Councillor Huelin introduced the report and stated that quarter 3 ran up until December 2018, and felt that the report showed some excellent figures. She stated that the council had maintained 70% of services meeting their targets, compared to 2 years ago when only 45% had been passing. She stated that some new measures had been put in place, such as how the council measured the removal of abandoned vehicles. She also highlighted the number of new apprentices being hired by Thurrock, and felt this was good to see. She added that weekly bin collections had been maintained, and although the 98.5% target had not been hit, this was a very high target. She stated this missed target had been due to vehicle repairs and poor weather conditions.

Councillor Watkins stated that he felt this report was good news. He added that the bin collection was measured on a year to date figure, and although was below target, in January the target had been exceeded. He also added that although there had been a missed target in household waste, there was lots of behind the scenes work to improve this, such as work with the Cleaner, Greener and Safer Overview and Scrutiny Committee and internal work with the communications team to release a new strategy. He added that the KPI regarding street cleanliness was good to see, and this was due to the Clean It, Cut It and Fill It Scheme. He added that Keep Britain Tidy also monitored street cleanliness around the borough, and produced independent results.

Councillor Little added that she felt pleased to see the time taken to adopt children had decreased, and described how she had recently sat on a panel which had adopted 3 children in one day, all of whom were now going to their ‘forever homes’. She stated that this service had only recently been brought back in-house and felt lots more children were now going to their forever homes. The Leader stated that under the previous contract only 5 children had been adopted in one year, and now the in-house service were adopting 3 children in one day, which he felt was good to see. He also felt that it was good to see 70% of targets being achieved with the new green/red scale and the removal of amber. He added that there would always be fluctuations in bin collections due to factors outside of the council’s control such as poor weather or people parking inconsiderately so bin lorries could not access streets, but these were still counted as missed targets. He added that the council were still pushing for all targets to be met, and thanked the officers for all their hard work. He stated that residents and Members were often out on the weekends and during their free time to tidy up Thurrock and thanked residents for all their hard work. He then summarised and highlighted the hard work the environment team had put in during the windy weather over the weekend, as two crews including the new apprentice, had been out across the borough clearing fallen trees.

RESOLVED: That Cabinet:

1. Noted and commented upon the performance of the key corporate performance indicators in particular those areas which are off target.

2. Identified any areas which require additional consideration.