Meeting documents

For Member's to receive a six monthly update on the performance of Transport for Buckinghamshire contract. This will include an update on the impact of the CONFIRM system and the Key Performance Indicators.

Contributors:

Mark Shaw, Cabinet Member for Transportation

Mark Kemp, Director of Transport

Simon Dando, Contract Manager for TfB

The Chairman welcomed Mr Mark Shaw, Cabinet Member for Transportation, Mark Kemp, Simon Dando and Mark Avril.

The Cabinet Member provided the Members with a brief update before members asked questions on more specific issues which the Cabinet Member and the lead officers dealt with in turn.

The key areas raised by questions were:

• Gulley Cleaning, the programme, checks carried out, and communication of programme of works to members and residents.

The chairman had received a request form the Chairman of the Finance, Resources and Performance Committee to ask a question on the progress of the gulley cleaning programme following issues being raised within that committee. Members heard that there had been issues with recording and about the challenges in mapping gulleys. We heard that that the Council only has 2 gulley suckers and this was due to cost and limited budget to purchase and operate more. Members asked if they could have sight of the programme for gulley cleaning and told they could have this. Members were informed that the programme of works is weather dependent and therefore always subject to some change. Members questioned works supposedly carried out but had clearly not been done and were told that gulley cleaners are tracked, however sometimes they get there and can’t clean the gulley’s for reasons outside of their control. But they will check the example raised by Cllr Lesley Clarke who questioned the works that were supposed to have been completed in Daws Hill.

• Street lighting: Members raised concerns about the issues around broken street lights across the county. . Members were told that there have been issues raised and this is the time of year when most issues highlighted due to the darker evenings the issues become evident. Many of the lights are coming up to 40 years old and the end of their design life so there are plans for changes that are going through.
• Customer Contact: Members raised issue with the 28 day response time to customer enquiries and feel this is unacceptable. The cabinet Member told members he agrees and the response time has been reduced over the last 3-4 months significantly. There has been an increase in the amount of non-complex issues that are dealt with in 1-2 days. Members were told that the new systems in place allows the contact response times to be monitored very closely through dashboards for volume of complaints, type and time taken to address. There is also a new customer compliance officer in post for each depot.

• How we prioritise expenditure of Buckingham to Winslow cycle path over other spending on making roads safer for cyclists in other areas? Members received clarity that the funding for the cycle path was government funding specifically for a cycle path and could not be spent on anything else. If it was not spent they would lose it. Making changes to roads comes from the main capital maintenance budget for new roads etc. so is different. Members were grateful for this clarity for the residents.
• Devolution: Members asked when parishes can be given greater responsibility to fill potholes. The Cabinet Member said that they are happy to talk to parishes about list of services they may want to take on, but that there is no one size fits all approach.
• Interim Staffing: Members raised concerns over turnover of staff and reduction in number of Local Area Technicians and issues raised about interim areas mangers making promises that not carried over when they leave. Members were told that across the service they are reducing interim staff. They are in process of recruiting into the vacancies for local area technicians. Issues around changes to staff are being address through the new system of CONFIRM to keep this updated with issues and works. In the past this has not been properly recorded.
• Street Parking Machines: Members raised concerns over changes to coinage in machines and machines out of order. They were told that they are looking at updating the machines and were investigating alternative methods of payment.
• KPIs: Members asked if they could have a list of the current KPIs and how we have performed against them and who signed them off.

• Issues were also raised around the use of weather forecasting for gritting and mismatch between when our gritters were sent out and others not. Members were told that our gritters are sent out on a domain basis and that there are some local high risk areas that need to be treated even  if other areas in the domain wouldn’t appear to need treatment.  It was also observed that our is different from,  for example, commercial gritters covering carparks etc. TfB use Meteor Group forecasts and grit based on ground not air temperature.
• How TfB work with Utilities to coordinate works in roads: Members were told that the law entles utility companies to carry out works in the road. We work with utility companies to identify programmes of work, however by the nature of the repairs utilities are usually carrying out –it is time essential due to an urgent/emergency situation e.g. gas leak). Members were reassured that the network management team do monitor work of the utilities very closely and ensure they are compliant with the law.
• Local Area Schemes: Members raised issues about lack of communication with local members to input into the scoping of schemes as they have the local knowledge that should be utilised. Members heard that communication always been an issue and that in last 18 months has been much better but still room for improvement.

Action: Simon Dando to send the gulley cleaning programme to the Committee Advisor to send to Members.

ACTION: Simon Dando to share the dashboard on complaints monitoring with the committee members and forward the name of the new Customer Compliance officers to Members.

ACTION: Simon Dando to provide committee with list of KPIS – to be sent to Committee Advisor for circulation.

ACTION: Simon Dando to send members risk criteria for gritting.

Action: Simon Dando to circulate recent presentation on the work with the utilities to members via the committee advisor.

The Chairman thanked the Cabinet Member and the Officers for their time and their detailed responses.