Agenda item

This report sets performance against the Council’s Key Measures of Success for the second quarter of 2012/13. 

Discussion:

The Performance Manager introduced the report advising that the report allowed Members to monitor progress in achieving the outcomes set out in the Council Plan.

Members were advised that performance measures NI117, NI148 and LX5 were not relevant to this committee but had been provided to give context and clarity of how the priorities as a whole had been performing.

The Committee was advised that the key highlights in quarter 2 were:

·        Percentage of people who thought the Council helped people travel easily around Medway had risen by 6%

·        Bus Lane enforcement in Chatham Bus Station and Canal Road in Strood was now fully operational

·        The number of Job Seeker Allowance claimants had fallen by almost 7%

·        Community Officers had attended all 36 Police and Communities Together (PACT) meetings

·        waste recycling levels had exceeded their target, as was usual at this time of year due to the seasonal patterns of recycling

·        the number of households living in temporary accommodation was 101 compared to a target of 110 and followed a 16% increase in the number of homeless applications this quarter.

A Member asked how the statistics for SF15 (percentage of people who feel Medway is safe) were compiled. Officers advised that the figures were taken from the Kent Crime Victimisation Survey.

Following discussion on W5 (Satisfaction with how the Council deals with graffiti) a Member stated that public perception might be lower than expected due to graffiti viewed by commuters on trains of railway land. Officers confirmed that they had met representatives of Network Rail in order to try and find a way forward on this issue but had not seen any improvements since that meeting. The Assistant Director for Front Line Services undertook to contact Network Rail and Network South East. He advised that graffiti affected how people felt and behaved and was a very important issue to address.

The committee discussed the indicators under the heading “Everybody travelling easily around Medway” and advised officers that the statistics for this should include the whole of Medway and not just the town centres, as traffic flows were designed to allow people to avoid town centres and the traffic flow on those roads, such as the A289 (Pier Road, circumventing Gillingham town centre) and the Medway Tunnel should also be considered.  A Member also raised the issue of traffic trying to move from minor side roads onto the major roads, especially the A2 and suggested that it was not sufficient for traffic to be flowing well on the major roads if there was congestion elsewhere on the smaller roads.

The Assistant Director for Front Line Services advised that in the future he would investigate where the measure of traffic flows was taken, as the six routes currently measured had been used for historical purposes and the council now had updated technology to allow scientific measurement of traffic flows on alternative routes. He also informed the committee that the purpose of the council’s Traffic Management Control Room was to allow intervention when congestion occurred. The system gathered data to target areas where issues were known and also allowed the council to collect evidence to determine where the traffic management budget would be spent to the greatest effect.

A Member raised the issue of flyposting (indicator NI 195d) and, although its status for quarter two monitoring was green, she raised a particular problem with large stationary vehicles parked on the highway with advertisements on the side. The Assistant Director for Front Line Services advised that if an advertisement was attached to highway furniture, the council could take action. However, the stationary vehicles were a national problem. If they had road tax and were parked legally, they were not caught by highway or planning legislation.

A Member asked whether there were any proposed actions to improve the outcome of NI 1 (percentage of people who feel they can influence decisions in their locality) and raise the target, as it was very low and also not making any progress. He asked for this information to be broken down by ward and stated that, as this was an indicator important enough to be part of the Council Plan, it should have meaningful data and the council should form a strategy to set things in place for improvement in the future. Officers responded that this information had been broken down by ward as part of Council Plan 2011/2012 End of Year report considered on 28 June 2012 and again, at Members request, for consideration of quarter 1 performance monitoring 2012/2013 on 16 August 2012. Presently there were no plans to change the target, as nationally it seemed to be difficult to engage residents on issues and projects within their locality.

A Member asked that the narrative for indicator GH8 (number of green flags) included the sites that had achieved a high score thereby giving them a free second year of green flag status and that other sites should aim to achieve the same high score in the future. This should also be reflected in the narrative of the report. He also asked if taxi’s could be allowed to use the Bus Lane in Canal Road in Strood, especially now that CCTV enforcement cameras were in place, as this would reduce the number of cars using residential roads. The Director of Regeneration, Community and Culture responded that taxi’s could not currently use the Bus Lane in Canal Road, as it was linked to a planning condition that restricted the number of vehicles using the Bus Lane. This was because a number of residents had objected to this during the planning consultation process. He advised that a local Taxi Association had written to the council asking for taxi’s to use the Bus Lane in Canal Road and he had offered to review the situation in six months time. The Director advised that he would provide further information to the committee via a Briefing Note and would also hold a review on the use of the Bus Lane in Canal Road, Strood in early 2013.

Decision:

The committee agreed to:

(a)         note the second quarter performance against the Key Measures of Success used to monitor progress against the Council Plan 2012/2013;

(b)         request further information on the restriction of vehicles using the Bus Lane in Canal Road, Strood via a Briefing Note and ask the Director of Regeneration, Community and Culture to review the use of the Bus Lane as soon as possible;

(c)         request that officers arrange a meeting with Network Rail and Network South East to discuss the problems of graffiti on railway land.