Agenda item

The Committee considered the report of the Corporate Management Team which presented progress against the Councils corporate performance framework for the Altogether Greener priority theme for the fourth quarter of the 2017/18 financial year (for copy of report, see file of minutes).

The Corporate Scrutiny and Performance Manager was in attendance to present the report and advised Members that the Committee would be looking at Fly-tipping at a Special meeting in October 2018.

The Chairman referred to plastic cups in the authority which were going to be phased out and informed the committee that the working group had met on a regular basis and a lot of work had already been undertaken by Durham County Council and partners including Northumbrian Water. He also referred to Operation Spruce up which had won an award for ‘campaign of the year’ at the Keep Britain Tidy’s Network Awards. He then commented that he hoped that the figures for fly-tipping would continue to go down.

Councillor Crute sought clarification on the maintenance of unclassified roads and asked why the indicators in relation to A, B, C and unclassified roads are tracker indicators and not target indicators.

The Corporate Scrutiny and Performance Manager responded that there is a scanner survey undertaken that measures the quality of the fabric of the various categories of road and reports back to the authority. It is within the gift of the authority as to which categories of road is prioritised to spend money on.

Councillor Crute referred to pot holes and if there was an accident due to the pot hole who would be liable, he continued that most indicators are trackers in this indicator set, should the indicators in relation to the roads maintenance be trackers or target indicators?

The Chairman commented that a lot of the roads were maintained by the Highway Agency so were not the responsibility of the authority.

The Corporate Scrutiny and Performance Manager continued that as Durham County Council is the Highways Authority, the indicator should be a target and that he would pursue this and respond to the committee.

Councillor Martin continued that in relation to the percentage of unclassified roads where 20% requires maintenance, performance when compared to 12 months earlier is green, should we not try to reduce this % by 1% and therefore the indicator should be amber indicating that we need and aim to improve performance.

Councillor Patterson commented that the 20% is based on an inspection of the unclassified road networks which shows that 20% of the unclassified road network needs maintenance, it is not a set indicator therefore was confused by Councillor Martin’s question.

The Corporate Scrutiny and Performance Manager indicated that this would be referred to the Head of Technical Services for clarification.

Mr Bolton referred to fly tipping prosecutions and that recent legislation increased penalties but in a recent media headline the fine was £120 and asked if the Council works with Magistrates to seek the maximum penalties as £120 fine does not send much of a message.

The Corporate Scrutiny and Performance Manager responded that the Council did work with the Magistrates, but it was up to the Magistrate what fine to impose.

Mrs Holding asked whether Durham County Council targets businesses in the county in relation to waste being thrown from vehicles, did we ask businesses to educate their customers that drinks and food should be consumed on site rather than drinking and eating the food whilst travelling with the remains of the drink and food and packaging thrown out of the vehicle.

The Corporate Scrutiny and Performance Manager responded that the Council works with the likes of McDonalds and Costa to publicise to their customers the need to dispose of their waste responsibly however it is ultimately up to the customer to determine how they dispose of any waste.

Councillor Crute referred to waste permits now been easier to obtain as you can now download the permit, which had made a positive impact on fly tipping.

The Chairman advised Members that there was a Special meeting of the committee to look at household waste and advised Members that recently someone had been fined £1000 for fly-tipping.

Resolved: That the report be noted.