Councillor Huelin introduced the report and stated that compared to the End of Year Corporate Performance Report 2017/18, the percentage of people in education and training had increased; the number of potholes filled on time had increased; the number of new apprentices had increased; and the number of adoptions had also increased. She added that 68% of service targets were now being achieved, and there was a clear focus where service targets had not been met. She thanked the Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Committee for their hard work on these reports throughout the year and welcomed their comments. She stated that the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) were ambitious, and stated that the direction of travel arrow showed Members and residents where the KPI was heading if it had not met target. She added that the Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Committee had recommended that underperforming KPIs be sent for closer inspection to the relevant overview and scrutiny committees, and added that a full review was currently being undertaken of failing KPIs to show how they were improving. She welcomed the suggestion from Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Committee of including a ‘route to green’ for every failing KPI and stated this would now be included, as well as timelines and guidance.

Councillor Watkins thanked all departments for their hard work in meeting KPI targets and stated that lots of work went into this throughout the year. He commented on the missed recycling KPI and stated that this was important for both Thurrock and central government and stated that many new schemes were being implemented across the borough to increase recycling rates. He discussed the new Recycling Project Officer who was new employed by the Council; the new communal waste trials; the communications Recycling Plan; and the new Working Group on recycling that had been agreed by Overview and Scrutiny to implement a new Recycling Strategy. Councillor Watkins then moved on to the missed KPI regarding graffiti that had increased on private property, although this was still included in the Council’s KPI. He stated that a new plan and strategy was in place to deal with this, as well as the KPI for cleanliness. He finished by focusing on the missed bin collection KPI which had met target since October 2018 until June 2019, only missing one month which had been March 2019. He stated that changes had been made last year on this KPI and the council were now seeing the effect of this.

The Leader drew Member’s attention to page 62 and the KPI regarding payment rate of fixed penalty notices for littering, as this had not met target last year. He stated that although fines were high, the enforcement team were taking court action against those individuals who had not paid. He added that plans were now in place to identify those individuals who gave a false name and address, as their photos would now be published online. He also drew Members attention to page 65 of the agenda, which related to incidents of fly-tipping and thanked residents for their hard work in getting vehicle details of fly-tipping offenders and working with the council. He commented that in the past only one or two residents had reported an incident of fly-tipping, but this had now increased to eight or nine. He encouraged all residents to report fly-tipping when safe to do so, and stated that even if people fly-tipped on private property they could be prosecuted.

RESOLVED: That Cabinet:

1. Noted and commented upon the key corporate performance indicators for 2018/19

2. Noted and commented upon the indicators and targets for 2019/20 and identified any areas which required additional consideration in the next monitoring cycle

3. Noted the recommendations made by Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Committee as set out at paragraph 5.4 and considered them for implementation in report from Quarter 1 2019/20