Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence had been received from Councillor Kuldeep Lakhmana with Councillor Stuart Mathers substituting.

There were no declarations of interest.

A member of the Committee raised concerns that a number of items on the Committee’s work programme were coming before the Committee as verbal presentations, rather than written reports; it was highlighted that this hindered the ability for the Committee to appropriately scrutinise reports ahead of meetings. It was noted that the ‘Service Overview’ items were currently being delivered to the Committee in a presentation format due to the nature of the items, going forward it was noted that all other regular items would be scheduled to be accompanied by a written report.

RESOLVED: That the minutes of the meeting dated 28 July 2021 be agreed as an accurate record.

It was confirmed that all items were marked Part 1 and would be considered in public.

The Chairman briefly introduced the item highlighting that it was the first of three witness sessions composing the information gathering phase of the Committee’s review into electric vehicles (EVs), EV infrastructure and future policy direction. The Democratic Services Officer then introduced the information report in front of Members as a brief research report outlining the national and local context for the current state of EV’s and EV infrastructure.

Poonam Pathak, Interim Head of Highways, was present as the first witness for the review and noted that officers were working closely with the Cabinet Member for Public Safety and Transport in the development of an EV strategy, which would be informed by the Committee’s review. It was highlighted that a key objective of any strategy would be to assist in achieving the carbon reduction targets set by the Council. The Committee were informed that officers had undertaken a soft market test with regard to publicly available EV charging point provision to understand the funding available in this area, specifically the 75% grant from central government under the ORCS funding (On-Street Residential Chargepoint Scheme) whereby only 25% of costs would be incurred by the Council. Additionally, officers had liaised with other London Boroughs to recognise the experiences and challenges faced when approaching the delivery of EV charging infrastructure; Members concurred that the prospective provision of EV infrastructure would be a challenge for all local authorities, specifically Hillingdon as the London Borough with the highest ratio of car ownership amongst residents.

It was highlighted that the Council currently had 11 sites in the Borough where publicly available EV charging was available, these 11 sites hosted over 30 charge points. The Committee were informed that these charge points were outdated and some were not in a good working condition. Officers planned to replace these charge points with updated models to suit modern EVs and to identify new locations in the Borough where there may be a demand for publicly available EV charge points, examples included Council operated car parks and housing estates. A tender exercise was currently being undertaken for the provision of these charge points. Members were interested in the distribution of charge points across the Borough as it would be key to the success of any prospective delivery of publicly available charging points; a Member highlighted that there was a grouping of charge points around Heathrow Airport in the south of the Borough leaving the rest of the Borough with less provision currently. Officers stated that decisions regarding the location of new charge points would be data led by demand.

The Committee queried what procurement frameworks were available and had been explored by officers with regard to EV charge point procurement. Members were informed that officers had explored numerous frameworks including Kent County Council, Transport for London and Crown Commercial Service procurement frameworks to engage with EV charging suppliers, including fully funded options with zero cost to the Council for the installation and maintenance of public charging points.

With regard to public  ...  view the full minutes text for item 27.

This item was heard after item 7.

Ian Anderson, Business Manager - Complaints and Enquiries, introduced the report highlighting that the previous Policy Overview and Scrutiny Committees had requested further detail in the annual complaints reports which explained the high level of detail within the report’s appendices. Overall, there had been an increase in the number of informal complaints than in previous years, with 30% of those progressing to stage one complaints; less than 2% of complaints went on to stage two. Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman investigations had gone down from 59 for 2019/20 to 34 for 2020/21, this was primarily attributed to the Ombudsman deciding not to investigate complaints for roughly four months during 2020 to allow local authorities to focus on and carry out their core duties during the COVID-19 pandemic. Compliments had also increased significantly year on year from 301 to 502, with 12% of those compliments relating to the planting of wildflowers in the Borough.

The Committee were informed that the volume of Members Enquiries had gone down from 11,423 in 2019/20 to 9,960 in 2020/21. A discrepancy was highlighted in the ‘Members Enquiries by Ward’ data whereby Uxbridge South Ward had a significantly higher number of Members Enquiries than any other. It was explained that the system used to process Members Enquiries relied upon an address being entered, if no address was entered then the system would default to the Civic Centre which was within Uxbridge South Ward.

The Committee were informed that going forward, the annual complaints report would differ in that the Council’s Corporate Directorates had changed for 2021/22. As a result of this Members would see a fuller picture of where complaints and compliments were spread between Council services.

The Committee thanked officers for the level of detail within the report noting that it helped to give a clear indication of the context around the complaints, compliments and Members Enquiries received by the Council. It was noted that as the May 2022 local government elections drew closer, there may be an increased number of Members Enquiries received.

