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Agenda item

Quarterly Service Performance Report Q4

Purpose:

To provide details of the Council’s operational performance at the end of 2025-26 Quarter Four (Q4).

 

Recommendation

That Overview and Scrutiny Committee resolves to:

1.    Note the report and make any applicable recommendations for the Executive to consider at the meeting on 10 June.

 

Minutes:

Councillor Alaric Smith, Executive Member for Finance, introduced the quarterly service performance report for quarter 4 of 2025/26, highlighting that:

·         Salt Cross Garden Village had reached a major milestone with the Area Action Plan being agreed in February. An outline planning application was expected to come forward in the autumn.

·         14 projects were receiving funding through Westhive round 6.

·         Overall performance was strong across many key servicesm including planning application timescales and income, customer satisfaction, leisure participation, Council Tax collection, and affordable housing delivery.

·         Missed bin performance was within target with 48.58 missed bins per 100,000.

·         A small number of services had performed below target, such as the processing of Housing Benefit and Council Tax Support changes.

·         An improvement plan was in place for the land charges service.

·         There was a project to increase recycling rates which would include communications around food waste and awareness of what can be recycled.

 

The Committee asked questions and noted from the responses of the Executive Member and the Business Information, Performance & Improvement Manager that:

·         The percentage of fixed penalty notices per fly tip was the lowest in the county. There was lots of preventative work but enforcement case work took a long time.

·         The Council’s leisure partner, GLL, could be asked to look at data capture and whether all visits were being recorded. There was a need to look again at benchmarking e.g. looking at South Oxfordshire and Vale of the White Horse. Usage per head data would also be useful.

·         Customer satisfaction data concerning the elements of the Disabled Facilities Grants process that the Council can control would be useful.

·         Some Land Charges functions had transferred to the Land Registry, meaning the workload of the Council’s team tended to be more complex. A new member of staff recruited.

·         Consideration could be given to improving the customer experience at the Woodgreen reception.

·         The introduction of the Community Infrastructure Levy was welcome and guidance was on the Council website.

·         There was an issue with waste being dropped or falling from bins when collected.

 

The Business Information, Performance & Improvement Manager took away a number of actions and agreed to share the following with Committee Members:

·         Why the fly tipping enforcement rate for quarter 4 appeared to be so low.

·         Whether fly tipping instances had increased or whether the reporting had become more accurate.

·         What work was being done with County to address fly tipping.

·         What work was being done with the County Council to address issues associated with registered and unauthorised traveller sites.

·         Why the Windrush in Witney project was off target.

·         Why Community Infrastructure Levy was off target and what mitigation was in place.

·         Whether there would be an annual report on youth engagement activity.

·         What lessons could be learnt from the successful Nature Recovery Growth bid.

 

The Committee resolved to submit the following recommendation to the Executive on 10 June 2026:

1.    That the Council incorporates video clips in any future recycling campaign to maximise the impact and reach of the information. An example could feature senior councillors informing members of the public on how to correctly recycle. E.g. correctly rinsing pots and separating materials.

 

Supporting documents:

 

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