Agenda and minutes

Consider Minute of the Meeting held on 9 December 2021 to be approved and signed by the Chairman. (Copy attached.)

There had been circulated copies of the Minute of the Meeting held on 9 December 2021.

DECISION

AGREED to approve the Minute for signature by the Chairman

Consider Action Tracker.  (Copy attached.)

1.1          With reference to paragraph 2 of the Minute of 9 December 2021, there had been circulated copies of the Scrutiny Business Action Sheet.  The Clerk to the Council advised that actions had been added from the Meeting held on 9 December 2021 including a review of Festival Funding.  With regard to Rural Proofing, the Clerk to the Council was due to follow up on this action with the Director Resilient Communities.  Communications Officers were to attend the Meeting of the Committee to be held on 14 March 2022 to allow Members to have a discussion about a programme of communication in regard to climate change, including waste and recycling.  With regard to the Teviot Day Service action from the Meeting held on 30 November 2021, the Chairman advised that he had written to the Director Social Work & Practice who had confirmed that the two actions had been carried out.  With regard to Responsible Dog Ownership, Members considered that the action was to determine how dog waste was processed and that a short notification may only have been required.  Mr Hedley advised that dog waste could be co-mingled in general waste so long as it was not more than 5% of the total waste collected.  It was not practical to have special uplifts of dog waste for separate processing.  Members agreed that this action would now be closed.

1.2          The Chief Officer Audit and Risk referred to  action 1 (a) from the Meeting held on 29 June 2021, regarding the proposed review of the Income Management Policy, advising that this Policy had recently been reviewed and approved at the Executive Committee meeting held on 17 August 2021.  With regard to the benchmarking of charges, these had been related to the Fees and Charges approved by Council in February/March each year as part of budget setting.  The Chairman responded that the understanding was that for the 2022-23 budget, work on benchmarking fees was ongoing.  The Chief Officer Audit and Risk advised that findings from internal audit reviews would reference the Income Management Policy as part of wider policy.  Members agreed that this review be removed.

1.3          The Clerk to the Council advised that with regard to the proposed review of the Management and Maintenance of Public Halls, which would focus on the community contribution e.g. through management committees, public halls were still affected by Covid-19 restrictions.  The Clerk to the Council was liaising with the Director Strategic Commissioning & Partnerships on the most appropriate way to bring this forward to Members.  Public transport and communities action was to be addressed in the 14 March 2022 Meeting of the Committee.  The action regarding the Jedburgh Contact Centre and Library from the Meeting held on 25 November 2019 was to be addressed by the Director Resilient Communities.  In response to a question from the Chairman enquiring whether the action regarding Jedburgh Contact Centre and Library was out of date, the Clerk to the Council advised that an update on the action would be brought  ...  view the full minutes text for item 2.

Consider Report by Director Infrastructure and Environment.  (Copy attached.)

1.1          There had been circulated copies of the Report by the Director Infrastructure and Environment which set out how Scottish Borders Council resourced its Roads and Infrastructure service; the level of service that resource enabled and how this level of service performance compared against others.  The report was presented by the Chief Officer Roads, Mr Hedley, who advised that the Roads and Infrastructure service was located within the Infrastructure and Environment Department and consisted of SBc Contracts, Infrastructure, Engineering, Roads Operations, Fleet Services and the Parks and Environment team.  Scottish Borders Council resourced roads services using a mix of revenue and capital funding.  Prior to that, road maintenance was predominantly funded through revenue with the capital budget primarily funding improvements to the road network.  Regular inspection of Scottish Borders Council’s adopted road network and associated assets was undertaken in accordance with the Council’s Standards on Carriageway/Footway & Footpath Safety Inspections contained in Appendix 4 of the Report.  Mr Hedley highlighted further complications affecting roads including winter weather conditions not being conducive to carrying out permanent or significant repairs due to the presence of water on the road surface and throughout the various layers of road construction.  The Infrastructure team determined any activities which the Council undertook on the road network and would instruct SBc Contracts or the Roads Operations teams accordingly.  As part of their remit they would also monitor and report on performance and benchmarking activity.  In 2021, the spending per kilometre was the third highest of the family group of comparable local authorities with characteristics and challenges common to rural regions defined by the Local Government Benchmarking Framework (LGBF).  Over the last three years, Scottish Borders Council had overlaid 29 kilometres of carriageways, surface dressed 157 kilometres of the network and undertaken permanent patching repairs to approximately 140,000 square metres of the network.  Over the same period, the Council had undertaken £1.285 million of semi-permanent repairs to rural (C and D-class) network roads using jet patching.  It was estimated that £1.865 million of reactive patching works was undertaken in the same timeline.  Potholes were significantly the largest category of customer enquiry for the service.  Customer enquiry numbers may have been found to fluctuate depending on the severity of winter weather.  The Roads service had purchased a second jet patching machine and staff were trialling a permanent system of repairs with a JCB Pothole Pro.  It was expected that the JCB Pothole Pro would be received in early 2022.  The number of insurance claims received due to vehicle damage caused by roads had been declining; however the number of claims settled where the Council agreed it had been at fault had been increasing.  As part of Fit for 2024, the Service had initiated a third-party review during 2021 which was scheduled for report in early 2022.  To become more effective and efficient the service aimed to increase the use of digital initiatives to improve service provision.  As part of the report, the contribution of suppliers, supporters and partners were recognised,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.