(i)         The report of Councillor Tony Fish, Cabinet Member for the Environment, is enclosed.

(ii)        The report of Councillor Richard Speight, Cabinet Member for Communities, is enclosed.

(iii)       The report of Councillor John Kent, Cabinet Member for Education, is enclosed.

Councillor Fish, Cabinet Member for the Environment, introduced the report and in doing so provided an overview of the services provided, including the civic amenity site, 2 country parks, 3 Sites of Special Scientific Interest, Thurrock in Bloom, fleet management, street waste and the winter gritting service.

In introducing the report the Cabinet Member raised the following key points:

·         That recycling rates had reduced over the past 2 years but were in line with national averages.

·         That for the fifth consecutive year the Directorate had come in on budget.

·         That the streets of Thurrock were the cleanest ever.

·         That the waste team had emptied 97% of bins on schedule.

·         That money had been saved on vehicle repairs as a new in-house workshop at St. Clements was now a Taxi safety check centre and licensed to undertake MOTS for all Council Vehicles.

·         That in 2012-13 the service had a cohort of 14 Street Services apprentices, 6 of whom completed their qualification and work experience and 1 of whom was now permanently employed in the service.]

·         In 2013-14 the service operated a programme for apprentices that provided a qualification as well as work experience across most front line services.

·         That whilst services were being restructured the apprentice programme had been put on hold but it was hoped that further programmes to support local youth would be initiated during the course of summer 2015.

·         That the level of street cleanliness in the Borough was a real success for the team and the level of street cleanliness achieved in Thurrock was better than the National figures available from Keep Britain Tidy.

That Cabinet Member further outlined a number of positive actions that were planned to ensure that the impact of the budget savings facing the Directorate were minimised, which included:

·         The consolidation of two depots into a single site to realise savings and a more efficient allocation of resources. 

·         A move from a service focus to area based working which would enable staff to move from scheduled rounds to become more reactive – responding to issues as they arise.

·         To increase external income by selling services to external parties, for example, trade waste, winter gritting, grounds maintenance for schools.

Members questioned the Portfolio Holder on the following matters and the Mayor advised that responses would be provided at the end of receipt of all questions:

·         Councillor Tolson asked if the Portfolio Holder would agree that if gates had been placed at the Greenacres flyover (A13) when originally requested three years ago this would have been more cost efficient. She reported that the last fly tip had cost £30,000 to remove from the site and remarked it would have been more cost efficient to put gates on 3 years ago. She further questioned what was being done to tackle issues at Rainbow Lane, Stanford-le-Hope to prevent fly tips but still allow for pedestrian, cycleway and bridleway access.

·         Councillor Gledhill observed that in Rectory Road, Little Thurrock, there had been a marked increase in dog fouling. He questioned what the Portfolio Holder was doing to resolve the problem, whether this was by introducing more dog bins, or increasing patrols or enforcement officers to fine irresponsible dog owners.

·         Councillor Ojetola acknowledged that the service worked hard and thanked the team for their work. However he felt that the report should have included details regarding the complaints related to the service. He explained that the last report received by Members detailed the service had received over 600 complaints, and questioned the Portfolio Holder on how many complaints had been received this year, of those how many were progressed to stage 3 and what actions had been taken following the ombudsman recommendations.

·         Councillor Ray highlighted issues that the Aveley Community Forum had continued to experience regarding broken glass, cigarette butts and other litter at their recreation ground. He questioned what the Portfolio Holder was doing to tackle these problems.

·         Councillor Aker asked what was done when fly tipping was reported, specifically how cleaning was actioned and how those responsible were caught. He advised that he had reported a fly tipping incident in Aveley along with Councillor Ray who had witnessed the incident.

·         Councillor Purkiss called for the Portfolio Holder to establish a regular cleaning regime outside the Linford Civic Amenity Site and was also concerned that road signs between East Tilbury and Grays were dirty and not easily visible. 

·         Councillor Palmer questioned what steps were being taken to clean the A13, which he felt was in a disgusting state and a failing on the whole Borough. 

·         Councillor Halden highlighted that the report explained money was being saved through multi skilled area teams, which was a suggestion both himself and Councillor Liddiard proposed in 2011. He reported that at the time he was told it was impractical to move to this way of working and questioned what had changed to now make this possible.

·         Councillor Coxshall questioned what progress was being made to bring those responsible for the Cory’s Wharf fly tip to justice and what the final cost of clearing the site would be. He stated that he had heard the clean up was estimated to cost £700,000.

The Cabinet Member advised that questions regarding fly tipping should be directed to the Cabinet Member for Public Protection as this fell under the remit of his portfolio. In response to Councillor Halden’s question regarding why the service was now moving to multi skilled area teams, he added that the budget challenges faced necessitated new ways of working.

The Mayor advised the Chamber that they had run out of time to receive all responses on this report and requested that the relevant Directors provide responses to the questions to the relevant Members outside of the meeting.