The deadline for questions to be submitted to the Monitoring Officer is Monday 15 April 2024.
Minutes:
Question by Councillor Patrick Canavan
In relation to the voluntary redundancy exercise please outline:
a) the total number of staff who applied
b) the number of those staff whose applications have been accepted
c) the number of applications refused or are still under consideration
Also, can it be confirmed that following this exercise no staff will be made compulsorily redundant?
Response by the Portfolio Holder for Transformation, Councillor Jeff Hanna
May I firstly thank all of our staff for the work they do on behalf of our residents. It is a matter of regret that the need to achieve some fifty million of savings means that we need to reduce our number of staff, with all of the uncertainties and concerns involved.
I am grateful to the Human Resources team for their ongoing work in managing the process and I was pleased that the invitation was made to staff to offer themselves for Voluntary Redundancy, as a slightly less painful way of managing the staffing reductions.
It was explained that applications would be evaluated taking into consideration the posts and skills that needed to be retained and this has included considering:
- the impact of the loss of the post on our ability to meet our statutory duties and targets,
- our current and future service needs
- the ability for work to be re-allocated if the post were lost, or for the service delivery to be re-designed, and lastly,
- the affordability of the individual redundancy arrangements.
Given this, we anticipated rather more staff wanting to explore the possibility of voluntary redundancy, than would meet these considerations, and this has proven to be the case.
Indeed, in some cases, where several staff in similar posts applied, a scoring process needed to be used to decide which might proceed.
In other cases, future levels of staffing remain uncertain, as is the case in libraries, as the library review is still under way, and applications there have been paused, and will be considered under a different process.
Further some members of staff have withdrawn their application during the process.
Accordingly, the answers to Councillor Canavan’s question are slightly more detailed that he may have expected. As of today’s date;
330 staff have applied for Voluntary Redundancy, of whom 13 have subsequently withdrawn their application.
The Corporate Management Board have approved 79 applications, 64 having then been agreed by the employee and are proceeding, 4 are awaiting employee agreement, and 11 have subsequently been withdrawn by the employee.
A total of 206 applications have been declined, with 2 not yet having been submitted to the Board, none are under current consideration, and 30 have been paused and will be considered under a separate process.
It was never expected that there would be a perfect fit between those applying and the areas where we would need to reduce our staffing, so I am afraid that it will still be necessary for a compulsory redundancy process to be used to complete the overall reductions, but I am pleased this has been minimised through the use of the Voluntary Redundancy scheme.
Supplementary Question from Councillor Patrick Canavan
Could it be clarified that if there are 206 applications that have either been refused or are still under consideration, given that there are 206 why can’t you rule out voluntary redundancy given that you have already accepted that you have got more people who want to go than you have agreed?
Response by the Portfolio Holder for Transformation and Resources, Councillor Jeff Hanna
The various considerations that came into play I have already set out in the answer to the question.
Question by Councillor Duane Farr
Recently I was contacted by several Kinson residents, some of whom are disabled and depend on their cars, raising concerns over the positioning of a new Zebra crossing on Poole Lane was going to impact on their day-to-day living, removing their ability to park outside their own home which they have always been able to do.
The reason they felt compelled to contact me directly was due to having NOT heard back from council officers. Only upon involving myself as their ward councillor was a response given. However, the response was sent to the concerned residents on the very last day possible of the consultation period – a Friday, with the works to commence the Monday after. Allowing no time to consider the residents’ concerns and how the location of the crossing would affect them.
What steps can be taken to improve response time by officers to ensure our residents’ concerns are taken seriously?
Response by the Portfolio Holder for Climate Response, Environment and Energy
I asked the Head of Transport and Sustainable Travel to investigate this matter for you, he has found that whilst legally compliant the noticing in advance of the build of the zebra crossing on Poole Lane adjacent to Duck Lane was very tight.
Ordinarily this noticing is undertaken weeks and/or months in advance of a build, however in this instance due to an oversight by the engineering delivery team it did not happen until the last permissible moment. They are extremely sorry for any inconvenience caused to the residents.
There was a pressure to undertake this disruptive work on a busy road during the easter school holidays.
The new zebra crossing is located on the pedestrian desire line, and this required parking on the approaches to be removed to provide clear sight lines for pedestrian safety. It would not have been safe to modify the design to accommodate parked vehicles, this was considered by the team. There is still unrestricted on street parking in the vicinity of the houses beyond the zig zag markings, many properties in this area additionally have rear accesses with private parking areas and/or garage spaces or space to create off street parking.
