How Good is Our Service - March 2025

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Voids performance has increased in March to 97% from 90% in February and exceeds our target of 85%. We continue to monitor this area closely with our priority being to improve performance moving forward.

Property Maintenance have achieved our target of 100% for Gas Servicing in March with 380 properties serviced in the month. We continue to achieve our target each month and we are confident this will continue throughout 2025/26 

Non-Emergency repairs performance in March has exceeded our target of 12 days with an average turnaround of 11.8 days for the month which is down from 8.7 days in February. We continue to work towards improving and maintaining performance in this area going forward. 

Kitchen, Bathroom, Heating and Roofing upgrade programmes are ongoing, and progress continues in carrying out reactive and refurbishment works across the education and non-housing stock, with decoration works ongoing across the school estate. 

The Service continues to progress a wide range of capital projects both in pre-construction and construction phases. Works continue to progress at Twechar Outdoor Pursuits Centre, with practical completion scheduled for 2nd May 2025.

Design work continues to progress for the Westerhill Development Road project and the planning submission was made in March 2025. The next and final phase of Ground Investigation surveys, including trial pits and bore holes along the proposed route will be undertaken between late April and May 2025.

Works continue to progress at Bearsden Community Hub to remove and replace RAAC from the roof on the extension at the rear of the building. Works are ongoing at Bearsden Primary School, where the windows are being replaced and external stonework repaired. The project is due for practical completion in early May.

The pre-construction phase of the Campsie Memorial Hall project has now concluded and financial close achieved in March 2025. Approval to enter into the construction development agreement and begin the refurbishment in practice was provided by Council and works are due to commence in early May.

The revised Housing Capital Investment Plan was approved by Council in March 2025, which instructed officers to continue to progress design development on the pipeline of development sites; and to finalise revised construction tender costs for the Twechar Canalside development site. Planning submissions have been submitted for sites at the former Merkland School and Main Street in Torrance, with the application for the former Auchinairn Primary School to follow shortly.

Preparations for the refurbishment of Milngavie Primary School in Summer 2025 continue to progress, including the development of design proposals, tendering strategy for the project and decant arrangements for pupils at Torrance and St Nicholas’ Primary Schools. The development of design proposals for the new Lenzie Academy project at Whitegates Park are also underway.

The delivery of several areas of on-going capital investment across the Council’s existing Affordable Housing stock continue, including several significant measures to improve Housing Quality and Energy Efficiency. During the reporting period a contractor has been appointed to undertake the next phase of energy efficiency measures across Council and mixed tenure stock including the installation of Cavity Wall Insulation to reduce heat loss from homes. Works will commence in May 2025.

The Service continues to develop the next phase of a building decarbonisation strategy for the school estate, operational estate and for the existing affordable housing stock, with a variety of surveys, pilot projects and further feasibility reviews planned throughout the remainder of this and next financial year. The replacement of the septic tank system at Mugdock Country Park and boiler replacement at Bishopbriggs Leisuredrome are now complete.

Works are on-going to repair the render at the entrance to Kirkintilloch Leisure Centre and replace the MUGA sports pitch at Gartconner Primary School. Following a tender exercise, a contractor has been appointed to undertake the refurbishment of Torrance Community Centre, which is due to close in late April ahead of works commencing in early May 2025.

• Achieved 100% compliance for Gas Servicing with focus on this continuing going forward
• Kitchen, Bathroom, Central Heating and Roofing upgrade programmes ongoing with positive feedback being received from tenants across all contract
• Percentage of voids returned completed within target has increased with the objective being to maintain and improve performance in this area going forward
• Improved functionality of Total Mobile and the integration with Servitor enables a more streamlined and efficient service
• Continue to improve on non-emergency repairs turnaround times moving forward
• Improve communications with customers and stakeholders to ensure the highest level of service delivery
• Continue to utilise robust reporting mechanisms for enhanced performance and service delivery
• Progress decoration works across the school estate
• 100% of Operational Assets requiring a Gas Safety check within the year’s anniversary of the previous check are completed
• Schedule in the upcoming Gas Safety Checks with contractors which are required during April and May
• Improve uptake of nutritious school meals
• Improve communications with customers and stakeholders to ensure the highest level of service delivery
• Reduce FM overtime.

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The Community Protection Service delivers on a broad statutory remit, with delivery measures centred on protecting public health and safety, well-being and consumer protection. During March 2025, the service continued to engage in the local Co-Production arrangement with Police Scotland, with regular community harm and risk meetings being held to provide the focus for joint work and activity to protect local communities across the East Dunbartonshire area. The service also continued to develop intelligence led approaches for all areas of work to target local public health, community safety and consumer protection activity towards the areas of greatest need, risk and priority.

The Environmental Health Team was engaged in the delivery of essential public health services throughout the reporting period, delivering regulatory activity across a range of statutory duties to protect the community from hazards in the environment and to regulate and facilitate the growth of responsible businesses. This included both proactive interventions and reactive assignments to complaints and service requests.

The Community Safety Team continued to deliver a broad range of front-line work for the benefit of local communities during the reporting period, working closely with a range of colleagues and key partners to successfully deliver appropriate interventions and to make our local communities safer. Officers from the team were engaged in the delivery of services in relation to community engagement/support, antisocial behaviour, youth disorder, neighbour disputes, environmental incivilities, dog control, decriminalised parking enforcement, fly-tipping, mediation, pest control and mobile CCTV. The Community Wardens also continued to develop further links within the local communities they serve, through involvement in initiatives and events taking place across the Council area wherever feasible.

The Trading Standards and Licensing Enforcement team was engaged in the delivery of essential consumer protection and licensing services to local consumers and businesses to maintain and protect a fair-trading environment in East Dunbartonshire. Licensing Advisors carried out liquor licensing inspections to local premises. Officers were available and present at Licensing Boards during March. This month’s activities included ongoing promotion of the East Dunbartonshire Trusted Trader Scheme visits and promotion of anti-scam materials. Licensing Advisors provided business support to applicants and stakeholders and while linking in with other agencies. Licensing Advisers and Trading Standards officers in the team also continued to deliver reactive service request work along with project activity at a range of business premises across the area (including age restricted product sales test purchasing and fair trading and civic / liquor licensing). Gathering and dissemination of intel on subjects involved in sale and supply of age restricted products, high pressure selling and home improvements continued throughout the period and will be used to influence future projects and investigations.

Our Resettlement Team continues to deliver high-quality humanitarian resettlement support using a human centred approach across all current resettlement schemes as well as asylum.  By prioritising the unique needs and experience of each individual, our dedicated team ensure that resettlement processes are compassionate, effective and dignified.  This commitment to personalised support not only aids in successful integration but also strengthens our communities as whole. Particular attention is being paid to the Asylum agenda as all LA’s are seeing an increase in numbers.

The team continue to offer a wide range of community activities designed to foster sustained community development.  These opportunities have included workshops; family activities and collaborative projects aimed at enhancing local engagement and empowerment.  
By participating in these initiatives, individuals and groups can contribute to the long-term growth, strengthen community ties and support shared goals for a thriving and resilient community. The team are currently in the planning stages of 2025/26 for events and sessions throughout the spring/summer & autumn/winter. This is for all programmes including PPP, Wellness Kitchens, Community First- workshops including Community Grants Capacity Building and HIIC (Health Issues in the Community).

Round 3 of the Community Grant Scheme closed on the 10th January 2025. A total of 76 application were received with funding applied for amounting to over £440,000. The Grant Advisory Committee met on the evening of the 26th & 27th of February and made their recommendations. The CPP Board approved the recommendations of the report on the 20th of March and the CPP team will now advise organisations of the outcomes.

The team remains steadfast in their commitment to promoting equality, diversity and inclusion.  They actively collaborate with local organisations and partners to foster inclusive communities, ensuring everyone feels a sense of belonging and is respected for their contributions. The equalities agenda will partner with organisations to bring events later this year including and International Women’s Day event and 16 days of action in partnership with Violence Against Women’s and Girls.

Our Vaccination Team has been diligently ensuring the community vaccination programme runs smoothly. These clinics provide various vaccinations including a drop in for Flu and Covid while also appointments for shingles and pneumococcal will be taking place. It has been confirmed that the clinics will increase from two to four clinics from March/April with the commencement of the spring programme. The clinics will be split between Kirkintilloch Town Hall and Milngavie Town Hall.

Housing manages 3,878 social rented properties; 3,792 of these are mainstream accommodation and 115 are used for Homeless Temporary Accommodation. The service also manages 50 Lead Tenancies which are rented from either private landlords (29) or Housing Associations (21), to assist with accommodating homeless households.

At present, the Housing list for East Dunbartonshire has 3,269 applications - made up of the following:

General Waiting list: 2,449 applicants waiting (five of which are currently on offer)
(Applicants who have somewhere to stay i.e., they are owner occupiers, a tenant of a private let, stay care of family etc. This queue allows the applicant to choose which area, house type etc they would like to move to).

Transfer waiting list: 576 applicants (14 of which are currently on offer)
(Council or Housing Association tenants who are looking to move to another Council or Housing Association property, either for a different size, or, for a different area. This queue allows the tenant to choose which area, house type etc. they would like to move to).

Priority waiting list: 241 applicants (11 of which are currently on offer)
(Homeless)
(Applicants who have no accommodation or will have nowhere to stay within the next two months. This queue does not allow the applicant to choose area or house type).

Priority waiting list: three applicants (0 of which are currently on offer)
(Urgent medical)
(Applicants who are unable to remain in their current home due to their medical condition. This queue allows the applicant to choose which area, house type etc. they would like to move to).

Within the last month, nine properties were allocated. All of which were general needs. 
They were let to the following queues:

• Three to the priority homeless queue
• Six to the transfer queue.

Community Protection Service

Environmental Health, Trading Standards and Community Safety Teams

• Delivery of effective services on a flexible basis to meet all statutory requirements and duties in relation to public health, community safety, consumer protection and licensing enforcement matters
• Delivery of local Co-Production activity between Community Protection and Police Scotland, with particular focus on effective tasking processes and the delivery of joint action plans and work to protect the communities of East Dunbartonshire
• Delivery of Business Improvement Plan activity relating to Community Protection - actions being implemented in accordance with set targets to deliver effective services in line with relevant corporate outcomes and with positive performance being reported
• Delivery of regulatory services that assist with economic recovery and that are designed to support local businesses and communities
• Environmental Health Officer’s used voluntary procedures to close a food business in Kirkintilloch due hygiene of the premises causing a health risk condition
• Officers worked with Licensing to provided updated market operator conditions for food safety, health and safety and public health for the Kirkintilloch Farmers market
• Officers reviewed and provided comment on Noise Impact assessment for proposed developments
• A Statutory Notice under the Prevention of Damage of Pest Act 1949 was served on an Owner of a property in Lennoxtown requiring the property owner to clear up hoarding material. The Officer who served this Notice worked closely with Social work due to the property owners hoarding condition
• Officers have received a flurry of observation requests from the Planning department for change of use applications to gym class use. Officer’s have proposed to object to these applications due to potential noise nuisance
• Delivery of positive enforcement outcomes in relation to several fly-tipping and control of dog cases
• On-going delivery of programmes of decriminalised parking enforcement activity across the local authority area
• Delivery of investigative work and general casework on all ASB and neighbour dispute matters to support safer local communities within East Dunbartonshire
• Delivery of reactive service request work and targeted project work by the TS Team throughout the reporting period to maintain local compliance with consumer protection legislation
• Trading Standards respond to Freedom of Information requests over the reporting period across a number of subject matters
• On-going promotion of the East Dunbartonshire Trusted Trader scheme through relevant channels, with the aim of attracting further local traders to join the scheme
• Delivery of work by the Licensing Advisers in the Team to assess local compliance with licensing conditions and make representations at Licensing Boards
• Trading Standards supported the Council in preparation for the audit in late March by the Investigatory Powers Commissioners Office regarding use of covert directed surveillance conducted over the past 12 months.

