Skip to main content

Issue - meetings

2024/25 Quarterly Service Review Q4

 

 

Meeting: 04/06/2025 - Overview and Scrutiny Committee (Item 14)

14 2024/25 Quarterly Service Review Q4 pdf icon PDF 87 KB

Purpose

To provide details of the Council’s operational performance at the end of 2024-25 Quarter Four (Q4). This report will be presented to the Executive on 11 June 2025.

 

Recommendation

That the Overview and Scrutiny Committee resolves to:

1.    Note the report and agree any recommendations it wishes to submit to the Executive.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Leader of the Council introduced the report detailing the Council’s operational performance at the end of 2024-25 Quarter Four (Q4) and highlighted the following key points:

  • A Youth Development Officer had been in post since February and was engaging with external organisations.
  • The Draft Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) Charging Schedule Examination would be taking place on 10 June 2025 and the Council aimed to implement CIL by August.
  • A revised Net Zero policy for the Salt Cross Area Action Plan (AAP) had been submitted to the Planning Inspectorate.
  • Round 4 of the Westhive funding allocations would be announced publicly on Monday. The had been a large number of applications and a diverse range of community projects would be funded.

 

The Senior Performance Analyst highlighted the indicators that were above target, including planning application timescales of all types, customer satisfaction, missed bins and leisure visits. Processing times for Council Tax claims and changes of circumstances were below target following a Christmas backlog and increased contacts. The number of affordable homes delivered was also below target at 198 for the year. The target was 274 and 218 were now expected as some schemes had slipped into the next reporting year.

 

In discussion the Committee noted that:

  • Officers had been working with Ubico to improve processed and reduce the number of missed bin collections, with a focus on repeated missed collections.
  • The Youth Development Officer post was very welcome and was already making a positive impact.
  • There was some concern about the reduction in the recycling rate although it was recognised that this was a national trend and that the Council’s target of 62% was very ambitious.
  • Options such as curb-side collection could potentially make a difference to the recycling rate but the Council may not wish to do that.
  • The current leisure visits KPI was written into the KPI and was uplifted annually. Leisure usage would be expected to increase due to population from but benchmarking was difficult, particularly with private sector providers.
  • The increased number of Westhive applications was welcome.
  • The Committee would welcome an update on Carterton Leisure Centre decarbonisation in a future report.

 

In response to a question, the Leader of the Council offered to report back with more detail on the aims and objectives of the Youth Development Officer post.

 

The Leader also agreed to follow up with the Communications Team about whether the Council could do more through its communications activities to increase the recycling rate.

 

The Senior Performance Analyst agreed to:

  • Take away a suggestion that there could be more information about funding contributions on the Westhive website and to come back with a written response.
  • Provide a written response on the timescales for the markets tender.
  • Provide a written update on the Windrush application for Lottery funding.

The Chair thanked the Leader and the Senior Performance Analyst for their report and attendance.

 

RESOLVED: The Committee NOTED the report.

 

 

Related Pages