Issue - meetings

To consider a report of the Director of Place Management.

The report presents the draft 2023/24 Agreements for Communities, Culture & Sport and Parks, Highways & Transport Services Portfolios for consideration and comment by the Committee.

The Scrutiny Committee is recommended to review and comment on the draft Portfolio Agreements.

Officer contact: Alan Lawson at alan.lawson@stockport.gov.uk

The Director of Place Management submitted a report (copies of which had been circulated) presenting the draft 2023/24 Agreements for Communities, Culture & Sport and Parks, Highways & Transport Services Portfolios for consideration and comment by the Committee.

The following comments were made/ issues raised:-

Communities, Culture and Sport

·         Members queried the sample sizes and statistics relating to the Greater Manchester Community Safety Survey.

·         In response, it was stated that in terms of the statistical differences, the questions were slightly different and in terms of the sample size, the exact figure was not known, but it would likely be a few hundred.

·         It was queried whether the Community Safety Survey was the best way to measure important metrics, such as people feeling safe in their community. It was suggested that it would be useful to have figures for different areas of Stockport in terms of more localised experiences of crime.

·         It was noted that the Greater Manchester Police (GMP) had acknowledged that the statistics on the numbers of reported crimes were not accurate which made future measuring of crime against past statistics difficult. Although numbers of reported crimes increasing was not positive, it was important to encourage the public to report crimes. It was noted that GMP were no longer in special measures and in the future it was expected that there would be an improvement in the statics provided by GMP.

·         Members queried whether the number of anti-social behaviour reviews could be recorded as a performance indicator in future reports. In response, it was stated that officers would look into that data and a written response would be provided.

·         Members queried whether it would be possible to include qualitative data in respect of visits to museums and libraries alongside quantitative data. It was also queried whether the targets for encouraging people who had not previously visited museums and libraries could be included in future as a performance indicator.

Parks, Highways and Transport Services

·         Members queried whether future reports should include KPIs on sustainable transport.

·         In response, it was stated that sustainable transport schemes had their own evaluation and it might be difficult to measure as one KPI, although there was a commitment to report back to this Committee on some of the larger sustainable transport schemes.

·         Members queried the reasoning behind the proposal to change the KPI for fly tipping and stated that the public were less concerned with how quickly the Council was dealing with fly tipping and more concerned about what the Council was doing in terms of consequences for the perpetrators. It was also suggested that the change in the KPI should be delayed until a review of fines for fly tipping had been carried out.

·         In response, it was stated that seven fines had been issued for fly tipping in the previous calendar year and that the previous KPI was based on the number of reports of fly tipping received by the Council which was out of the Council’s control.

·         Members commented that a change to the enforcement policy in relation to fly tipping might be more effective than the 90 per cent clearance target.

RESOLVED – That the report be noted.