Community Planning and Partnerships Team

• Resettlement Team are monitoring Asylum cases within EDC as numbers are rising across the country as a whole and continue to liaise with housing colleagues and also offering support to individuals where necessary
• The Resettlement team are working with COSLA, SG, and UK Government Departments to plan and support the changes to the Ukrainian scheme as the UK Gov introduces the Ukrainian Permission Extension (UPE) which launched in February. The team are supporting UDPs in EDC to ensure they are aware of the new scheme and signposting to help and support available
• Continuation of targeted community development support through a range of our delivery programmes including Pockets, Places and Prosperity and Community First.  These programmes are designed to focus on our priority communities and communities of interest, helping local organisations to be resilient, compliant, and strong.  The team are committed to fostering vibrant and thriving communities by ensuring our resources are directed to address poverty and inequalities and planning for events through 2025/26 are well under way
• The team support corporate delivery of the priorities within the Gaelic Language Plan 2024-2029. After the success of the Gaelic Harvest festival in August 2024, discussions now move to future event planning for 2025
• After approval of the CPPB report on Round 3 of Community Grants for 2024/25 the team are now contacting organisation with the outcomes and arranging funds for successful applicants
• Future planning for new dates for potential Community Grant Rounds for 2025/26
• The team in partnership with NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde have started planning for a potential spring vaccination programme as final sign off has now been agreed by the Scottish Government
• In collaboration with services collate progress on the delivery of the Gaelic Language Plan 2024-29 and year one progress report
• The team are coordinating the returns for our Equalities Mainstream and Outcomes report, and this continues at pace, while also planning a consultation for mid-July to help inform future outcomes
• In partnership with the front-line workers, the team are collating progress on delivering the priorities within the Locality Plans, including the establishment of locality forums.

Housing Operations and Estates Team, and 
Homelessness and Prevention Team

Key Achievements

Housing Estates

• The Estates team received 9 new Reports of anti-social behaviour during the month of March and 12 open cases were resolved
• There were 6 nominations from the Housing waiting list were sent to Registered Social Landlords operating in East Dunbartonshire to be considered for allocation to their housing stock. Discussions are ongoing with Clyde Valley Housing Association to agree new Nominations Agreement
• Ongoing regular attended this month included Housing Liaison meetings where cases of relevance to Social Work, Community Safety and Police Scotland are discussed, MARAC meeting with other agencies, CPC MISE group to discuss Child Protection issues, Safe and Together forums,  2-weekly meetings of the Community Harm and Risk Meeting (CHARM) with Police Scotland, Community Protection, Trading Standards and Licensing and regular meetings with Legal Services regarding dispute over title deeds in the housing estate, NOP’s and other legal matters.
• The team is part of new Steering Group to re-establish and implement new procedures for processing and issuing Tenant Recharges.

Areas of focus

• Aim to identify any training needs and hold quarterly sessions for reviewing policies and procedures with officers
• Officers are contributing to an ASP (Adult Protection) Inspection. Contribute to the Allocations Policy review currently being undertaken
• Input to devising new procedures for Any Day Lets which has been introduced as part of IHMS implementation
• Attendance at new 2-weekly Community Harm and Risk Meeting (CHARM) with Police Scotland, Community Safety, Trading Standards and Licensing officers continues. Attendance at East Dunbartonshire Safe and Together steering group is ongoing
• Hold monthly budget meetings with HRA accountant to keep abreast of costs. Monthly meetings with Void Team at Property Maintenance to focus on improving performance. Monthly attendance at new Housing/Social Work liaison meeting to discuss Throughcare cases and Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children
• Monthly void property meetings with Property Maintenance to endeavour to improve performance
• Work to reduce the Voids, - liaising with the property maintenance department to streamline this process. 

Homeless Team

• During March 24 households made a homeless application
• 11 households contacted the homelessness out of hours service
• No households have been awaiting offer on the homeless list longer than 3 years
• No households were booked into unsuitable accommodation (bed and breakfast)
• 9 households were referred to the Rent Deposit Guarantee/Private Sector Scheme for advice; 4 households were supported to secure accommodation in the private rented scheme.

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Key areas of focus in March for the Communications & Engagement team included the Council budget, Scottish Government’s Travelling Cabinet and continued Waste messaging.

Media relations remained consistent this month with eight releases issued (8 in February), five photocalls, (two in February) and 34 media enquiries dealt with (37 in February).

All releases can be read on the Council website news section and the local coverage achieved equated to an equivalent advertising value of £9,140 (£4,320 in February.)

Facebook and X saw an increase in both impressions and click throughs this month while Instagram had an increase in impressions and LinkedIn a rise in click throughs.

The top three posts on Facebook were in relation to the Taxi Fare consultation, changes to general waste, and the Council budget. On X, the top three posts were Council budget, Meet the Services event, and the launch of the Young Scot App.

The most watched video on YouTube was ‘Meeting of East Dunbartonshire Council on Thursday 6 March 2025.’

In March 2025, the Corporate Performance and Research team continued to fulfil required duties in relation to reporting of performance and risk management at a corporate level and provision of service level data and statistical support as well as continuing to ensure the Council has adequate insurance arrangements in place, providing advice and support in relation to insurance related queries and acting as a point of escalation in regards to any claims. All business as usual work was completed within agreed timescales. 

The team also continues to undertake complaints handling at a corporate level, coordinating responses to formal complaints across all service areas, ensuring they are addressed appropriately, and adequate responses are provided within statutory timescales where possible.

March was another busy month for the Customer Services team with the garden bin permits available to purchase again prompting a high volume of calls for those seeking to purchase them ahead of the service beginning this month. Call volumes continued to be challenging, resulting in an increased average time to answer of 16 mins 55 secs. As always, response time is continually reviewed and all available resources deployed to phones in peak times.

Training and building experience continues for the new Customer Service Agents so that they can handle a wider range of telephone enquiries, which will improve capacity for call responding The team received positive feedback on the quality of service they provide from a number of customers throughout the month.

Working with Communications & Engagement colleagues, a communications plan was implemented to raise awareness of the new operating hours for Customer Service delivery through the Community Hubs in line with the Budget decisions for 2025/26. Signage in the Hubs and social media messaging were used and Agents discussed arrangement with customers visiting the Hubs enquiring about the new approach.

The Emergency Response Centre team continue with the development of the new digital community alarm call handling platform, which was introduced towards the end of 2024. The focus has included looking in depth at the various system features that will provide more effective workflows, such as Responder App, and work will continue across the team to build on this. The team continues to be support the replacement CCTV project and also supported a RIPSA audit of CCTV monitoring and approach with colleagues in Legal & Regulatory Services and Community Services.

The Human Resources & Organisational Teams lead on workforce centred activities including, policy development, resourcing, workforce and succession plannning, workforce analytics, people development, Job Evaluation, attendance and wellbeing improvement as well as providing strategic and operational employee relations support including case management and partnership working in line with Council policies. The team also delivers payroll services, effectively processing all Council payrolls according to required timescales.

In March final stages of payroll harmonisation was a key focus, moving from multiple four weekly and weekly payrolls to one monthly payroll from April 2025. A significant amount of work was carried out to conclude the final payments for each payroll and test the new monthly payroll, ensuring all salary payments were met and bounce payments to support the transition were in place.

The service is also progressing with the implementation of a new Oracle Fusion HR and payroll system to replace the current iTrent system. Significant input is required from across HR&OD teams as the information gathering and design phases for implementation progress, to ensure the new system is built to meet operational needs and deliver efficiencies.

Communications & Engagement

• Supported the Letting Review consultation including social media, graphics, press website updates and survey
• Promotion of the new pump track at Etive Park with press release, social media, video and community engagement
• Delivered communications plan for Twechar Pump Track consultation with online survey, design of posters and graphics and advice and promotion of community engagement sessions
• Promoted a series of messaging aimed at parents and carers including National Crime Agency campaigning, widening of free school meals in relation to the Scottish Child Payment, Young Scot App and Education Maintenance Allowance deadlines
• Designed a range of safety and protection posters for Mugdock Park containing essential information for visitors
• Promotion of key awareness days including Welcome to Your Vote Week 2025, Young Carers Day, Sign Language Week, Scottish Apprenticeship Week, World Social Work Day as well as promotion and the lighting of buildings for International Epilepsy Awareness Day and Brain Tumour Research.

Corporate Performance

• Preparation completed for the annual renewal of the Council’s Insurance arrangements
• Guidance for Business & Improvement plans was revised and issued for 2025-2028 BIPS to be reported to Council in June 2025
• Continued assistance was provided to the change team in relation to the rollout of Oracle Fusion
• Further discussions were held with the Education service around the implementation of the Child Friendly complaints handling process.

Customer Services

• Roll out of communications to advise of new operating hours for Customer Services across Community Hub network
• Continued support of annual purchase of Garden bin permits ahead of service beginning in March, including responding to customer enquiries across all channels
• Continued to develop experience of new Customer Relationship Management system, building experience of increased functionality and providing feedback to inform further developments
• Progress in the further development of the digital call handling platform for telecare alarm responding in the ERC.

Human Resources & Organisational Development

• Continued support for employees and managers on HR policy based and guidance noted, with support in attendance on ER case work
• Continued preparatory work for year end reporting returns
• Finally stages of preparatory work and testing for the new monthly payroll continued, and work to progress final payruns, including bounce payment arrangements
• The HCM Project Board, continued to undertake preparatory work in support of moving to the new HR/Payroll system
• HROD staff have continued to provide input to a range of ‘information gathering’ and ‘business scenarios’ workshops as part of to the HCM  (iTrent replacement) project
• As the HCM project has progressed the service has also undertaken a series of Design and Build sessions in relation to functionality and in preparation for next stages of the implementation approach
• The People Development team delivered sessions across a number of topics in March, and continued with planning for training and development needs for the new financial year
• People Development continued to support arrangements for Training Needs Analysis, promoting & planning of Retirement sessions, ongoing eLearning design & Moodle support and development of the Education Leadership Programme.

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There were two galas held during the period: a school gala and a major swim meet hosted by the local swim club. Attendances for the period have remained high with nearly 18,000 gym visits during the period. Main hall use has been extremely busy. It can be difficult to book a space in the main hall at any time during the day, mainly due to the continued popularity of Pickleball and Table Tennis. There have been more than 10,000 more attendances during this Period compared to Period 12 of 2024.
Preparation for the end of financial year has been ongoing. The programming and pricing updates for the new financial year including the requirement to contact all members regarding price changes has been a major focus.
Preparing PPM contracts for the next year is currently under way as are discussions with EDC regarding the provision of cleaners for the Adult Resource Centre.

Major capital works got underway to repair the Pool Hall guttering and Centre Frontage. Contractors are on site for a 10-week period and ongoing liaison is taking place with the companies and EDC Assets colleagues. The Centre car park is operating at reduced capacity during the works and the NHS Breast Screening Service vehicle has been temporarily moved with the car park to enable both the works to proceed and this critical health provision to operate simultaneously.
In respect to general centre activity, the Gym continues to show high rates of footfall and other areas of the centre are also doing good business. The Centre hosted an Aquathlon during the period, organised very efficiently by the Glasgow Triathlon Club and the event was well attended.

