How Good is Our Service - February 2026

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Voids performance in February is at 79%, which is down from 84% in January and is below our target of 85%.  We continue to assess and enhance operational processes with a view to improving and maintaining performance in this area moving forward.The service is expecting significant improvement in turnaround times moving into the next financial year with performance being maintained thereafter.

Property Maintenance have achieved our target of 100% for Gas Servicing in February with 343 properties serviced in the month. We continue to achieve our target each month, and we are confident this will continue for the remainder of 2025/26 and into next year

Non-Emergency repairs performance in February exceeds our target of 12 days with an average turnaround of 11.17 days for the month, which is down slightly from 11.14 days in January.  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. 

Work had started in preparation for the new menu change in 2026 which reflected the feedback we had received from pupils and schools this year. However, given recent discussions with Food for Life, an application for reaccreditation is being pursued based on the menu meeting their criteria. As a result, the current menu will run until the end of this school term.

The uptake in school meals within the Secondary schools was slightly lower than last month, reducing to 54% from 59%.  The reduction in uptake correlates with higher than normal absence rates within the Secondary Schools. The Primary School uptake in school meals for February fell to 62% from 73%. Again, the uptake is a direct consequence to the seasonal absence rates we have seen this month.The service continues to focus on schools not achieving the set target with action plans implemented to improve the uptake in lower performing schools.The service continues to work with suppliers to source locally produced produce, with 54% of the school menus now using locally sourced produce.

Ten of the first fifteen new mechanised crossing points have now been installed with school crossing patrollers previously located at four of the 10 locations now relocated to alternative locations. The recruitment exercise for additional school crossing patrollers is ongoing with a view to staffing all vacant crossing points which are not currently or due to be mechanised. Posters have been installed in libraries, Community Centres and Leisure centres to assist with exposure, with adverts due to be included in the local papers over the month of March.The Roads service have confirmed all 15 crossing points will be completed by Easter 2026.

Following the 20% reduction in cleaning across the Council’s Corporate estate, a new cleaning model has now been agreed and is currently being implemented. The service is progressing the recruitment of 900+ weekly cleaning hours across the East, West and Central locations. Over 500 hours have now been filled with further interviews scheduled for March following a very successful recruitment open day at Auchinairn Community Education Centre.
The service has robust measures in place to monitor performance with regards gas safety compliance across the Operational Estate. EICR’s are being progressed across all educational properties over the coming months, with Hillhead PS and Bearsden HUB completed this month.

Officers continue to progress reactive repairs across the operational estate, although currently focusing on H&S related repairs and ensuring assets remain wind and watertight. The biomass flue has been replaced at Castlehill PS following the damage during the storms last year.  

Estates Management continue to market vacant premises within the non-operational estate. At present the non-operational estate is over 94% occupied, with vacant suites in Southbank Marina being actively marketed by agents, DM Hall.The closing date for offers for of Lenzie Public Hall was Friday 30 January 2026. Two applications for Community Asset Transfers were received and are now being progressed in line with the Council’s Policy.
 
Officers continue to progress disposals with colleagues in Legal Services to ensure that capital receipts are delivered and ongoing liabilities i.e. non-domestic rates, utilities, security etc are reduced. 

The Service continues to progress a wide range of capital projects both in pre-construction and construction phases.  

The Final Business Case for the Westerhill Development Road project was approved by the City Region in February 2026 and final preparations are now underway to enter into the construction delivery agreement in March 2026 ahead of the contractor’s mobilisation and works commencing in May 2026.

Works have now reached completion at Bearsden Community Hub to remove and replace RAAC from the roof on the extension at the rear of the building with preparations now on-going of the re-opening of the building to the public in March 2026.

The refurbishment of Milngavie Primary School (completion July 2026) continues to progress well, with the roofs now replaced in full and the tented scaffold due for removal in March. The construction of a replacement Balmuildy Primary School also continues to make good progress, with superstructure works now well progressed.  The refurbishment of Torrance Community Centre is also reaching its final stages and continues to have a revised completion date of April 2026.  

Council approved the Stage 1 report for the Lenzie Academy project in December 2025. The project planning application was submitted in February 2026 and has now been validated. A separate planning application for proposals at the existing school site at Myrtle Avenue, Lenzie is now in preparation. A pre-application consultation event was held at the end of February and another will follow at end March ahead of the submission of the planning application in April.  

The Stage 1 report for the Milngavie Early Years project was also approved by Council in December 2025 and the project planning application has now been submitted, with a determination expected in June 2026. The project Stage 2 report will also be submitted to Council for approval in June 2026.

Feasibility design continues to progress in support of the Accommodation Strategy and for proposals to introduce all-weather sports provision and upgraded changing pavilions at Oakburn Park, Milngavie.  

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 revised Learning Estate and Corporate Property Asset Management Plans, due for approval by Council in March 2026, include proposals for the decarbonisation of the Council’s learning and corporate estates.

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. The tender has now been issued for the next round of the Council’s energy efficiency improvements to its housing stock with works expected to start in mid-2026 and the next phase of the Mixed Tenure roofing programme is now underway.
The pre-construction phase of the next stage of the Council’s new-build affordable housing programme continues to progress. Planning submissions have been made for sites at Main Street in Torrance and the site of the former Auchinairn Primary School.  The demolition of the former Auchinairn Primary School remains underway and due for completion in March 2026; the demolition of the remaining flats at Nithsdale Crescent, Bearsden is currently at tender stage with a contractor expected to be appointed in April 2026 before demolition commences in May 2026.  

At Twechar Canalside, the construction of 15no. affordable Passivhaus houses continues to make good progress and continues to be on schedule for completion in September 2026.

