Agenda and minutes

Venue: Council Chamber - Civic Centre, Doncaster Road, Selby, YO8 9FT

Contact: Victoria Foreman  Email: vforeman@selby.gov.uk or 01757 292046

Media

Items
No. Item

1.

Apologies for Absence

Minutes:

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors K Ellis, W Nichols and R Sweeting. There were no substitutes appointed.

2.

Disclosures of Interest

A copy of the Register of Interest for each Selby District Councillor is available for inspection at www.selby.gov.uk.

 

Councillors should declare to the meeting any disclosable pecuniary interest in any item of business on this agenda which is not already entered in their Register of Interests.

 

Councillors should leave the meeting and take no part in the consideration, discussion or vote on any matter in which they have a disclosable pecuniary interest.

 

Councillors should also declare any other interests.  Having made the declaration, provided the other interest is not a disclosable pecuniary interest, the Councillor may stay in the meeting, speak and vote on that item of business.

 

If in doubt, Councillors are advised to seek advice from the Monitoring Officer.

 

Minutes:

There were no disclosures of interest.

3.

Chair's Address to the Scrutiny Committee

Minutes:

The Chair had no address to give to the Committee.

4.

Housing Repairs pdf icon PDF 230 KB

To consider the report and presentation from Officers on housing repairs.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Committee received a report and presentation from Officers about housing repairs at the Council from the Head of Operational Services, the Strategic Asset Management and Property Services Manager and the Customer Services Manager.

 

The presentation took Members through the services provided by the Council, process for booking repairs, the Repairs Policy itself, how trade operatives receive the information, a recap on responsive repairs including up to date data), the impact of Covid on capacity for repairs, the recovery and improvement plan post-Covid and lastly some information about the current materials shortage. The presentation had been published online as a supplementary agenda item for all Members to see.

 

Members debated the report and presentation and asked Officers several questions in relation to staff sickness and the effects of the pandemic, the number of void properties and the refurbishment required in them, the targets for and time taken to undertake repairs and refurbishments and gas checks at properties.

 

Members also asked Officers to investigate if residents that were not Council tenants could join the contract that was used for gas checks, for a fee. Officers were unsure and explained to the Committee that this would have to be checked with the Council’s Legal Team.

 

A Member attending the meeting as a guest praised the quick response of the team to a tenant whose carer had raised a request for a repair; the matter was fixed on the same day. Officers were also pleased to report that they had received compliments as to the quality of the kitchen and bathrooms installed in several properties as part of wider refurbishments.

 

Officers explained that some of the figures produced from the housing database were difficult to interrogate; the Council’s Data and Systems Team had done a great deal of work on them. Almost 19,000 records had been looked through and tidied up, and a new report created. A new software system would be installed and used soon, which would give much better data in the future and ensure that repair jobs progressed properly through the system. The new Civica mobile system that staff were currently using had proved to be a great success already. Customer Service Team members would be able to better communicate with residents to get more information about requested jobs.

 

Officers confirmed that the Customer Service Unit would still be moving out of the current base in Selby town centre to the Council Offices, but that the requirements for the space had changed due to the pandemic, with more services moving online. For residents and vulnerable customers that needed face to face support, an appointment system would be put in place. The Chair requested that Officers give an update to all Members by email, or as part of the Chief Executive’s next bulletin as to these plans for the Customer Service Team.

 

The Committee asked whether inspections took place prior to work being done to clarify what was required. Officers confirmed that there were supervisors who occasionally attended properties prior to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

5.

Work Programme pdf icon PDF 410 KB

To consider the Committee’s work programme.

 

 

Minutes:

The Committee considered the work programme for the 2021-22 municipal year.

 

Officers asked Members to suggest topics for the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner to cover when he attended the November meeting of the committee; these could be sent to Officers by email.

 

Members were also advised that they could send any other suggestions relating to the rest of the work programme to Officers after the meeting, should they so wish.

 

RESOLVED:

                        To note the work programme for 2021-22.