EDLC participated and supported a February campaign with the Better Points App. This was advertised to EDLC app users and resulted in over 120 new sign ups for the scheme to promote active travel in East Dunbartonshire. 
The Jack Crawford run was held at the Leisuredrome with a popular route up the canal and looped over 10kms. Over 200 participants took part with the event hosted by Springburn Harriers. 
Since the pandemic EDLC have had difficulty recruiting Leisure Assistants to fulfil lifeguard posts at the leisure centres. A new initiative was tested on Saturday 29th March when the Leisuredrome hosted a recruitment open day. For the first time in several years, we managed to attract over 45 applicants and successful applicants were invited along for a pool swim test and an interview. Six part time offers, and one full time offer have been issued following the open day. The day has been heralded a great success.

In response to customer feedback, autism-friendly quiet times were introduced at Bishopbriggs library.  The initial response has been very positive, and the service plans to roll out the initiative across all  EDLC libraries in the coming months. 

In support of the EDC Gaelic Language Plan, monthly Bi-lingual Gaelic / English BookBug sessions were introduced following a successful series of pilot sessions. 

As part of the services plans to develop programming in libraries a number of new initiatives were implemented during period 12, including the introduction of quiz nights and cyber security talks at Bishopbriggs library.  

The Children & Families team, in libraries, delivered a CPD session for EDC Education colleagues, supporting Early Years Practitioners to use, song, stories and picture books in their work. 

The annual Local History Month programme took place, delivering 27 events throughout March, 8 of which were at maximum capacity. Working in partnership with East Dunbartonshire History and Heritage Forum and coordinate by the EDLC  Local Studies Officer, Cultural Services delivered a very successful and varied programme of events which included tours, workshops, talks, exhibitions and displays. 

To complement the opening of “Pottering Around”, an exhibition showcasing over 100 pieces of clay pottery created over the 10 year history of the popular pottery classes, the Collections Officer gave a talk on the story behind Allander Ware Pottery, which was established in Milngavie in 1904.  

A new artwork, the latest in the series of public artworks in the Trails and Tails project, was installed at Bishopbriggs library.

The upgrade to Course Pro (Community Sport’s class management system) came into operation this month for the Easter holiday programme, reducing the amount of administration required and allowing customers to book and pay online directly. After evaluation of the Easter programme, this will be rolled out for appropriate term-time classes.

Both teams are currently in the process of finalising next year’s annual plans with a view to streamlining these in the future.

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The Service has made very good progress against priorities in the Business and Improvement Plan (BIP) 2024-2027.

• Under the guidance of the Chief Education Officer, Education Leadership Team has been evaluating the progress of Education Services in the reporting period from April 2024 - March 2025.  In consultation with central officers, they are in the process of writing the How Good is our Service (HGIOS) Annual Performance Report (Standards and Quality Report). This detailed evaluation will lead setting new targets within the Education Service Plan (ESP) for 2005 – 2028
• As part of the review and update of Education Services Vision, Values and Aims (VVA), a consultation has taken place with Parent Councils and the Pupil Forum.  This will complete the consultation and the new VVA will be launched in May 2025
• The following procedure manuals were approved at the March Local Negotiating Committee for Teachers (LNCT) meeting:

• • PM2/17 Industrial Action by Teachers
  • PM2/31 Professional Review and Development
  • PM03/14 - Number of pupils in Rooms
  • School Calendar 2026 - 2027

The inspection team recognised several key strengths which include the following:

• The headteacher and senior leaders work well with staff across the school, who are empowered to take leadership responsibilities. Middle leaders work well to support young people in their learning
• Teachers provide consistently well-planned learning experiences for young people. As a result, young people are highly motivated to learn and achieve, take responsibility for their own learning and attain well
• Teachers provide consistently well-planned learning experiences for young people. As a result, young people are highly motivated to learn and achieve, take responsibility for their own learning and attain well. 

• The annual Euroquiz competition took place at Douglas Academy on 18th March 2025, with 28 primary schools taking part. Baljaffray Primary won the heat and will represent East Dunbartonshire Council at the final in Edinburgh in June
• 5 primary schools received a visit from deaf illustrator Lucy Rogers. The visits were arranged in collaboration with the Scottish Book Trust and children were treated to a live reading of a book illustrated by Lucy alongside her British Sign Language interpreter who signed each story as it was read
• Hillhead Primary School held a Danceathon which was attended by families and raised £4471.80 which will go towards school funds. As an inclusive school, they included a nurture dance session by adjusting sensory aspects such as lighting and sound levels, allowing for freedom of movement, and providing a low sensory environment
• Holy Trinity Primary School have successfully achieved their Silver Sports Scotland Award
• Harestanes Primary School achieved the ‘We Promise’ Award for helping all staff to develop the understanding and skills required to improve the experiences and outcomes for Scotland’s care experienced children and young people.  They have also been awarded the UNICEF UK Silver: Rights Respecting School by the Accreditation and Standards Committee
• Wester Cleddens Primary School was accredited as a UNICEF UK Gold: Rights Respecting School by the Accreditation and Standards Committee
• Lairdsland Primary School was accredited as a UNICEF UK Silver: Rights Respecting School by the Accreditation and Standards Committee
• Thomas Muir Primary School was accredited as a UNICEF UK Silver: Rights Respecting School by the Accreditation and Standards Committee
• Pupil representatives from the EDC Pupil Forum My Voice, My Choice participated in a Q&A session with the First Minister John Swinney on 24 March 2025 at Kirkintilloch Town Hall. The event was part of the Scottish Government Travelling Cabinet with five of the eight secondary schools being represented; pupils asked questions about mobile phones in schools, the current examinations framework and University tuition fees.

Early Years, Primary, Secondary and Supporting Families

• Two Secondary Depute Head Teachers, and 4 Primary Depute Head Teachers successfully interviewed to participate in the Into Headship programme
• Probationers who had been identified as requiring a higher level of support at submission of Interim1 profiles in December have now submitted their Interim 2 profiles. Almost all had made improvements demonstrating they are now making satisfactory progress towards the GTCS Standard for Registration
• All Probationers have successfully completed a Practitioner Enquiry demonstrating their ability to self-evaluate their learning and teaching to improve outcomes for learners
• 84 practitioners have participated in the Framework for Equity in Literacy training sessions to date. This includes Head Teachers, Depute Head Teachers, Support Teachers and Literacy Champions. All participants strongly agreed that they have a sound understanding of how the framework can be used within their settings
• Over 50 education and adult learning staff attended a supporting families and family learning event. There was a keynote speaker from Edinburgh’s Moray House discussing longevity impact of family learning on future outcomes. In addition, Scottish Families affected by drugs and alcohol service discussed their service for adults and young people support networks and health discussed joint their health visitor and speech and language early intervention project. Staff across the sectors shared practice along with services and programmes linked to the Whole Family Wellbeing Fund. The event was highly evaluated by all with requests for another event next session
• Request for assistance to seek parenting support and advice continues to remain high with 65 families currently being supported though a one-to-one intervention. 22 new Request for Assistance have been received in this period. A further 7 parents completed the standard Triple P 6-week parenting group. Evaluations from parents remains positive with parents stating they feel less stressed and enjoying family life more
• Supporting families’ officers have completed their level 3 in the NVR (Non-Violent Resistance) an approach which uses relationships to support and address inclusion within communities (education and families). 15 families have been supported on a 1 to 1 basis through the NVR approach
• The first of two sessions was held by Screen Scotland and offered to 40 early years practitioners. This is currently in Phase 3 of the draft stage of Film and Screen Curriculum development. Sitting within the Expressive Arts suite, the Film and Screen Curriculum will allow pupils to explore the world around them through creative play and enhancing pupil voice. The training will empower practitioners to deliver Film and Screen opportunities in an Early Years setting, with a focus on practical ideas and hands-on, play-based learning
• Outdoor Education secured funding from the Whole family Wellbeing fund to deliver a pilot project around the St Ninian’s and Kirkintilloch High cluster schools, to support young people and families
• Bikes for School Programme funding has been secured to purchase new bikes for 3 secondaries and 3 primary schools.

Additional Support Needs (ASN) and Children’s Services

• The Pupil Forum, “My Voice, My Choice” met in Douglas Academy on Friday 7th March. Almost all school representatives attended and actively engaged with key priorities in line with the Education Service Plan. Lennoxtown Primary School representatives shared their excellent example of a Child Friendly Improvement Plan which is a key priority for the forum
• In line with the National Child Protection and Safeguarding programme, almost all Child Protection Coordinators attended training on Wednesday 26th March. A key theme is Sharing Information as part of the GIRFEC National Practice Model. Effective partnership working is evident through inputs from both Police Scotland and EDC Drugs and Alcohol Recovery Service. This aspect was followed up at the head teacher meeting
• Home Education guidance has been updated to reflect national perspective and has been shared with schools
• Primary QIO focus visits have taken place in line with the quality assurance calendar in the ELRs and Primary Wellbeing Service. Ongoing support and feedback are in place through a robust process to help ensure effective support is in place for children, young people and their families with additional support needs
• A Quality Review of Woodland View School has commenced and will actions for school improvements will be shared with the school and partners in due course
• Opportunities for staff in the ELR’s has been organised to enable visits to other Tier 2 and 3 resources. This is to facilitate effective practice and is monitored and evaluated through the ASN Principal Teacher network
• The Sensory HI team participated in a collegiate training session with West Dunbartonshire Council counterparts on 27 March 2025. The training was delivered by the British Deaf Association on Deaf Roots & Pride; the initiative provides mentoring support from Deaf role models and group activities for deaf children and young people aged between eight and twenty. In academic session 2025/26, all secondary pupils supported by the Sensory HI team will meet with positive deaf role models to support their future career and achievement aspirations
• The Sensory HI team organised a termly ‘Get Together’ event at Oxgang Primary School on 20 March 2025 for deaf pupils from across the authority. A short film was followed by arts and crafts activities promoting British Sign Language (BSL). As most pupils are the only deaf child in their respective school, this session gives them the opportunity to meet with deaf peers to foster friendships, encouraging pupils to feel positive about being deaf and promote self-advocacy.

Educational Psychology Service (EPS)

• In March 2025 cross boundary Play Pedagogy visits took place (East Dunbartonshire and North Lanarkshire), with practitioners from each LA being offered visits to Early Years and Primary establishments to learn about play pedagogy journeys and approaches. The lead QIO and EP for play pedagogy met with Outdoor Learning and Sustainability Leads from Education Scotland to plan their input to the Play Pedagogy Forum (May 2025)
• The Education Strategic Trauma Plan has been agreed for 2024-2027 and a working group has been established to plan for implementation
• The Mental Health Strategy for Education has been revised and updated and will be shared with education and multi-agency partners this academic session
• Five education and social work staff are now accredited NVR practitioners. Most of these practitioners will be trained in Level 4a and will design and complete a level 1 training course during session 2025-2026
• In March 2025 the EP leads for Nurture presented to the national network for Children & Young People’s Community Mental Health (Scottish Government), and to the DCYPP, sharing the evidence of the impact of nurture and wellbeing practice on children, young people and their families over 3 years (2021-2024). Data on the Primary Core Nurture Group children was collated and shared with the Scottish Government. Within the EY Professional Learning Community, visits to Eary Years and Primary Nurture contexts were hosted to highlight and share practice. Planning for the Early Years’ Nurture Forum is underway. The March PLC for Secondary Wellbeing practitioners focused on supporting young people with issues of bereavement and loss
• All schools and early years centres have been completing their Practice Sharing Visits for CIRCLE and Up, Up and Away. This collegiate working is allowing practitioners build on strengths and innovative practice
• The second Attendance CLPL session this academic year was held. All cluster schools in the attendance pilot have made some progress in actioning plans in relation to attendance improvement. Further coaching sessions with these schools will take place in April 2025 to further support the implementation. In March, the Attendance Guidance was presented and discussed with 2 social work colleagues to inform a planning session with the Children’s Reporter
  School Planning and Improvement
• Lenzie Academy project continues to progress. Full day consultation workshop has been held with the school management team and all departments confirming layouts and confirmation of the requirements for fixed furnishing and equipment
• Bearsden Primary project continues to be on track. The progress made to date has been coordinated well by the project team and the head teacher, working well together
• Milngavie Primary project planning continues. Work between the two decant schools and Milngavie Primary progresses with the schools planning transition days. Education Leaders met with the Torrance Parent Council and will continue to do so with all three Parent Councils where necessary
• Workforce planning continues across all sectors of Education with the focus and planning for the start of the new session in August.

