The Director of Technical Services will report verbally.

A copy of the report is available in the Web Library http://wir06metrognome.admin.ad.wirral.gov.uk/ecSDDisplay.aspx?NAME=SD590&ID=590&RPID=386546&sch=doc&cat=12993&path=13002,12993

The Director of Technical Services presented an overview of progress made against the indicators for 2010/2011 and key projects which were relevant to the Sustainable Communities Overview and Scrutiny Committee covering the first quarter, from April to June 2010. Appendix1 provided the detail of the performance indicators that were reported for the first quarter and included the context and corrective action as requested by the committee.

In summary, 20 of the 28 indicators that were reported to this committee were green and only 8 were amber/red. The overall performance against the 2010/11 projects showed that 31 were green, 4 were amber (corrective action to bring these projects back on track was provided), and 2 had been withdrawn.

In terms of achievements:

·  A new composting scheme had recently been launched, aimed at reducing the amount of waste being sent by residents to landfill

·  Wirral Council’s Road Safety team and Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service had organised a series of events across Wirral to provide advice and guidance on car seat safety. 

·  Technical Services accounted for 79% (659) of all Councilor/MP contacts received (increase from 72.5% (652) in previous quarter) and resolved 97% of those contacts within the corporate target (99% in the last quarter), with an average time taken of 5 working days. Road (100) and Pavement (96) defects and Traffic Issues (89) accounted for 34% of all contacts received.

• Wirral’s numbers of Green Flag parks had increased from 11 to 12 (the target for 2010/11 was 11, again exceeding the target). 
• The Family Safety Unit continued to reduce levels of repeat incidents of high risk domestic violence.
• The Wirral Joint Community Safety Team continued with its partners to reduce crime and disorder in the borough, compared to the other Merseyside boroughs overall Wirral was the best performing with its  residents being less victimised than others in the country.

The financial monitoring focused on those areas of the budget that were identified as key risks in delivering the objectives of the department within available resources. At this stage the projected variations were:

(a) Regeneration - There were no significant variations identified but the volatile areas of the budget were being  closely monitored. Employees’ costs and income targets, particularly within Cultural Services, were expected to be at variance with the agreed budget and were being reviewed by the Department.

(b)  Technical Services - The Government announcement on reduction in grant support to local authorities had seen a £1 million reduction in the capital programme and this had been reported to Cabinet on 22 July 2010.

There was a projected overspend of £300,000 relating to bridges and in particular, works at The Dell underpass where substantial additional substructure work had been identified. The Department for Transport had been approached with a request to grant aid the additional costs and this application was currently being considered. The M53 junction 3 scheme, was underway and scheduled for completion in October 2010.

The Department for Transport was offering one-off grant funding of £297,300 to help address the effect of the adverse weather conditions and this would be used to support schemes identified in the Structural Maintenance Programme. The car parking enforcement and cash collection contract was being re-tendered and the Streetscene contract inflationary uplift was due in August 2010. Due to fluctuating workload and uncertainty over the capital programme, Architects’ fee income was unlikely to achieve the budget.

Resolved – That the report be noted