Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence from the meeting were received from Councillors Mick Ford, Danielle Stone and Matt Lynch– Councillor Winston Strachan substituting for Councillor Stone.

Members to approve the minutes of the meeting held on 12 November 2012

The minutes of the meeting held on 12 November 2012 were approved and signed by the Chairman.

There were none.

There were none.

The Committee to undertake scrutiny of the Action Plan arising from the Independent Review of the Environmental Services Contact.

There was an Independent report commissioned in May 2012 to undertake a detailed review of the contract for environmental services across the authority. The report had identified a number of key issues that needed addressing. It was also noted that the contract had achieved a number of goals. The contract is a joint one with Daventry District Council but the review focussed on Northampton only.

It was established that there was agreement on all sides regarding the report recommendations. All recommendations were accepted. Actions have now been agreed to address the issues and have been assigned to relevant operational groups for action.

The Committee were informed that there had been a change in the management structure at Enterprise- Dave Martin was now the new Regional Director and John Farrell, the EMS Assets Director, had been in post for a month.

The actions required fall broadly under two headings. One regarding operational mechanisms, the other relating to the supporting administrative paperwork.

Those administrative processes would not have any direct effect on the operational procedures.

The Committee were assured that all parties have been involved in the process so far and have committed to supplying the resources required to complete the changes.

The Action Plan shows that issues have been prioritised and are being worked through. The administrative actions regarding supplying documentation have been assigned to EMS and will be supplied by Enterprise working to a timetable to be agreed.

Protocols and communications systems are now in place throughout the management process. It is accepted that Enterprise has not been as robust as it should have been in monitoring the contract issues. Members queried why this did not seem to have happened as Enterprise run similar contracts in other places and should be aware of good practice. It was felt that because of the speed in which the contract was put in place and the need to quickly deliver savings then Enterprise lost sight of the fact that the way to actually deliver a good service is to put the correct structure in place.

Members emphasised that they had had many complaints from members of the public during the initial introduction of the contract. These had been divided into the following main areas of concern:-

Missed Bins

Grounds Maintenance

Staffing Profile

Missed Bins

The contract had missed performance targets considerably. This has improved. The biggest improvement being that even if a bin is missed on the initial collection round then virtually all of them are now being collected on the same day.

There has been a change to a six day working week- which now includes Saturdays. There has also been a reduction in the  percentage of agency workers with the figure now being around 41% with the aim being around 20%.There is a pool of agency staff of around 10-15 people a day who are used as day labour on an as and when required basis.

Members were assured that when agency staff are used they are used in a team  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.