Skills for Life, Learning and Work

• The latest phase of the Modern Apprenticeship programme was launched this Spring with a further 15 opportunities on offer including Early Years, Health & Social Care, Roads, Greenspace, Youthwork and a Graduate Apprenticeship in Civil Engineering. All new apprentices will start in late summer
• The Parental Employment Programme (PEP) has this year provided 13, 6 month paid training work placements and accredited training within the council mainly in early years and support for learning. It is forecast that all who want to, will be able to secure permanent/supply work. This programme supports parents on low incomes and is funded as part of the Scottish Governments No One Left Behind programme.

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The month of March saw the Finance Team preparing for the year end tasks required for the collation of 2023/24 accounts and planning for the 2024/25 year end. The closure of remaining 2024/25 financial periods is being progressed to support this process, with an accelerated timeline, alongside usual year end tasks. There are timeline risks associated with these processes, with the team operating across three financial periods. As the finance team moves into a critical period of demands on the team, an additional 1 FTE resource has been identified to temporarily supplement existing teams and to help manage the external audit process and timeline risks. Movement into Phase 2 of the ledger system with HCM is also in progress and this has been staffed with an additional 0.5 full time equivalent within the Finance team as a further temporary resource. 

The Council continues to deliver against an ambitious capital programme supported largely by borrowing. 
Treasury Management Reporting continues to highlight the increasing revenue costs associated with the current programme with ongoing affordability being challenged within a tight funding settlement. Reports to Council have provided updates on the programme, the associated costs and any mitigations required. The mid-term Treasury Management report was prepared and presented to the March Audit & Risk committee.

The team has supported the budget process, with the Council’s budget being agreed in March, providing a balanced position in a highly challenging financial context and are now working towards the manual entry within the budgeting system.

The Revenues and Benefits team have continued to progress Council Tax and Benefits services and administration of the Scottish Welfare Fund.

The Council Tax Collection Rate at 96.96% is very slightly behind the target of 97.00% for the year. The Council’s Recovery and Enforcement Procedures continue to be applied, and individuals being signposted to the exemptions and discounts available as appropriate.

The team carried out the annual billing process, sending out 49,000 bills and 20,000 benefit notifications.

The Shared Services Team continues to provide support across all Council services. The Education Team continues processing school registration applications. The Homecare Team continues to support an initiative from the Planning & Commissioning Team, processing variations in addition to their normal workload. The Transactional Finance Team are working with colleagues in the HSCP to review process for contract variations in Homecare Services. The Transport Team continue to update the transport requirements for Education and Social Work colleagues for academic year 25/26. The General Team have started preparing for the 25/26 annual letting process: updating calendars, pricing and holidays. The General Team have also been working with colleagues in Customer Service and Organisational Development to review the procedures for overtime processing as the move to monthly pay is implemented.

The ICT Services team continues to support the Council’s information technology systems and services to ensure high availability and performance in line with agreed service levels. The Team resolved 1,192 tickets in March and dealt with 398 telephone calls. ICT continues to support the migration of services to Microsoft 365 (M365) in partnership with the Business and Digital Change Team. The ICT Security team continues to monitor the estate and perimeter defences alongside ongoing improvements to ensure that our systems and data are protected.

The maximisation of housing rental income and pursuit of rent arrears continues to be a priority for the service, in order to safeguard income. This is achieved by a dedicated team of Officers, whose role is to actively pursue rent arrears and provide advice and support to tenants struggling to pay their rent. This includes issuing letters, home visits, telephone calls, emails, etc, which begin as soon as arrears are accrued on a rent account; pre tenancy advice on rent charges, payment options and discussing rent affordability to new tenants at the time of offer acceptance of their new tenancy; signposting tenants struggling financially to relevant support services to ensure household incomes are maximised; having a weekly presence at Kirkintilloch Job Centre to provide additional support for tenants in receipt of the housing element of Universal Credit; and escalating arrears actions to include court action or eviction for serious rent arrears cases. The Rents Team’s commitment to reducing active rent arrears has seen a decrease of £181,735 on the year end outcome compared to 2023/24. 

The Tenant Participation Team continues to provide direct ongoing support to active Tenants and Residents Association.

During March the Business & Digital Change Team continued to support services across the Council in the delivery of key strategic digital development projects.

The Team also continues to support our corporate business systems, ensuring incidents are resolved promptly and that all systems remain supported and upgraded in line with an agreed plan. We also ensure our systems are reliable, resilient, scalable, standardised, value for money and secure.

Work continues towards completion of the 2024/25 plan as the team provides assurance over key areas of risk, making recommendations and following up on these to improve the control environment, with work recently completed including HSCP Transport Policy and AskSara. The audits nearing completion are School Roll Forecasting. 
 
The audit plan for 2025/26 has been approved and initial planning work on the first audits has commenced. 
 
The team has responded to requests from management for consultancy work and advice where this contributes to the control environment, governance arrangements or enhances risk management.

The Corporate Fraud Team has been focusing on the investigation of referrals received and proactive vetting of applications for services such as Housing, Education, Licensing and Estates to secure the gateways by preventing fraud or error entering the systems.

Data matches for a number of reports have been received from the National Fraud Initiative (NFI), which is a data matching exercise undertaken by Audit Scotland to identify fraud and error. A total of 2,318 matches have been received. Two vacancies within the Corporate Fraud team have delayed the commencement of the sifting and investigation process. Recruitment has been undertaken and following training the successful candidates will be able to commence work on data matches in the near future. Further data matches are due to be released to the Council but to date a release date has not yet been published.

A tailored training package, for both Housing Services and Revenues & Benefits employees, is being developed and is scheduled for delivery in May. The Corporate Fraud team commenced the development of in-house anti-fraud and bribery training package but this has been paused at present. This will be progressed when resources allow.

Finance 

• The 2023/24 year end is now underway with an agreed timetable for accounts production. The timetable is a stretch target for the team, with multiple competing priorities ongoing
• The team is reviewing timelines for the 2024/25 year end
• The team is reviewing period 10 for the next Policy & Resources committee
• The Oracle Fusion General Ledger system project has now been signed off as Green status with a few legacy tickets to be completed. Phase 2 with HCM and PBCS/Fusion has now commenced and likely to last for 18 months
• Staff development is a key focus and given a challenging external recruitment market, the service is continuing to upskill existing staff where possible
• The Treasury team continues to monitor cash flow closely, ensuring that there is liquidity for all Council activities. Additional borrowing continues to be taken in line with the Council's capital programme expenditure. 

Revenues and Benefits 

• In the month of February, the team issued:
  
  • 49,000 Council Tax bills and 19,600 Benefits notifications; and,
  • 160 Non-Domestic Rates bills.
• 250 crisis grants and community care grant applications were received.
• The team received and dealt with 1,230 documents for Council Tax queries and reduction and 550 for benefits. In addition, the team received over 2,000 ATLAS notifications from DWP.
• The team dealt with 2,800 telephone enquiries.

ICT Services 

• ICT Services are working closely with the Business and Digital Change Team to implement M365
• The Infrastructure Team:
  
  • Completed the Proof of Concept for transition to Always On VPN from Direct Access. Once complete this will improve the performance of Teams and Outlook for people working from home.
  • Completed network upgrades at War Memorial Hall Ferndale, John Street, Lenzie Library and Auldkirk.
  • Completed various updates on the VMWare estate.
  • Supported the end of year processes across multiple service areas.
• ICT Security have:
  
  • Supported a major incident with a potential breach of a Cloud System.
  • Resolved 12 security incidents.
  • Continued preparation for the annual IT Health Check.
  • Maintained the Council’s perimeter defences.
  • Monitored the migration of devices onto newly configured hybrid platform.
  • Completed various remediations and investigations across the estate.

Shared Services 

• The Residential Team added 79 service agreements to CareFirst for clients moving into care homes or for supported living services within their own homes.
• The Homecare Team added 320 service agreements to CareFirst for clients receiving a homecare service or a direct payment.
• Direct Payment Audit Team – 19 audits completed, 17 standard and 2 final audits finalised for clients receiving self-direct support. 
• The EMA Team processed 12 applications for Education Maintenance Allowance. 

Housing Rent Arrears

• Active Tenant Rent Arrears were £592,430, which is a decrease of £181,735 compared to the year end outcome for 2023/24.
• Housing Officers continue to utilise all avenues to maximise rental income and reduce rent arrears, apply a firm but fair approach when escalating actions against tenants whose rent arrears are increasing, and also provide advice and assistance to tenants who engage and need additional support. 
• Weekly Tuesday morning appointments for tenants at Kirkintilloch Job Centre with Housing Officers and Work Coaches to assist those in receipt of the Universal Credit housing element.
• A Tenant Participation Working Group meeting held at Southbank House, Kirkintilloch. This was attended by tenants, tenant representatives, elected members and EDC staff.

Business & Digital Change 

• The B & DC Team have supported the move to a 3-weekly refuse collection with a particular focus on the new digital routing and planning software. A tool for residents to check their new collection dates online is in the final stages of development.
• Work is ongoing on the second and final design stage of the Oracle Fusion HCM project. The project remains on track for Go Live in Nov 25.
• A moderation meeting for the upgrade of our remaining analogue telecare alarms and Sheltered Housing complexes has been completed, with a technical winner chosen. Commercial evaluations are on-going.
• The Business Systems Team have successfully upgraded 2 systems in the period. They have also managed 16 incidents and supported 6 projects and implemented 1 new systems interface.
• Testing has continued on our new monthly payroll for all employees of EDC and the Leisure Trust with no significant issues found. The switchover is on track as planned for the first monthly payroll on 15th April 25.

Internal Audit 

• The team is working on completing the revised 2024/25 Internal Audit Plan, in line with available resources.
• Advice is continuing to be provided by Internal Audit in line with the Internal Audit Charter to support the enhancement of governance arrangements, risk management and controls.
• The internal audit plan for 2025/26 has been prepared and approved and initial work has begun on the plan.
  Corporate Fraud 
• Corporate Fraud is investigating allegations received, focusing on suspected fraud or error within Education, Housing and Revenues Services and on the remaining cases resulting from the NFI.
• The initial review of NFI data matches was delayed due to vacancies within the team. Recruitment interviews have been successful and new starts have started in April, which will allow for the sifting exercise to be undertaken.
• The team also continues to undertake vetting on applications, from a number of services, in order to prevent to fraud and any potential reputational damage.
• The team is focused on maximising its value adding activity through prioritising large value cases, which in some instances are challenging to resolve and may require an update of the policy base to support action – specifically the creation of a Communications Data Policy.

