Agenda item

Pat Jukes, Corporate Policy Business Manager:

(a)       Presented a portfolio performance overview of Environmental Services and Public Protection which covered the following main areas:

·         customer satisfaction regarding:

-       the number of complaints in respect of overflowing bins;

-       the percentage of Citizens’ Panel respondents who were aware of the Council’s food hygiene rating scheme for food businesses;

-       the percentage of Citizens’ Panel respondents who were satisfied with the standards of hygiene in restaurants, cafes, shops and takeaways in Lincoln;

·         the percentage of NO2 diffusion tubes in Lincoln that were showing NO2 levels within the national air quality objective for 2017/2018;

·         volume of household waste sent for recycling, compost and re-use and percentage comparison with the East Midlands and local authorities within the East Midlands region;

·         kilograms of non-recycled household waste per household compared to the mean for all local authority districts in the East Midlands over the last eight years and in 2016/17;

·         decrease and increase in the number and type of crimes in Lincoln;

·         crime severity in England, East Midlands and Lincoln;

·         reported anti-social behaviour incidents;

·         number of customer complaints split by electoral ward;

·         number of cremations and burials carried out in Lincoln per year;

·         quarterly performance measures;

·         annual satisfaction measures from the Citizens’ Panel.

(b)       Provided contextual performance on Environmental Services and Public Protection as follows:

·         in quarter 3, the Council’s CCTV operators had handled 3,374 incidents;

·         53% of Citizens’ Panel respondents in the July 2017 survey said that they felt safe in the city centre at night time;

·         98% of food supplying premises were fully or broadly compliant with guidance;

·         the Lincoln Transport Hub had the first public changing places facility in Lincoln;

·         Lincoln had been awarded three Platinum Awards, one Gold Award and three National Awards for the cleanliness and quality of its public toilet facilities;

·         Lincoln had been awarded two Green Flag Awards for Hartsholme Country Park and the Arboretum;

·         the percentage of household waste sent for recycling had stabilised over the last two years at around 38%, although this was at a lower rate than the East Midlands average;

·         in the crime summary for Lincoln, nine categories were getting better and eight were getting worse, but overall there was a slight increase in total crime numbers of 128 in the previous year;

·         there had been a drop in all electoral wards for the number of complaints received on fly tipping incidents.

(c)        Invited members’ questions and comments.

Comment: Further to last year’s meeting of the Crime and Disorder Committee, the performance of the Police was under scrutiny. In challenging poor performance based upon the performance information available at that meeting the Police responded by saying that the statistics had probably been measured in a different way to the other areas being compared to. It was concerning that these statistics were not a like for like comparison.

Response: This issue did need to be addressed, taking into account that Lincoln was an urban area whereas some of the other areas it was compared to in the statistical breakdown were rural areas. The East Midlands and England averages were also relatively low due to them including some rural areas, which made Lincoln appear worse. For the data to be considered as reliable the city of Lincoln should be compared with other urban areas. The key issue to be considered was whether the city felt safe.

Comment: It was concerning that serious crime in Lincoln seemed to be increasing year on year, which could have a detrimental impact on the Council’s strategic priority in respect of ‘let’s enhance our remarkable place’.

Response: The data measure included as part of the presentation in relation to crime severity included the scale of sentences determined by the courts, so one aspect to explain a perceived increase in serious crime in Lincoln could be that the courts were prescribing longer sentences to offenders for some of the crimes included in the category of serious crime. It was noted that, as a county, Lincolnshire was one of the lowest areas in the country in respect of crime rates. However, it was noted that this did include the other six more rural districts. Some perception data had recently been made available from the Police and Crime Commissioner’s Office which showed Lincoln to be in the middle of the other districts in the county, with areas such as Boston and South Holland showing worse crime statistics than Lincoln.

Comment: A member was impressed with the Council’s Anti-Social Behaviour team who had dealt with some recent issues very well, with good working in Carholme regarding the University and a noise reduction scheme being an example of a very positive outcome.

Question: In respect of household waste, how much was incinerated and how much went to landfill?

Response: The vast majority of waste went to the energy from waste plant where it was incinerated and turned into energy, with a very low percentage being sent to landfill. The statistics included as part of the presentation did not reflect this waste as being recycled or re-used due to the way in which the Government requested that performance be measured and reported.

RESOLVED that the report be noted.