Members attention was drawn to Appendix H which outlined the Ombudsman investigations which had concluded during 2020/21 and were within the remit of the Public Safety and Transport Select Committee. It was highlighted that many of the cases were closed by the Ombudsman without a formal investigation due to insufficient evidence. Members highlighted that residents may not always know what is meant by insufficient evidence and suggested that having the information available online as to what may constitute sufficient evidence would be useful, particularly where residents are disappointed with the Ombudsman’s choice not to investigate and believe that they had supplied sufficient evidence. Officers noted that work was being done with the Council’s Anti-Social Behaviour Team with regard to publicly available information around what can be provided as viable evidence for investigation. The Committee were informed that there was information available on the Ombudsman’s website for cases that had not formally been investigated  ...  view the full minutes text for item 28.

This item was heard ahead of item 6.

Poonam Pathak, Interim Head of Highways, was present for this item and gave the Committee an overview of the work areas under her purview and how the department manages and maintains the Council’s highways assets. It was highlighted that the team was responsible for Hillingdon’s highways assets, which were valued at £1.2 billion. The extent of the team’s responsibilities included:

• Road and pavement maintenance (700km of roads and 905km of pavements)
• Streetlighting – 31,200 streetlights and other illuminated street furniture
• Highways structures – 260 bridges and structures
• Road Drainage – 34,000 road gullies
• Street Works Coordination
• Highways Insurance Claims
• Highways Design and scheme delivery

Further to this it was highlighted that some of the Borough’s road network was maintained by other authorities, notably the M4 and M25 Motorways were maintained by the Highways Agency and the principal A40 and A312 roads were managed by the Transport for London Road Network. Members were informed that deterioration of the highway network was accelerating as the burden from factors such as climate change, traffic load and works carried out by utility companies were increasing.

The Committee were informed that the Highways department had a forward planning programme of roads and footways that were scheduled to be resurfaced. In 2021/22 there were 44 roads and 66 footways scheduled to be resurfaced. The 2022/23 forward planning programme was under development with the department recently commissioning a condition survey, the data from which would identify the roads and footways for resurfacing and categorise the proper surface treatment.

With regard to the criteria required for a damaged carriageway or footway to be investigated by the Council it was understood that on a carriageway, a 40mm pothole or depression was required, whereas on a footway it was a 20mm pothole, trip hazard or loose/missing kerbs. Response times for works to be carried out were categorised ranging from emergency call outs for a temporary repair within four hours to less severe circumstances where a permanent repair would be carried out within three months. Members highlighted that vulnerable residents may trip on a defect of less than 20mm; the Committee were informed that defects were investigated based on a risk assessment and scored accordingly, the Council needed to strike a balance in assigning footway defects for repair to ensure the repair programme was affordable and 20mm was used widely by local authorities as a marker for repair.

With regard to streetlighting in the Borough, Members were informed that a Borough-wide column replacement programme was in progress following a Borough-wide LED upgrade completed in 2019. It was noted that the streetlighting columns in the Borough were old and deteriorating, any columns deemed a risk would be prioritised for replacement.

The Committee were encouraged that the team regularly made use of RhinoPatch repairs for road surfaces, a technique by which the road surface was heated using infrared technology and could be remoulded, reducing carbon output and the materials needed. Officers noted that there were  ...  view the full minutes text for item 29.

RESOLVED: That the item be deferred to the October meeting of the Select Committee.

The Committee noted the items listed on the Forward Plan. The Democratic Services Officer informed Members that, since the publication of the meeting agenda, a new Forward Plan had been published with three additional items listed under the Public Safety and Transport portfolio for October’s Cabinet meeting; these were the Street Lighting Term Contract Extension, the Updated Enforcement Policy and the Transport for London Local Implementation Plan.

RESOLVED: That the Committee noted the Forward Plan.

The Committee noted that the ‘Service Overview: Anti-Social Behaviour and Enforcement Team’ item had been deferred to the October meeting of the Committee. Members requested that any presentation slides to be delivered to the Committee be circulated well in advance of the respective meeting to allow Members enough time to digest the information within.

The Committee discussed the prospect of deferring the one-off service monitoring items listed for January 2022 to allow sufficient time to discuss the 2022/23 Budget Proposals report. It was noted that Democratic Services would discuss this with the Chairman and confirm which meeting the items had moved to.

RESOLVED That the Select Committee:

1)    Noted the items listed on the work programme; and

2)    Deferred the ASBET Fines and Prosecutions and the Abandoned Cars one-off service monitoring items to a later meeting in 2022 to be confirmed by Democratic Services and the Chairman.