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The HSCP and its staff continue to work hard to ensure quality delivery of the Council’s operational delivery of statutory social work services, which are integrated with NHS services under the strategic governance of the Health and Social Care Partnership (HSCP) Board. Service quality and outcomes associated with these specific social work services are the main focus of this report with particular reference to three identified performance indicators in accordance with the Council’s strategic approach to business improvement planning.

The wider objective is that improved customer and organisational outcomes can be achieved through successful integrated planning and collaborative delivery of health and social care functions, under single management, with a combined budget, working to a single set of outcomes and operating to a single Strategic Plan. The impact and performance of all of these integrated health and social care services overall are reported on a quarterly and annual basis to the HSCP Board and through agreed representation and reporting arrangements, to the Council.

During March 2025, the HSCP has performed above target on all three of its identified performance indicators.

Key Achievements:

• The HSCP Strategic Plan 2025-30, setting out our strategic direction with a programme of action to deliver against our strategic priorities and enablers, and our Annual Delivery Plan for 2025/26 were finalised and approved by the Integration Joint Board.
• Promotional activity in support of:
  
  • Community Connections: Meet Your Services event in April
  • No Smoking Day
  • Whole Family Wellbeing Meet the Team event
  • Let’s Talk About Dementia event
  • World Social Work Day
  • Power of Attorney resources

Areas of Focus:

HSCP Wide:

• Improve online accessibility and signposting to information and services through further development and promotion of the HSCP website.
• Progression of Property Strategy to redesign and refresh current accommodation.
• Implement actions in the HSCP Digital Strategy.
• Further development and adoption for the Public Health Framework for East Dunbartonshire.

Children and Criminal Justice Services:

• Continue to develop as a Trauma Informed organisation.
• Prepare for the launch of Phase 2 of The Promise Plan 24/30.
• Ongoing implementation of Children’s House Project model.
• Implement Children & Young People’s Mental Health & Wellbeing action plan. 

Adult Services:

• Development of improvement plan following the outcome of Joint Inspection of Adult Support and Protection arrangements and delivery of improvement actions.
• Review of Learning Disability accommodation-based services.
• Review of commissioned services for adult mental health and alcohol and drugs services to further implement a recovery focused approach.
• Devise and deliver year 1 actions of the East Dunbartonshire Dementia Strategy Action Plan.
• Preparation for Adult Services Inspection & Completion of Adult Services Integrated Audit Self Evaluation project.
• Review the implementation of the 2024/25 actions of the Older Peoples Social Support Strategy.

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Land Planning & Development have progressed a number of significant work streams during March 2025 in line with the Business Improvement Plan commitments.

• Work on the Evidence Gathering process for Local Development Plan 3 is ongoing.  Officers are continuing to work with key agencies to secure agreement on the Evidence Report, before reporting to Council for approval to submit to the DPEA for the Gate Check process thereafter.
• Planning authorities were advised by the Scottish Government that Action Programmes associated with current Local Development Plans should be republished as a Delivery Programme to ensure compliance with the measures set out in the Planning (Scotland) Act 2019.  A new Delivery Programme to replace the current LDP2 Action Programme was published and sent to Scottish Ministers on 28 March 2025.
• Work is continuing on identifying priority projects for inclusion in the Council’s new Greenspace Strategy, which will replace the Green Network Strategy and Open Space Strategy.  Work has begun on an updated Open Space Audit which will support the development of the strategy.
• A second landowner and key stakeholder session on the initial outputs and recommendations of the Kelvin Valley research study was held on 17 March 2025 in Kirkintilloch Town Hall.
• Early engagement on a new Economic Development Strategy (EDS) for East Dunbartonshire commenced on 17 February 2025 and has been extended to 11 April 2025.  Online questionnaires seeking opinions from the public and local businesses have continued to be promoted via social media by the Corporate Communications team.  The following public drop-in sessions have been held:
  • Milngavie Community Library – 05 March 2025
  • Lennoxtown Hub – 19 March 2025
  • Kirkintilloch Leisure Centre – 26 March 2025

The engagement was also promoted at the Business Coffee Morning event on 27 March 2025 at Kirkintilloch Town Hall.

• Work on the monitoring and delivery of the Circular Economy Strategy is ongoing. 

Further progress was made on the development of the Draft Climate Action Plan (CAP) including updated actions being shared with the Council’s Senior Leadership Team in advance of a detailed presentation and engagement session that is scheduled for April 2025 on the overall approach of the CAP in particular the mission, themes, actions and objectives. Progress was also made on the Environmental Report for the Climate Action Plan with a final version being received from the consultants Ricardo.

The Spring CAP Newsletter has been issued to provide an updated on the CAP, LHEES and a range of sustainability work. 

Work continued on the implementation of the Local Heat & Energy Efficiency Strategy (LHEES) Delivery Plan including gathering relevant data for feasibility studies for heat networks and regular meetings with colleagues in assets to establish a coordinated approach between the LHEES and the Capital Assets Management Plan. An update report was presented to Community Planning Partnership Board in March 2025.

The Sustainability Team accompanied the Council’s leader to the Scottish Climate Intelligence Service (SCIS) Roadshow where they outlined the new ClimateView tool which will enable live modelling of the Council's area-wide emissions and means of sharing live area-wide CAP actions with stakeholders in future. A technical note was issued in February 2025 (TN number 030-25) to make members aware of the SCIS event. 

Conversations were held about using the shared prosperity fund to fund a Nature-Based Investment Study which would quantify the current greenhouse gas emission absorption potential of nature in East Dunbartonshire and set out options to leverage additional public and private investment to support environmental outcomes, contribute towards the Council’s net zero targets and deliver meaningful action to preserve and bolster flourishing biodiversity.

The final sessions of the Community Carbon Literacy Training Programme have been delivered. The training was delivered to a total of 179 attendees: 141 completing the accredited training, 21 completing a focussed session, 5 completing the in-depth ‘Train the Trainer’ course and 12 participated in a youth session. An update report was taken to the Community Planning Partnership Board (CPPB/003/25/RS) noting that the number of attendees exceeded the original target. A report with lessons learned on the programme is being prepared.

An update report was presented to Community Planning Partnership Board on the establishment of a Climate Action Hub in March (CPPB/003/25/RS), following distribution of a technical note (TN 005-25). While Councils are not directly involved in the management or oversight of the Climate Action Hubs, the Sustainability Team and EDVA had met with Scottish Government to explore how they could support the establishment of a Climate Action Hub and had provided content to support Twechar Community Action’s application.

Further meetings have been held in March to discuss how the 10-year investment plan for Fleet, which is based upon vehicle demand by sites and replacement dates, could support net zero targets.

The Council’s Employee Travel Survey ran from 29.01.25 to 19.02.25 and further meetings have been held with the consultants to receive a draft travel plan as soon as possible. This work will inform the development of a Travel Plan for the Council as detailed in the CAP’s Evidence and Options Report.

The Scottish Government is undertaking a consultation on the draft “Statutory Guidance for public bodies: putting the climate change duties into practice” from 24 February to 23 May 2025. A report is being prepared for PNCA in May with proposed responses and an outline the implications of proposals for the Council. 

A proposed set of responses is being drafted on the Scottish Government’s consultation on the Just Transition draft plan for transport in Scotland to be issued by technical note. The consultation will close on 19 May 2025.

The Sustainability Team provided detailed input for the City Deal Westerhill Development Road’s Environmental Assessment and Carbon Baseline Report to ensure that the quantification of estimated user and construction emissions are included and to make recommendations for corrective action required to ensure the initiative would be compatible with local, national and international sustainability legislation. The team also provided input to support sustainability in planning applications and the procurement of a new fleet of printers. 

The Team is currently working with colleagues in Business & Digital Change and ICT to prepare for a major update of our ArcGIS software which will ensure our software is up-to-date and which will introduce improved functionality.  We are experiencing issues with the dated version which we are currently running including server layers not loading. The team has completed the prerequisite and related documentation in coordination with IT and BDC team. ESRI is scheduled to start the GIS server upgrade from April 2 to April 7. 

DMS Live & Uniform Test & Train Patch 10.7.21 upgrade has been successfully completed. The team has completed the testing and it is working, no issue has been reported. The Uniform Live patch 10.7.21 upgrade is scheduled for later in April.

The Team are currently working with a number of Teams across the Council on a range of GIS projects including Customer Relationship Management and RMMS (roads management system) Integration, Preparing and Managing Survey123 surveys, Mapping support for FOI, Shapefiles data requests, updating GIS data /Online Maps, Postcodes Data Requests, CAD Map Tile, Survey123 Notifications and the preparation of the Local Heat & Energy Efficiency Strategy.  The Team also continues to support the preparation of the LDP Evidence Report.

Placement requests project: The team has completed the placement requests 2025 task. We successfully shared both batched data with distances in miles with the education team.

A new GIS Service & Error Reporting Action app has been developed on ArcGIS online platform to streamline all the request coming from GIS Service & Error Reporting form. This app help GIS team to process the request and closed the status real time. The team have also prepared a Dashboard view that provide total number of request open, closed requests and other relevant statistics. These two developments are highly significant for GIS team, as they have greatly improved the workflow and request tracking.

The Team have completed multiple IDOX requests from Teams across the Council during the month. These requests are related to updating the IDOX templates.

The Team completed multiple address register/update requests and several address queries and new ArcGIS online accounts requests from Teams across the Council.

Training to support the transition to the new IHMS system is being delivered by the IHMS Project team. Staff continue to utilise both Test and Live environments until training is complete. 

Systems Officers are assisting with day-to-day processing of direct debits and the set-up of rent accounts in both Test and Live IHMS and continue to monitor/escalate issues as they arise. 

Performance Monitoring Officers continue to complete monthly statistics and dashboards that inform the HGIOS Report and Annual Return on the Charter. In addition, a Quarterly Return is voluntarily submitted to Scotland’s Housing Network that informs an annual benchmarking analysis against other social landlords. 

Performance Monitoring Officers are completing a monthly Voids Return for Scotland’s Housing Network who are actively monitoring voids timescales nationally. 

Policy Officers are preparing to carry out public consultation on proposed changes to the Council’s Allocations Policy following committee approval. 

Procurement of a new Digital Telecare system is moving forward. The project team are ensuring the successful transition of analogue telecare to digital telecare throughout the sheltered complexes and will deliver in-person briefings to tenants at each site. 

The Housing Estates Officer is working closely with sheltered housing Wardens to ensure a robust service is provided to tenants during the Telecare switchover to the new system and to minimise disruption to tenants as equipment is removed and replaced.

The Housing Estates Officer has overseen delivery of Health and Safety training to Concierge officers and Wardens and is responsible for delivery of Toolbox talks on various topics to maintain knowledge of standards and procedures when carrying out duties in relation to their respective roles. 

Working with numerous public sector agencies to ensure all support mechanisms to help business and create jobs are fully utilised, including development of new skills & technologies. Cost of doing business continues to be a concern and resources to help and inform businesses continue to be priority with combined support materials available through the Find Business Support website. A range of support is provided via the team and the Business Gateway contract to new emerging and existing businesses. This includes provision of local business support grants to support start up and growth SMEs. 

The Digital Development Grant and the Green Business Support grants funded through UKSPF have proved very popular and been fully subscribed. The grants are being concluded as they approach the end of the financial year and the UKSPF funding. The Social Enterprise Grant, also UKSPF has now closed for applications and has been fully allocated. The team continues to develop the site enabling and regeneration grant set to go live later in 2025. 

