Agenda and minutes

There were no apologies for absence.

There were no substitute members appointed.

To receive any declarations of interest from Members in respect of business to be transacted on the agenda.

Councillor T A Bond declared a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest (DPI) in Minute No. 62 (Dover Leisure Centre) by reason of his wife’s employment by Your Leisure.

Councillor K Mills declared an Other Significant Interest (OSI) in Minute No. 62 (Dover Leisure Centre) by reason of his daughter’s employment by Your Leisure.

To confirm the Minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 11 July 2017 (to follow) and 3 August 2017 (to follow).

The consideration of the Minutes was deferred to the next meeting.

Please note that in accordance with the agreed Protocol for Public Speaking at Overview and Scrutiny, the right to speak only applies to agenda items 12, 13 and 14.

The right of the public to speak does not apply to the following agenda items: Apologies, Appointment of Substitute Members, Declarations of Interest, Minutes, the Forward Plan, the Scrutiny Work Programme, any agenda item that is not accompanied by a written report and items that are exempt business.

Members of the public wishing to speak must register to do so by no later than 2.00 pm on the second working day before the meeting.

The following decisions were taken by the Cabinet at its meeting held on 4 September 2017 in respect of recommendations from the Scrutiny (Policy and Performance) Committee:

·         Closure of Area Offices

·         Outsourcing of Revenues, Benefits, Debt Recovery and Customer Services Functions (Revision of Delegations to the East Kent Services Committee)

·         Regent Cinema Update

Members received the decisions of the Cabinet relating to recommendations made by the Committee.

RESOLVED:  (a)   That the Cabinet decisions relating to recommendations from the Scrutiny (Policy and Performance) Committee be noted.

                        (b)   That an update on the Regent Cinema recommendations be added to the Work Programme.

                        (c)   That the attendance of a Cabinet member be requested to attend the update meeting.

There were no items for consideration.

(a)    Items placed on the agenda by a Member of the Committee or any individual Non-Executive Member

       Any individual Councillor may request that a matter is placed on the agenda of one of the Council's Overview and Scrutiny Committees by providing Democratic Support with notice of the matter prior to the agenda being published.

       There are no items for consideration.

(b)    Items the subject of Call-In

       Executive Decisions may be called-in by the Chairman or Spokesperson of the Scrutiny (Policy and Performance) Committee or any three non-executive members.

       There are no items for consideration.

(c)    Public Petition

To receive the following public petitions:

1.    Petition for proposed speed restriction provisions to be installed on Beaconsfield Avenue, Dover (and the surrounding area). (118 signatures)

Petition Organisers: Mr D Overal and Ms K Blackstock

2.    Future of Dover Town Centre (1388 signatures)

Petition Organiser: Ms S Malho

(1)  Petition for proposed speed restriction provisions to be installed on Beaconsfield Avenue, Dover (and the surrounding area).

The Committee received a petition, signed by 118 people, from the petition organisers Mr D Overal and Ms K Blackstock. The petition called for speed restrictions to be installed on Beaconsfield Avenue, Dover and the surrounding area.

The main points raised by the petition organisers in respect of the petition were as followed:

·         That a survey had been undertaken of local residents with only two residents declining to sign it.

·         That Beaconsfield Avenue was the most concern in relation to speeding vehicles, as it was used as a ‘rat run’ for local schools.

·         That figures provided by Kent County Council demonstrated an increase in the number of accidents in the area over the last 10 years.

·         That the petition organisers had no fixed idea of the speed restrictions to be installed and would defer to the views of the highways authority on the most appropriate restrictions.

·         That the speed restrictions installed in Capel-le-Ferne, funded by Kent County Councillor Geoff Lymer, was a good example as to what could be done. 

·         That they had sought to get these proposals taken up before but had been advised that there was no funding available.

In response to questions from Members, the petition organisers stated that the sort of traffic calming measures that they were thinking of for Beaconsfield Avenue were 2 x 20mph signs, speed cushions and a speed table at River Side Walk.

Members expressed concern that irresponsible parking in the area was also increasing the risks of accidents.

RESOLVED:  (a)     That the Kent County Councillors for the Dover Town Division be invited to the 10 October 2017 meeting of the Scrutiny (Policy and Performance) Committee.

                        (b)     That the Director of Environment and Corporate Assets be requested to report to the 10 October 2017 meeting of the committee on the options for traffic calming measures.

                        (c)     That the Director of Environment and Corporate Assets be requested to produce a report to a future meeting on holistic approach to implementing traffic calming measures for urban areas as opposed to the current piecemeal approach.

(2)  Future of Dover Town Centre

The Committee received a petition, signed by 1388 people, from the petition organiser Ms S Malho and Councillor P M Wallace. The petition called for the Council to inform the people of Dover about its strategic plans in respect of the future of Dover High Street.

The main points raised by the petition organisers in respect of the petition were as followed:

·         That there were lots of empty shops in Dover and there were concerns that the DTIZ would cause shops to relocate to it without replacements in the town.

