider how to repeat it. It had been one of the most well attended events held at the Dockyard in recent years.

Replacing Medway’s streetlights – Clarification was requested around the dates given for the completion of this work as the report made reference to both September 2022 and March 2023. It was also questioned what could be done about any pockets of dark areas.

The Assistant Director said that she would look into the possible date discrepancy highlighted in relation to the streetlights. Light settings could be tweaked remotely and Members were encouraged to advise of any dark areas.

Street Cleanliness data and risk – It was requested that the Committee be provided with street cleanliness data and that further information about strategic risk scores be given within Committee reports. It was also questioned whether the targets set were ambitious enough given that performance against many of the metrics was green.

The Committee was advised that the provision of street cleansing data would be followed up post meeting. Strategic risks were due to be considered and how they were reported could also be looked at. It was confirmed that targets were reviewed each year and that it was rare for performance to be green against so many indicators.

Air Quality Management Strategic Risk – Concern was expressed that the air quality strategic risk was being managed within the climate change strategic risk. The Director of Place and Deputy Chief Executive said that this did not affect how the risk was monitored, just that it was fed back as part of climate change reporting. In response to a question that asked how the Committee could receive reports on the status of the climate change risk, the Director said that this would be covered within the quarterly performance monitoring reports considered by the Committee.

Decision:

The Committee:

a)    Considered the Q1 2022/23 performance against the measures used to monitor progress against the Council’s priorities and considered the amended Strategic Risk Summary as set out in Appendix 3.

b)    Considered the referral from the Business Support Overview and Scrutiny Committee on 25 August 2022 regarding the suggestion that air quality management areas in Medway should have its own risk. The Committee also considered the comments of the Assistant Director, Regeneration and the Head of HIF and Regeneration that air quality mitigations were held within the climate change strategic risk rather than the HIF strategic risk.

c)    The Committee requested that it be provided data in relation to street cleansing.

d)    The Committee noted that strategic risks were due to be considered and requested that how they were included in Committee reports was also considered.