Digital Boost will no longer be funded through Scottish Government although webinars will continue to be delivered by Business Gateway National. The team are using currently available expertise to support companies on their digital journey, as well as developing further internal expertise. For more complex projects the Digital Development Grant has been utilised

Growth and inward investment enquiries are being supported and coordinated by the team, directing them primarily to masterplan locations (Kirkintilloch Gateway, and the emerging Westerhill masterplan area). 

The team continues with a range of work to ensure the delivery of the Council’s City Deal project. The Outline Business Case (in-line with City Deal & HM Greenbook requirements) was approved at the Glasgow City Region November 2024. Work is underway on the Final Business Case stage for the two project elements – Bishopbriggs Town Centre and Westerhill Development Road. 

The Westerhill Regeneration Area (WRA) planning guidance and its associated delivery plan is now adopted under LDP2. Work is taking place to examine how different aspects of the WRA can be supported to a delivery stage, out with the current City Deal Projects. 

Work is ongoing on the Westerhill Development Road (WRA) which is currently at DMRB Stage 3. The planning application has been submitted. 

Work continues on the next stages of the design process for Bishopbriggs Town Centre. The A803 project is now out with the scope of City Deal, but work continues to look at how this can be funded and delivered through other means.

The Campsie Memorial Hall project in Lennoxtown secured funding from the Scottish Government’s Regeneration Capital Grant Fund. Planning consent is in place, and preparation underway for expected April 2025 site start.  

The programme management of the Shared Prosperity Fund is ongoing to support services and projects across the Council. A range of projects have been identified and are being progressed for implementation up to end of March 2025. Work to prepare projects for a fourth year of SPF funding has also been undertaken over this period. 

The Lennoxtown Main Street Improvement Project has concluded the development of technical designs. Progress to the construction phase will be subject to external funding, which is being examined including a pending application with Transport Scotland for Tier 2 Active Travel Infrastructure Fund funding. The application was submitted a number of months ago, and local authorities who have applied to this fund await any feedback and an outcome from Transport Scotland. 

Work is well underway on the Twechar Canalside Outdoor Pursuits Centre project, and work is ongoing in relation to the lease arrangement ahead of the centre opening later in 2025.  
•    Work is ongoing with the Milngavie BID and Kirkintilloch BID as they move through year one of a five-year term.

The construction phase of Canniesburn Toll Improvement Project is now complete. The activation of the new traffic light system took place over October and November 2024. The project is now finished and in its defects stage. Monitoring of the new signals will be carried out six months post completion with the findings being reported to Council. Detailed updates have been provided in various Technical Notes.

Feasibility and design works are progressing on a range of active travel infrastructure projects included in the Local Transport and Active Travel Strategies, including works to improve various active travel paths.  

Work is progressing well on the A807 Active travel route, and construction has is concluding for Phase 1a. The associated TROs for the project have been approved. 

The BetterPoints East Dunbartonshire App has been launched to promote active travel. The Traffic Free Schools pilot continues, and it will be reviewed and reported on to determine longer term implication of the work to enhance accessibility and sustainable modes of transport for children and school communities. 

Work is progressing on key functions of the team including: working on a range of Traffic Regulation Orders at various stages of the statutory process, liaising with the network operator and maintenance contractors of the public electric vehicle charging network and continuing to assist in resolving access issues.

Work is ongoing in partnership with the Glasgow City Region to develop a delivery option to increase regional and local Electric Vehicle charging network provision. 

During the reporting period the planning side of the team has determined 60 applications and validated 75 applications. 

The Building Standards team have received 88 building warrants and approved 90 applications.  

The Enforcement Team opened 6 new cases..

The Development Applications team have been busy preparing reports for the forthcoming Planning Board Meeting in April. 

The Team have been supporting the Councils Major Assets team with pre application technical advice in relation to the proposals for the WDR project.  

Both Planning and Building Standards teams continue to offer support and informal advice to customers through our daily duty service Monday to Friday. 

• Completion of landowner and key stakeholder session on the initial outputs and recommendations of the Kelvin Valley research study
• Completion of GIS support for Education Placing requests
• IHMS
• Allocations Policy review
• Telecare provision in a dispersed environment

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Throughout March, the Democratic Services Team continued to support the internal governance of the Council, in addition to certain regulatory functions. Officers continued to support Members with the move to paperless meetings and use of the Modern.gov App. Preparations are well advanced for the use of Modern.gov to support the maintenance and publication of Members’ Registers of Interest. In addition, work is underway to develop the system for use in the preparation, approval, and publication of Technical Notes and Contract Standing Orders waiver forms. In time, it will also be used to support public engagement and consultation, and a petitions function. The Team also updated Modern.gov and notified external organisations of the appointments made at Council on 14th February 2025.

Following the successful delivery of the Ward 7 – Kirkintilloch East & North & Twechar By-Election during February, the Team finalised the post poll paperwork. In addition, substantial progress was made in preparing the final accounts for the General Election held in July 2024.

As part of the annual Primary and Secondary Schools Registration process, the Team made arrangements for the Placing Requests Appeals scheduled to be held in June 2025. A total of ten Committees were arranged and these will be facilitated by Officers from Democratic Services. Although the final number of appeals has yet to be confirmed, the Council typically processes over one hundred appeals annually and so this represents a significant commitment from both Officers and Members.

The Team continued to support Children’s Hearings Scotland as part of the North Strathclyde Area Support Team. Ongoing support was also provided to Community Councils. With regards to the Community Council annual grants, arrangements are being made to issue paperwork to Community Councils for completion and submission to the Council. The Team continued to participate in local and national resilience partnership meetings and training exercises.

The Council continued to deliver registration services during March and when able, supported colleagues in neighbouring authorities. In addition, the service continued to engage with partners across Greater Glasgow as part of ongoing resilience planning for winter and other potential incidents, in relation to both storage and registration.

The service continued to support Members and the Strategic Leadership Team. Officers from SLT Support and Members Support participated in the Civic Committee and delivered many of the decisions of that Committee. The Information Management Team continued to provide important support and advice to the MS365 implementation team, in addition to business-as-usual support in relation to freedom of information and data protection.

• Registration & Customer Services completed 49 birth and 169 death registrations in December.  22 marriages and 1 Civil Partnership were also registered in this period.
• Continued development of the new committee administration system, which included further support for elected members and development of additional functionality.
• Information Management received & processed 122 FOI/EIRs and 17 SARs (Subject Access Requests)Legal Services

The indicators chosen for monthly reporting represent transactions where Legal Services involvement is nearer the end of the process. Each indicator relates to services which are important to individuals and Council Services, but that also have an impact on the local economy. They also represent areas where performance was not previously as good as it might have been, which resulted in the introduction of the PIs. Whilst performance is consistently high, the continued application of the PIs ensures that this remains the case. It also ensures that any change in performance is identified and addressed early.

Performance against all indicators for Legal Services for March is 100% except for a housing repair grant where one was late.

Legal Services continues to support services across the Council in the delivery of projects, contracts and otherwise to manage legal risk. This includes advice and work on confidential matters that cannot be included in a public report.

During March, the Team processed 5 contract review forms and 3 contract award letters, 4 open market purchases including one within 24 hours of receiving instructions, 19 taxi licence applications, and 2 housing repair grants. All were granted within the required timescales except for one housing repair grant. Considering this, it is not proposed to take any steps currently other than to continue to monitor progress against the set PIs.

The Team continued to provide support to the wider City Deal team with advice and support including in relation to access relevant to the Bishopbriggs Town Centre Civic Space Project and providing support in relation to options appraisals for the wider City Deal project. 

Property and planning work included supporting progression of AHIP2 project, 7 open market purchases with 3 additional offers issued, purchase of final phase of affordable housing at Thorn Road, Bearsden

Contracts and procurement work in this period included conclusion of the Bearsden Hub RAAC Removal Project, supporting financial close of the Campsie Memorial Hall refurbishment project, collateral warranties for the Bearsden Primary School refurbishment, support on data agreement between EDLC Trust and ancestry.com, contract for school fitness & gym equipment maintenance, contract for roof replacement works at George V Pavilion, contract for payroll systems specialist for HCM project, contract for collection & treatment of street cleaning residues.

Grants offers accepted included grants for Open Market Purchases 2024-25 additional funding, Transport Scotland grant offers for electric vehicle infrastructure and active travel infrastructure as well as issuing grant offers under the Whole Family Wellbeing Fund.

The Litigation Team continued to provide support to Social Work in relation to adults with incapacity and permanence planning and to Education on a variety of matters. The Team continues to provide advice on a wide range of confidential matters including employment advice.

During March, the Procurement Team continued to support services across the Council in the delivery of various projects, including ongoing support to several strategic procurements/projects, particularly in relation to City Deal, ICT, Business & Digital Change, and various Capital projects. In particular, the Team continued to be heavily involved in data cleansing, Solution redesign, Communication planning, Key User training and support, Data Reconciliation and Supplier data correction as part of the ongoing management of the new Fusion Financial system. This has placed a significant demand on the resources of the Team as it leads four of the six workstreams. In addition to the above, the Team is now planning for a major upgrade to the Fusion system and the implementation of the Supplier Portal model. The upgrade is of such magnitude that it requires to be managed as a project in its own right and will require support from other Council services.

The Team also continuously works to manage and support the operational activity in terms of the buyers work centre, Fusion catalogue management, supplier management and payment processing, and in January remained focussed on delivering against the increased demand from Services around queries in relation to Fusion, whilst managing the ongoing implementation, remodelling and updating of the System.

During March, the Team was heavily involved with multiple Capital programme requirements, system software renewals, and Housing New Build Maintenance support

The team has been co-ordinating the actions instructed by SLT in regard to additional authorisations and prioritisations around spend controls, and the contract requirements against budgets, through newly implemented governance procedures and controls.

• Providing ongoing support to the City Deal team in relation to Contract requirements and alternative procurement route options.
• Supported key Capital, Business & Digital Change projects such as Oracle Fusion upgrade, Fusion HSM Phase 2, Westerhill Development Road, school estate Professional Fees, school maintenance works whilst supporting workforce of the future planning and Business as Usual workstreams.
• Participation in extensive meetings and workshops to train, test, reconcile data transfer and solution implementation for the Oracle Fusion Redwood upgrade.
• Completed renewals for support and maintenance of business-critical systems to facilitate workforce of the future.
• Ongoing support to the /implementation of Fusion to support the technical requirements for Payment integrations, Managed Stores and e-invoicing.
• Ongoing data analysis in preparation of the 2025-2026 Annual Procurement Strategy to include alignments with organisational Climate Action Planning, Circular Economy Strategy, Community Wealth Building & the City Region Community Wish List planning.
• Processing and payment of Welfare Support Payments in line with Council support requirements.
• Issuing End of Financial Year communications regarding processing times and Fusion housekeeping actions
• Continued efforts to clear backlog of invoices, planning and communications for Oracle Fusion
• Continued Business Critical expenditure considerations within Buyers Work Centre.
• Ongoing work on the review of Contract Standing Orders for alignment with organisational changes, financial management and Procurement governance.
• Continued End of Financial year planning in alignment with the implementation of a new finance system, managing the backlog resulting from the system downtime and managing business as usual
• Continued workstreams for the Oracle Fusion upgrade to Redwood Self Service Procurement, including testing and revisiting personalisation to consider business impacts
• Continued workstreams for the implementation of the Oracle Fusion Supplier Portal, including testing and revisiting system set up prior to roll out in December
• Publication of Annual Procurement report for 2023/2024
• Review of resourcing considerations to support Project workload and business as usual priorities.