·         That an empty high street would detract from the DTIZ.

·         The poor state of buildings in the town.

·         That business rates and landlord rents were too high in the town.

·         That the town centre was not only a source of revenue but also of community.

·         The  ...  view the full minutes text for item 54.

The Team Leader – Democratic Support presented the Notice of Forthcoming Key Decisions to the Committee for its consideration.

Councillor M I Cosin asked that following a walkabout at Tides in Deal she had some concerns over health and safety and she requested that the item on the Notice of Forthcoming Key Decisions relating to Tides be added to the Work Programme.

RESOLVED: That the Notice of Forthcoming Key Decisions be noted, subject to the inclusion of the following items within the work programme:

(a)  Item 19 – To seek approval for wet and dryside improvements to Tides Leisure and Indoor Tennis Centre, Deal

(b)  Item 27 – The Open Golf Championship

The Team Leader – Democratic Support presented the Scrutiny Work Programme to the Committee for its consideration.

An update was requested in respect of the Tower Hamlets scaffolding matter previously considered by the Committee.

RESOLVED:  That the Work Programme be noted.

To receive an update in respect of measures to tackle illegal and anti-social lorry parking in Dover.

The Director of Environment and Corporate Assets gave an update to the Committee on anti-social and illegal lorry parking in Dover.

The Committee was advised that the Council continued to issue Penalty Charge Notices in respect of illegal lorry parking. The main focus of the Council’s enforcement activity was focussed on lorry parking in residential areas and the Council used European bailiffs to pursue PCN’s that had not been paid by European registered vehicles. 

In respect of the unauthorised lorry park in Coombe Valley planning enforcement had served a notice and the appeal had been determined by the Planning Inspectorate on 8 June 2017. Although the notice had been upheld, the Planning Inspectorate had given the owners 6 months to comply with the notice.

Members were advised that there was a national shortage of lorry parking facilities and that action taken by Highways England to close lay-bys had displaced overnight lorry parking into Dover town as a result. The issue of drivers not taking rest breaks in northern France was also resulting in lorry drivers being at the end of their permitted driving hours when they arrived in Dover requiring them to stop somewhere locally and there was concern expressed by Members that this included dangerous parking on slip roads.

RESOLVED: (a)     That a copy of the report presented to the Freight Group meeting be provided to the committee.

                        (b)     That Kent Police be invited to a future meeting to discuss enforcement measures.

                        (c)     That the Committee be provided with information on the number of fixed penalty notices issues to lorries and the success rate in obtaining payment.

                        (d)     That the Chairman of the Dover Joint Transportation Board, representatives from Kent Highways and Councillor N J Collor be invited to a future meeting to discuss the work of the Dover District Council, Kent Highways and the Dover Joint Transportation Board in tackling the issue of anti-social and illegal lorry parking.

To consider the attached report of the Director of Governance.

The Head of Corporate Services presented the Performance Report and Actions for Quarter 1 2017/18.

There were 31 Green Performance Indicators (89% of total indicators), 1 Amber Indicator (3%) and 3 Red Indicators (8%) for Quarter 1 2017/18.

The red performance indicators for Quarter 1 2017/18 were as followed:

·        EKS026d      (Average call waiting time in minutes)

·        HOU010a     (Number of households living in Temporary Accommodation including B&B)

·        HOU010b     (Number of households in bed and breakfast)

Members were advised that the figures for HOU010a and HOU010b were based on the number of households in accommodation on the last day of the quarter.

EKS026d

The Director of Shared Services advised that performance in the customer contact centre was below target due to a number of pressures. In addition to resource pressures from staffing levels, there were also some exceptional issues that had impacted in the Quarter.

Staffing was impacted by the ongoing need to hold vacancies and reduce staffing due to budget constraints. The introduction of a new phone system had impacted on performance due to temporary technical issues during the implementation phase. Also a failure in the automated call handling system had meant that calls had had to be manually handled for a period that had increased pressure in the service. There had also been an increase in calls during the quarter due to the elections and the introduction of the new Council Tax Support scheme, all of which had added increased volumes.

The Director stated that due the combination of factors creating a reduction in the average call wait time, it was hoped that EKS would be able to ‘claw back’ the performance to target in the next Quarter.

In response to a question it was stated by the Director of Shared Services that the decision to withdraw face-to-face services at the Deal Area Office would not have a significant impact on performance. Members were advised that it was part of the plan to help recover performance as the staff from the Area Offices would be redeployed to the contact centre to occupy gaps in posts that remained funded but which had been held open in order to contribute to vacancy management targets.

In addition, customer services handled in excess of 28,000 calls per month for Dover District Council and the number of visits to the Deal Area Office was a small fraction of this figure (800-900 enquiries per month). The Director explained that the extra two staff that would be redeployed to the contact centre would be expected to handle 150 - 200 customer queries per day between them.

HOU010a and HOU010b

The Head of Finance, Housing and Community advised that the Council was looking at a number of measures to avoid using bed and breakfast accommodation and a new team leader had been employed on the housing allocation team. The Council was also investigating using modular housing to deliver additional accommodation.