To ensure that noticing’s are undertaken in a more timely manner going forwards a robust gateway’s approval process is in development, this is a safe routes to school measure but I do hope it also helps the residents, especially those with disabilities in safely crossing this busy road when they are on foot.
Question by Councillor George Farquhar
What value in WISE
When using the Reporting Portal why does it now take nearly 2weeks for reported flytipping to be cleared?
What SLAs and KPIs are in place for WISE to complete their investigations and instruct Clearance?
Response by the Portfolio Holder for Housing and Regulatory Services, Councillor Kieron Wilson
On public land investigations need to be undertaken by WISE prior to fly tipping being cleared. These investigations are done as soon as reasonably and practicably possible but may include complexities. Contract meetings are held with the provider on a regular basis and there have been recent issues with resourcing which have now been resolved.
An SLA (Service Level Agreement) is in place, however it does not have a specific time frame for investigations as this will vary based on the size, location and material of the fly tip. WISE will also look to remove smaller fly tips at the end of the investigation and dispose of the waste as part of the contract at added value. There is now a dedicated officer for fly tipping investigations.
Since the inception of the WISE contract over 6000 fly tipping cases have been investigated, which is obviously quite a considerable amount, and since the beginning of April alone 226 fly tips have been reported that require investigation.
If a fly tip is reported on private land the environmental protection team will investigate, at times this can be complex, especially where the land is unadopted and not registered with an owner.
Supplementary Question by Councillor George Farquhar
Thanks very much for the reply, it is good to be aware that there are service level agreements in place. The reason I am bringing this question is to highlight that from the pilot of WISE, and it is acceptance as part of our procedure then the resourcing issues which you’ve alluded to haven’t necessarily been communicated to the ward councillors, so it is very difficult to actually lay out to the residents what expectations there are.
Would the Portfolio Holder be kind enough to avail the members of what those SLAs would be, because it is very difficult to explain to a resident that you have escalated their fly tipping report. The investigating team used to do their investigation within 24 hours attend the scene, give the thumbs up to the clearance team and it was cleared within two days, two weeks is quite a big expansion on that. So my supplementary question is would it be possible to have the key performance indicators and SLAs shared to the members so that we can actually inform the residents of why it is that some fly tipping may well be delayed in its clearance?
Response by the Portfolio Holder for Housing and Regulatory Services, Councillor Kieron Wilson
Yes, more than happy to go away with my team and get that sorted for you.
Question by Councillor George Farquhar
Tackling Racist Graffiti
Why did it take an extra 6days after escalation by an elected Member before racist graffiti was covered up.
This was after a delay following the initial report by a member of the Public via the Reporting Portal which went without action.
What steps have been put in place to reduce this time for action and avoid a recurrence?
Response by the Portfolio Holder for Housing and Regulatory Services, Councillor Kieron Wilson
As you have mentioned, this case relates to one that you have put forward. You were kept updated throughout the case and it was acted upon by the initial public report.
BCP Council do not have the legal powers or responsibility to remove graffiti on private land without formal enforcement action. There is a legal process to follow with reasonable timeframes in order to ensure the council is not liable for costs or legal damage on claims of damage to the premises.
This case was escalated and actioned as soon as possible, within the legal timeframe and the Environmental Protection Team prioritise these cases to ensure swift resolution within the boundaries of the law.
Supplementary Question by Councillor George Farquhar
I understand the legal restrictions, but if this is on public premises and in this particular case it was on commercial retail premises I am sure that any shop owner or retail premises owner would be dismayed that it takes a period of time because of legal wrangling to actually alert them to the fact that racist graffiti is on their premises. It reflects poorly on them, it reflects poorly on the pubic estate and it reflects poorly on the council that we are not more dynamic.
My question once again to the Portfolio Holder is how can we work within the restrictions of the law to alert premises holders that they have racist graffiti or offensive graffiti on their premises? And how can we together get it covered up and then argue the toss about who’s responsible for paying for it?
Response by the Portfolio Holder for Housing and Regulatory Services, Councillor Kieron Wilson
As I said in the last council meeting, I am more than happy to work with you, my team is always willing to accommodate members and it would be really really helpful, but I would just emphasise we are working within the timeframes of the law and within the level of resource we have. It is on private premises it is up to the retailer, and it is the retailer’s responsibility, obviously if they weren’t alerted to it then that’s a separate issue and I can go away and see at what time frame they were alerted to it but it is their responsibility.