Agenda item

The Committee considered the report of the Director of Transformation and Partnerships that presented progress toward achieving the key outcomes of the Council’s corporate performance framework (for copy of report, see file of minutes).

The Corporate Scrutiny and Strategic Manager was in attendance to present the report and outlined to the committee highlights of the quarter one performance management report relating to environment cleanliness, carbon emissions and recycling.

Councillor Crute referred to paragraph two of the report on page 127 in relation to graffiti and advised that all members of the council were invited to a seminar following the last meeting of Council and were informed about the correlation between racist graffiti and identify areas of extremism or identify with issues and asked if the figures could be broken down to gather evidence to help other services. The Corporate Scrutiny and Strategy Manager confirmed that the figures could be broken down.

Councillor Dunn commented that graffiti removed by the Highways Agency was sometimes as bad as the graffiti itself and asked why buildings and structures subjected to graffiti were not coated with anti-graffiti paint. He commented that at one time there had been a zero tolerance on graffiti and hoped to get back to that. He asked if anti-graffiti paint was used so that graffiti could be washed off with water.

The Head of Environment advised Members that any racist of offensive graffiti on Durham County Council land would be removed within 24 hours. A record of the graffiti was taken which could be broken down and shared. On private or other public land, they were encouraged to remove the graffiti but was a long process and they were looking to see if they could be more proactive on public land. In cases of private land Durham County Council did have some powers on private land, but it was usually a process of consent but would carry out the works in the public interest and charge the landowner. There were resource issues but it was a case of becoming more proactive and ‘nipping in the bud’, apply anti-graffiti paint and work with the police

Mr T Bolton referred to graffiti on parish signage and how he struggled to find someone to remove the graffiti in his parish so there may be an opportunity to promote this service to parish councils.

The Head of Environment responded that they could not guarantee that the jet spray would not cause any damage.

The Chair referred to waste collection contamination and the 9.58% fines and sought clarification on this.

The Corporate Scrutiny and Strategic Manager responded that this was small items of plastic such as bottle tops that are too small to be processed and are rejected by the machinery used to sort recycling material.

The Chair asked if this was an education opportunity as previously in committee members had been told not to keep tops on bottles but to be put into the recycling separate, should bottle tops now be kept on the bottle.

The Head of Environment advised that he would speak to the strategic waste manager and advise members accordingly.

Resolved: That the report be noted.