East Kent Housing

Members were advised that the performance of EKMH5 (Percentage of properties with a valid  ...  view the full minutes text for item 58.

To consider the attached report of the Assistant Director, EK Services.

The Director of Shared Services presented the report on EK Services Face-to-Face Service Provision at Deal Area Office. The report contained additional information relating to questions raised by members at the meeting of the Committee held on 11 July 2017.

Members were advised that the Council provided a face-to-face customer service at Deal library on Monday, Wednesday and Friday (9.00am – 5.00pm). The office was staffed by 2 people.

The main transactions at the Deal Area Office were:

·         Benefits (33% of customer contacts);

·         Parking (21%); and

·         Council Tax (16%)

The area office also dealt with housing and waste enquiries as well as general enquiries that included matters unrelated to EKS or Council services.

The services provided could all be accessed via either post, telephone, online and appointments would remain available at Dover for those that wished to book or drop in for a face-to-face enquiry. The Director of Shared Services advised that the increasing level of internet access meant that many of the reasons for visiting the area office could now be dealt with on-line and those not able to access services on-line could do so via telephone through the contact centre or via post.

The closure of area offices across the three districts would contribute to the in-year savings requirements that EKS need to achieve to deliver the services within the budget provision allocated.  The closure of all outlying offices would save EKS a total of £200,000, with £45,000 coming from the closure of face-to-face services at the three area offices in the Dover District. It was intended that there would be no redundancies arising from the closure of face-to-face services at the Deal Area Office as the staff would be redeployed to the Call Centre to fill vacancies that already existed arising from staff turnover and vacancies that were being held open.

The posts at the area offices would be deleted out of base budget and the saving would be a ‘cashable’ saving. The Director of Shared Service explained that the EKS budget had already been reduced in year by £832,000 and therefore the funding for these posts had effectively already been taken. However, due to the turnover rate in Customer Services, the gaps created in the contact centre were delivering vacant post savings and the intention was to redeploy the staff from the area offices into these vacant posts to release the base budget savings from the Area Offices. This would also assist the call centre performance, as these two extra staff will provide much needed resource in the contact centre which should help improve the call handling and wait times.

For the most vulnerable people there was the option for EKS to send visiting officers to their homes to assist them with accessing services. These visiting officers already existed but currently provided work to support business rates activity. This would be an additional demand on these officers rather than creating new posts. However, the focus for this new enhanced service provision was to support the very  ...  view the full minutes text for item 59.

To consider the attached report of the Director of Environment and Corporate Assets.

The Director of Environment and Corporate Assets presented the report on Car Parking Resurfacing Works. The report sought to drawdown £240,000 allocated within the approved Medium Term Financial Plan to enable the following works to be undertaken:

·         Union Road Care Park, Deal;

·         Middle Deal Car Park, Deal; and

·         Resurfacing works in the area around the RNLI Life Boat House, Walmer

RESOLVED:     That it be recommended to Cabinet:

                          (a)   That the proposed works to various car parks set out in the report be noted.

                          (b)   That the allocation of £240,000 included within the approved Medium-Term Financial Plan, to enable the proposed works to car parks to proceed, be approved.

It was moved by Councillor S C Manion, duly seconded and

RESOLVED:       That, under Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting for the remainder of the business on the grounds that the items to be considered involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraph 3 of Part I of Schedule 12A of the Act.

To consider the report of the Director of Environment and Corporate Assets (to follow).

The Director of Environment and Corporate Assets presented the report on the Dover Leisure Centre.

RESOLVED: That it be recommended to Cabinet:

(a)    That the appointment of BAM as the building contractor, following completion of the Second Stage of the tender process, be approved.

(b)    That the appointment of Places for People as the leisure management operator, following the completion of the tender process, be approved.

(c)    That the award of funding from Sport England, and permission to enter into the Lottery Funding Agreement, be approved.

(d)    That the Solicitor to the Council be authorised to:

(i)         serve a notice under Section 25 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 on Your Leisure Kent Limited opposing renewal of the lease of Dover Leisure Centre on the ground that the Council intends to demolish the premises.

(ii)        take any other action necessary to secure recovery of possession of the premises.

(e)   That the Director of Environment and Corporate Assets be authorised, in consultation with the Portfolio Holders for Property Management & Public Protection and Corporate Resources & Performance, to finalise the terms of the contracts.

(f)   That the new facility be named Dover District Leisure Centre.

(g)   That officers and consultants be thanked for their hard work, and the members of the Dover Leisure Centre Project Advisory Group be thanked for their helpful and constructive input.

(Councillor T A Bond declared a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest (DPI) by reason of his wife’s employment by Your Leisure and withdrew from the meeting for the consideration of this item of business).

(Councillor K Mills declared an Other Significant Interest (OSI) by reason of his daughter’s employment by Your Leisure and withdrew from the meeting for the consideration of this item of business).