During March the Strategic Commissioning Team primary focus entailed supporting the HSCP to identify and deliver budget savings whilst continuing to provide daily oversight and support to the commissioned market.

• Successfully progressed planning and transitional arrangements for individuals assessed as requiring care within a supported accommodation setting.
• Progressed plans to support and integrate individuals with complex health needs who are currently in long stay hospital settings, into more appropriate / homely community settings.
• Facilitated a series of discussions between the HSCP and a local provider regarding financial sustainability and future commissioning and contracting arrangements.
• Successfully implemented 24/25 budget savings across commissioned services whilst continuing to progress identified savings for 25/26.
• Contributed to and supported the progression of several HSCP strategic and service reviews and provided added value by providing project management and budget management advice and expertise .
• Continued to prepare for the reporting requirements related to the Safe Staffing Act which comes into effect in April 2025 – albeit reporting to the Scottish Government is not due until June 2025.
• Reviewed & updated financial frameworks underpinning strategic reviews to ensure accuracy, alignment with the HSCP’s medium term financial plan and respective commissioning delivery plans.
• Continued discussions with providers with a view to bottoming out actual service costs, implementing spend control measures and mitigating and/or reducing projected deficits.  

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The Roads and Neighbourhood Service continues to oversee the maintenance function and safe operation of the adopted public carriageway/footway network, adopted open spaces (including trees), cemeteries, domestic, commercial waste & recycling collection, fleet, and transportation within East Dunbartonshire. In addition, the Service also oversees the management and operations of Mugdock Country Park.

This Service area is divided into eight portfolio groupings:

1. Roads Network Operations
2. Roads Technical & Engineering 
3. Streetscene Technical Support (including Bereavement and Arboriculture)
4. Streetscene Operations (including grounds maintenance, street cleansing and cemetery operations)
5. Waste Services (including domestic & commercial waste & recycling collections)
6. Fleet Services (including fleet operations, maintenance, and transportation)
7. Mugdock Country Park
8. Corporate Health & Safety Team 

Each team has specific areas of responsibility; however, they all operate, and function collectively as required. Within their own areas, each team has several service accountabilities contributing to local outcomes.

The various sections within the portfolio groups continue to progress both revenue operation/maintenance work and internally and externally funded capital projects with colleagues in Procurement, Finance and Health & Safety. Several projects are time specific due to the external funding conditions to it is very important to make best use of the time available to bring these projects to fruition for the benefit of local communities.

The team continue to deliver both planned and reactive maintenance to both carriageways, footways, and street lighting assets. The Service continues to work towards full resource capacity with some vacancies for operational posts. 

The 2024/25 capital programmes for carriageway, footway resurfacing and lighting projects is now completed with a final (fourth quarter) Technical Note issued in April Technical Notes 2025, Issue 64 - Roads & Neighbourhood Services 2024/25 Carriageway and Footway Resurfacing Programme – Quarter 4 Progress and Yearend Update - East Dunbartonshire Council confirming the works completed and work re-sequenced due to external factors. In summary, the Service 2024/25 aspiration was to complete the 63 carriageway and 25 footway locations. The actual number of carriageways completed was 62 (98%) and the footways completed was 17 (68%). Albeit some of the original locations were substitute during the year

The Roads Network Team Leader and Senior Roads Technician continue to oversee the cyclical Safety Inspections and responses to ad-hoc enquiries. 

The Streetlighting Team also completed their Capital Programme.

The Roads Network Operations Team were heavily involved in the work during and following Storm Éowyn ensuring roads were cleared of flooding and storm damaged trees. 

The Roads Network Operations Team will complete the Roads Winter Maintenance Period in mid-April for both carriageway and footway winter maintenance. 

The Roads Development, Structures, Traffic, Flood Risk and Drainage Teams continue to work on and contribute to multiple projects including Road Coring, Flood Defence Maintenance, Bridge Inspection/Replacement and Signalisation/TRO Projects across various area. 

The Team also continue to work with Legal colleague to oversee the TRO process associated with the potential implementation of 20mph speed limits across various geographical areas starting with Bearsden and Twechar.

The Team is also coordinating with external contractors to delivery multiple traffic surveys with the information used to determine the next steps for various proposals. This information is used as evidence to either support the need for action or validate the decision not to take forward a proposal if it is not supported by evidence. 

The Traffic Officer also liaise with Police Scotland colleagues to monitor any road related incidents.

The three geographical based teams have completed the winter grounds maintenance tasks with a view to commencing spring and summer grounds maintenance tasks. The teams are also undertaking street cleansing of all adopted council roads and pavements including litter collection, leaf clearance, mechanical sweeping, and servicing of street litter bins. 

The team also continue to manage the Councils tree stock. The team manages burials in the eight operational cemeteries. 

The Streetscene Operations Team were heavily involved in the work during and following Storm Éowyn ensuring roads and open spaces were cleared of flooding and storm damaged trees. It should be noted the some of this work is ongoing.

The team continue to work with community groups regarding Environmental Improvement Projects including path improvement, play area renovations, amenity planting, cemetery, and allotment development. 

The team continues to analyse the results of the first Ash Dieback Surveys which will inform the actions that need to be prioritised to address this important issue. Ash Dieback Information will be communicated over the coming months as this is an issue that will become more prominent, and it is important to update elected members and communities on potential tree work resulting from the completed surveys.

The team are also currently overseeing the delivery of the remaining landscaping works to finish the  Climate Ready Park Project in Etive Park, Bishopbriggs.

The team is also progressing several Play Area improvement and replacement projects throughout East Dunbartonshire and about to commence the 2025/26 play area redevelopment works. 

The Streetscene Operations Team were heavily involved in the work during and following Storm Éowyn ensuring roads and open spaces were cleared of flooding and storm damaged trees. It should be noted the some of this work is ongoing.

The team have completed the winter maintenance period. The monthly visitor number continue to exceed expectation, and the team area focused on enhancing the visitor experience to the country park with various improvements planned to key attractions in line with the Mugdock Country Park Strategy. 

The Mugdock Country Park Team were heavily involved in the work during and following Storm Éowyn ensuring the Park was open for business shortly after the storm. It should be noted the some of this work is ongoing.

The Waste Team has continued the frontline service operations for the collection of over 400,000 assorted household bins, providing residual, recycling, food, garden and special waste collections on behalf of the Authority. The team has also managed the waste and recycling collections from over 400 of our local commercial premises and provides recycling disposal provision at the Mavis Valley Recycling Centre.

The Waste service have continued to work with our Clyde Valley partners through the period on the treatment and disposal contract for all residual household waste. The Council processed 1676 tonnes of waste through this contract in March, ensuring our waste undergoes treatment for recycling extraction prior to being sent through an Energy from Waste process.

The Fleet team continue to manage the transport operations including the Councils Goods Vehicle Operator Licence and compliance across all services. This includes provision and management of the maintenance workshops, annual testing, statutory inspections, and management of Drivers in line with obligations and conditions laid out in the Councils commitment to the Scottish Traffic Commissioner. 

Fleet Management has worked in partnership with services and officers from procurement in order to specify, tender and procure further vehicles and associated items of specialist plant, suitable for service users’ needs and to coincide with contracts terminating through the financial year. Tenders are currently out for the replacement of specialist vehicles, plant & equipment for Greenspace and Streetscene, Waste Management and other front-line services. 

Replacement vehicles continue to filter through from suppliers for Roads and Environment, Property Maintenance and Social Services. The team at Fleet Management continue working to transfer systems and equipment and arrange the de-fleeting and disposal of the outgoing vehicles. 

The fleet service continues to support and manage Transport Operations for the provision of Additional Support Needs Transport service for Education and Integrated Health and Social Care, including delivery of school meals on behalf of the authority. This service has provided additional support for other services throughout the period.

The Corporate Health and Safety team provides a range of occupational safety and health services, including advice on statutory guidance, safety action notices, safe working and training, incident reporting and investigation, including RIDDOR. The H&S Team continues to work cooperatively with Trade Union colleagues to review incidents statistics and other health and safety activities.

Ongoing and comprehensive health and safety assistance is provided to services throughout the council, HSCP and EDLC, conducting multiple site visits to offer expert guidance, address emerging issues, and assist with the completion of risk assessments. During this period, the team have been working closely with Fleet for health and safety documents review, corporate risk team, Mugdock country park, Strategic Commissioning team - Legal & Regulatory Services, Outdoors Education, for risk assessment and incident review, School Improvement Team for minor projects, with Housing, reviewing safe systems of work and risk assessments and HSCP, on first aid training review and fire safety plans for some HSCP sites.

Various teams received assistance through workplace, manual handling and individual risk assessments in collaboration with HR colleagues, specifically for Education staff as well as continuing to review First Aids needs assessments with HR People Development. 

Occupational health has been organised for secondary school technicians and teachers with audio respiratory and skin clinics for the upcoming in service day and Hep B vaccines. Display Screen Equipment assessments are continually reviewed alongside line managers and where required workplace assessments are also conducted.

H&S training in January focused on fire safety and fire extinguisher training as well as Duty Holder and UFAS. The H&S Manager conducted training for Housing Concierge service and Wardens’ service and Manual Handling for Education Early Years. Safety alerts were issued this month and Toolbox talks were created to support safe operations as a safety targeted approach. 

The focus continues for Construction Design and Management compliance with site visits, reviewing construction phase plans, risk assessments and method statements for refurbishment, roofing, general Estate repairs and new build and greenspace projects for various teams. For D&I teams, Twechar outdoor pursuits, Bearsden PS, Milngavie PS, Campsie Memorial Hall, Westerhill Rd, the Leisuredrome boiler upgrade, Marina refurbishment and KHCC works, various Housing roof works, Greenspace and Mugdock Park with works at the barbeque and visitor café area and sewer tank replacement.

To support Estates team in their CDM works, reviews were undertaken for repair works in educational establishments and other corporate buildings.

Fire Risk Assessments are conducted in accordance with the predetermined schedule. Officers undertake routine inspections and continue to carry out site visits to address any fire safety concerns and offer expert advice. In January there was a focus on Housing operational sites and their fire safety arrangements and fire audits for 3rd party care providers for the Strategic Commissioning team.

The team continue to promote reporting of health and safety incidents throughout the council and programme health and safety inspections of council workplaces. 

Carriageway and Footway surface defects and service level agreements (SLA):

Between 01/03/2025 and 31/03/2025, we have identified 278 defects in East Dunbartonshire Council carriageways and footways. We have completed 238 repairs on time (approx. 85.6 %), 10 repair late (approx. 3.6 %) and 30 repair (approx. 10.8 %) are in list for action and are still within SLA (incomplete).

Below chart compares our last three months performance:

Between 01/03/2025 and 31/03/2025, East Dunbartonshire Council completed 18 scheduled safety inspections. Three of these inspections are related to Footway inspections and 15 of them related to carriageway inspections. All inspections were completed and comply with East Dunbartonshire Council tolerance between inspections dates. Details of these inspections are as below:

Details of these inspections are as below:

East Dunbartonshire Council winter maintenance team completed 61 actions between 01/03/2025 and 31/03/2025 and approx. 252.9 tonne salt/ grit were used during this time. Please see below summary report of winter maintenance actions between 01/03/2025 and 31/03/2025.

Structures

• 2024/25 General Inspections programme complete.
• 2024/25 Principal Inspections programme near completion, with two structures requiring a CCTV revisit with traffic management.
• Review & response to abnormal load requests.
• Assisting other departments in the assessment of non-council assets.
• FB70 Redhills Footbridge, Lennoxtown. Footbridge relocation and scour protection works complete.
• Procurement process underway for FY25-27 structures framework contract.

Development

• Site visits to monitor progress on developments currently under construction.
• Site meetings to inspect developments and identify remedial works prior to adoption by EDC.
• Assist planning with development applications, distribute to officers for their comments on potential future developments.
• Process road adoption enquiries from internal and external departments.
• Process road opening permits and temporary traffic management permits.
• Remedial works now being carried out at Drumgrew Roundabout by Network Rail.
• Coordination of future works relating to development sites. 
• Roadworks continue to monitor all incoming works on Roads Register. Q4 Inspections agreed and sent for invoicing.
• 2025-26 SRWR Inspections sent to confirm with Utilities. Attended Local RAUCs meeting in March 2025.
• Street lighting programme added to Roads Register for 2025/26
• Temporary Traffic Light invoices processed and invoiced on completed works: continuing.
• Fixed Penalty notices issued for March 2025.

Traffic

• 20mph for Bearsden/Twechar public consultation completed and committee reports being prepared.
• School safety markings completed for 6 locations in Bearsden
• Queens Court Ramp project: Factor asked to pause because some residents submitted their objection to the installation
• Responding to Lining Requests and refreshing faded road markings.
• Commenting on various licences i.e. street trader licences, public entertainment licences and occasional licences.
• Commenting on planning applications.
• Responding to Lining Requests and refreshing faded road markings and street signs throughout Bearsden
• Disabled Bays TRO public consultation underway.

Flooding and Drainage

• River Glazert Restoration Project, Lennoxtown – Planning Application submitted awaiting decision. 
• Kelvin Tributaries River Restoration & NFM Project – Consultants are progressing with works and Green Action Trust are Project Managing on behalf of EDC. Ongoing.
• Completed Capital works on Catter Gardens – Milngavie
• Completed survey investigation works at Bishopbriggs Town centre for City Deal Team
• Started capital works for Mains Estate – Milngavie
• Road space booked for major capital jobs that will use GCC framework

Streetscene Operations

• Preparations underway for the commencement of the Summer cyclical works and completion of winter works.
• Street cleansing and mechanical sweeping; removal of fly posting and uplifting of fly tipping, mechanical street sweeping and installing replacement or additional bins.
• Countryside verge litter pick programme carried out 
• Graffiti removal.
• Ongoing cemetery operations, digging and carrying out interments, installing headstone foundations, benches etc
• Winter cyclical works ending; pruning of shrub beds and tree works. Winter gritting.
• Checking and clearance of culverts
• Play park inspection 
• Education and Leisure Trust pitch maintenance, athletic and football initial lining for schools.
• Replacement of damaged bins.
• Responding to Customer Service Requests and complaints.
• Removal of dead animals and excess waste at recycling centres.
• Seasonal recruitment for Care of Gardens service.
• Removal of dead animals and excess waste at recycling centres.

Streetscene Technical Support

• Bishopbriggs Park – brief complete and with procurement – now out for framework agreement
• Play Areas – Westerton – brief complete with procurement  - now out to framework agreement
• Play Areas – Kincaid (MOC)  - brief complete and with procurement  - now out to framework agreement
• Play Areas – annual external safety inspection complete – repairs ongoing
• Cemetery Management Rules – internal review ongoing noting recent wider Scottish Govt consultation – Scottish Govt regs now being finalised and implemented
• Headstones/Memorials Inspection  – inspections ongoing at Old Aisle Cemetery – ‘make safe’ arrangements where required will commence shortly 
• Cadder Cemetery Extension – works ongoing with consultant – initial design being reviewed with Pre Application to Planning now submitted
• Ash Dieback Survey on Roadside – updated survey received – a small number of trees require urgent works – ownership is a mixture of public and private – contact with private owners now made – EDC trees addressed. Further analysis of other trees and works ongoing with a number of notices now sent to private owners to progress
• Schools Estate – tree survey findings now being analysed – orders have raised for any priority works over the next 3 months
• Tree Planting – number of tree planting initiatives across the district undertaken  - Street Trees, Etive Park, Heather Avenue etc
• Sorm Eowyn – significant damage as a consequence of the recent storm with hundreds of trees impacted – all emergency works complete however clear up will continues across the district for a number of months
• Climate Ready Park – Allotment works complete - allotments now allocated and opened , pump track complete, remaining bund works and reinstatement programmed has commenced April/May 2025
• Community Growing Facilities – progressing improvement works via Shared Prosperity Fund – range of works completed at Jedworth Court, Sense Scotland, Twechar TCA and Kilmardinny Community Garden  
• Nature Restoration Fund – number of projects ongoing via this Scottish Govt fund –  remaining programme from 23/24 now complete – Technical Note issued
• Lenzie Moss – environmental works undertaken across the moss – this to support fossorial water voles
• Community Consultations re Management Plans – Lenzie Moss, Whitefield Pond, Cairnhill Woods and Heather Avenue – drafts complete – further consultation to take place to finalise draft plans
• Clyde Valley Green Network – liaison re EDC Wetland Strategy.
• Merkland – Scottish Water undertaking infrastructure works to site – now complete  - reinstatement ongoing
• Glazert Project – team input into overall project re trees and biodiversity aspects
• The team continues to respond to high volume of open space, tree and bereavement enquires, along with planning application consultations and complaints. 
• Team working with City Deal Team and Consultants in relation to Masterplan of Bishopbriggs Relief Road
• Planning application responses and support to Planning Team ongoing 
• Open Space audit work for input into the Grounds Maintenance System ongoing for Milngavie & Bearsden.
• Assisted a number of Community Groups with Litter Picking resources across EDC

Work carried out at the Park over March 2025:

Events

• The March 2025 market was cancelled due to high winds. 

Ranger sessions for this month were:

• Stargazing x 2
• Wildlife Weans x 2
• Forest School x 5
• Forest families x 5
• Books, Bones & Beasties x 2
• Afternoon Ambles for adults x 1

School Sessions

• There were 14 Forest School sessions between Westerton Primary, Twechar Primary, Mosshead Primary and Balfron High School. 
• There were also 2 educational sessions for Milngavie Primary at our Gunsites.
• Income for Events was £1,431, income from schools was £600. 

Warden tasks 

March warden tasks have focused on addressing areas that have been impacted due to projects, weather and events. Activities include: 

• Set up for market, moving of tables, setting timer switches etc
• Potholes in main car park
• Clearing around big tree and flattening ground for grass cutting
• Fix adventure play area with bark
• Chainsaw of rhodies for herbiciding
• Completing the Inventory for the stock check. 
• Rake and clear around bumble bee garden
• Assist with removal of wood from pond demolition, trailer use and emptying
• Taking vehicles to and from Hilton for servicing and repairs. 
• Tree report work, ongoing clearing up after storm
• Setting up and cleaning of BBQ hut and rooms for all bookings
• Weekly courtyard deep clean, bin housings, tables etc
• Daily tasks of emptying bins, dog bins, cleaning toilets
• Litter picking
• Playpark, toadstool trail, car park checks
• Edging with blower and brushes
  Ranger land management tasks include: 
• Habitat creation work using storm damage trees. 
• Birch cutting and herbiciding. 
• Clearing of cut rhododendrons, drilling and herbiciding of rhododendrons on main avenue. 
• Trimming of wildlife hedges to promote new growth. 
• Removal of old delapidatres fence in quarry. 
• Clearing and herbiciding of birch on Moot hill. 
• Student volunteer supervision. 

Visitor Centre 

Stock orders were reduced due to the end of year stocktake. The total Retail takings for March 2025 were £1,659. The largest sellers were Homeware, Toys and Clothing. 6 New suppliers were added on the procurement system soured from the Winter trade fair. New trails have been devised for Easter. 

Team members attended Access and Inclusion training with ASVA. 

Marketing

• Events programme for March to June is being advertised through our socials and has been designed by corporate Comms and disseminated to schools. 
• Paid for advert has been launched for Easter Eggsplore Mugdock Campaign. 
• Eggsplore banners have been produced and are now displayed. 
• Engagement focused on International Forest day and World Wildlife Day using footage from our camera traps of Pinemartins, historic images of the evolution of Craigend Walled Garden and the Craigend Courtyard. 

Projects

• BBQ shelter – Both structures are nearly complete with just the roof felting and guttering to be addressed, along with site clean up and landscaping. 
• Waste Water Project is in final snagging phase. 
• Funding secured from SPF for two Walled garden Project initiatives. 

Team attended Almond Valley Heritage Centre and Rouken Glen Play Park as a pre-Play Area Project awareness session of what other places have been undertaking

• The Clyde Valley Residual Waste contract accepted 1676 tonnes of household general waste throughput in January from our households, for recycling pre-sort, and then ongoing production of energy from waste. This was a reduction of 4.4% compared to February last year.
• The Project Team for the delivery of the 3 weekly residual collection continue to meet weekly as we work towards the service implementation on Sunday 30th March 2025.
• There was two new Waste Advisors recruited to support the implementation of the new service frequency through being available to respond quickly to residential enquiries.
• Waste Advisors have been out working with frontline refuse crews, tagging bins to remind residents of the change to the residual collection frequency and to direct them to the website FAQs.
• The team have been working closely with the Corporate Communications team to ensure that all relevant information is released to the public ahead of the service changes.
• The Waste Technical team attended the Zero Waste Scotland Communications Workshops, this was attended by representatives across all 32 authorities to consider best practice.
• We have worked closely with our colleagues in Business Change on implementation of Citizen Hub, ensuring it met the needs of the Waste Services activities for our frontline customers.
• We launched the Garden Waste Permits early February for the 2025 Season. There were 6259 permits sold in February.
• Gas and leachate monitoring carried out at Broomhill Depot.
• Contributed to National Modelling Exercise for Zero Waste Scotland.
• 15.22 Tonnes of Christmas Trees were collected for recycling as part of the one-off collections.
• There was a 17.5% decrease in the amount of general waste disposed at Mavis Valley HWRC compared to February last year (Feb 24 - 528T, Feb 25 - 435T)
• 3 Waste Operatives successfully passed training for the JCB, attending for a full week. This will be a significant support at our Mavis Valley Recycling Centre.

• During the period 1/02/25 to 28/02/25 there were a variety of vehicles/plant inspected/repaired in line with the servicing schedule and defect procedure.
• We currently have a variety of vehicles/plant on order to replace an aging fleet in line with the vehicle replacement programme.     
• Support Council services in the delivery of ASN Transport including the distribution of essential supplies for vulnerable individuals throughout the period including meals for early year’s facilities and lunch clubs etc.     
• Continued work on the management of Capital programme for the replacement of fleet assets through the financial year.        
• Continued work on the CPC training programme, to ensure all drivers that require CPC training achieve this before the deadline to remain compliant.
• Continued support to front line service operations through the provision of in-house fleet maintenance function including work on horticultural and construction plant equipment. 
• Management of Fleet Operations in compliance with Operator Licencing legislation with a DVSA Operator Compliance Risk Score of Green for both Traffic and Compliance 
• The team carried out a variety of gate checks, any issues that were identified were reported to the relevant management team.
• Monthly audits have been implemented to ensure MOT station compliance.
• We continue to monitor external hires.
• The team worked extremely hard during this period to ensure the frontline services had enough vehicles/plant during the period to carry out their duties.
• Work is ongoing to upgrade the fleet management system.