• 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 contracts

• Positive level of performance in non-emergency repairs turnaround times with our focus being on maintaining and improving further in this area moving forward

• Continue to focus on enhancing voids operational processes with the objective being to increase and maintain performance in this are going forward

• Improved functionality of Total Mobile and the integration with Servitor enables a more streamlined and efficient service

• 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 March and April

• 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 February 2026, 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.

Throughout the reporting period, Environmental Health played a key role in delivering essential public health services, fulfilling a wide range of statutory responsibilities aimed to protect the community from environmental risks, and to support the development of responsible business.  The work encompassed both proactive work such as routine inspections for food safety and reactive responses to environmental public health complaints and service requests. February saw officers involved in number enforcement actions particularly in relation to food safety, as noted below.

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, neighbour disputes, environmental incivilities, dog control, decriminalised parking enforcement, fly-tipping, pest control, and mobile CCTV. The team continued to deliver enforcement work in relation to the new Transport (Scotland) Act 2019 parking prohibitions relating to pavement, double and dropped kerb parking recently introduced across the Council area. Parking enforcement activity to support the traffic free schools’ pilot and all other school areas was also prevalent during the month. 
 
The Trading Standards and Licensing Enforcement team were 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. During February, Trading Standards continued delivering project work on the testing and compliance of medical weighing devices in addition to highlighting scams. Licensing Advisors were engaged in visiting on-sale premises providing business support and enforcement in relation to unlicenced premises. Licensing Standards Advisors coordinated a LS/TS/EH response to the Licensing Board’s consultation on proposed extended hours for FIFA World Cup 2026. Trading Standards Officers and Police Scotland continue to liaise to build intelligence around the supply of illicit tobacco and Officers have secured funded training for March 2026.

Our community vaccination programme continues to support residents’ health, with two weekly clinics at Kirkintilloch and Milngavie Town Halls in partnership with Greater Glasgow & Clyde NHS Board.

Supporting families remains central to our work.The resettlement team provides tailored support to families arriving through humanitarian programmes. We provide on-going support to Ukraine Displaced People arriving in our communities. We continue to engage with asylum seekers in East Dunbartonshire through targeted connecting community conversations, with more community events planned to build connections and promote integration.

Community development work remains inclusive and proactive. Further Health Issues in the Community courses are planned, and the growing wellness kitchen programme is helping people connect, build skills, and improve confidence and resilience.

The second round of the Community Grant Scheme has closed. Recommendations will be presented to the Community Planning Partnership Board on 26 March.

Work continues with the CLD Workforce Development Group to support staff development and practitioner learning, and collaboration with West Alliance to offer a range of CPD opportunities as part of the West Alliance Learning Festival.

Progress is being made to embed Equality Outcomes through the development of the Equality Action Planning Forum, supported by targeted training.

We continue to promote the Community Asset Transfer Policy alongside Asset Management and Legal Services.

A programme of events was delivered to mark International Women’s Day in partnership with local communities, with insights to be shared with the Violence Against Women and Girls Partnership.

Housing manages 3,897 social rented properties; 3,813 of these are mainstream accommodation and 84 are used for Homeless Temporary Accommodation. The service also manages 49 Lead Tenancies which are rented from either private landlords (28) or Housing Associations (21), to assist with accommodating homeless households.

At present, the Housing list for East Dunbartonshire has 3,478 applications - made up of the following:

General Waiting list    
2,558 applicants waiting (Two of which are 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    
596 applicants (Nine of which are 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 (Homeless)   
264 applicants (15 of which are on offer) 
(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 (Urgent medical)
Two applicants (0 of which are on offer)
(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, 10 properties were allocated, nine of which were general needs mainstream and one was sheltered.

They were let to the following queues:

• Four to the priority homeless queue
• Three to the transfer queue
• Two to the general waiting list queue

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
• Enforcement action had to be taken against a local food shop in Kirkintilloch due to structural issues within the premises, requiring them to stop a processing activity until remedial action was undertaken
• Officers also had to act on a sushi restaurant due to their lack of food safety procedures, requiring them to close until remedial action was taken
• A café in Milngavie was served with an enforcement notice due to unsafe food hygiene practices
• A Bearsden takeaway was served notice to close until several food safety contraventions had been rectified
• Officers served several abatement notices under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 at a tenemental property in Eastside, Kirkintilloch for structural disrepair causing dampness in properties
• Officers were working out of hours on late night visits in the month of February to investigate ongoing noise and light complaints
• EHO’s contacted approximately 70 food businesses in response to a food alert for action issued by Food Standards Scotland regarding meat supplied by a Glasgow-based food business which required to be withdrawn from the market as it did not meet food safety requirements
• Delivery of parking enforcement activity to support the traffic free schools’ pilot and all other school areas
• Delivery of decriminalised parking enforcement activity in relation to recently introduced parking restrictions across the authority relating to pavement, double and dropped kerb parking
• On-going Community Warden activity under the MCR Pathways national programme, with 4 officers now actively mentoring local school children
• Delivery of targeted dog fouling patrols and initiatives across a range of parks, open spaces and other known issue areas within East Dunbartonshire
• Continued programme of Junior Wardens presentation at various primary schools across the council area
• Report submitted to the Crown Office & Procurator Fiscal Service in relation to non-payment of a fixed penalty notice issued for a fly-tipping offence
• 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
• Joint Licensing Enforcement, Trading Standards and Environmental Health consultation response re: extended hours for FIFA World Cup 2026
• Conclusion of investigation of multiple counterfeit items and destruction to be arranged in conjunction with relevant comms
• Submission of logs to the National Intelligence Database for Trading Standards with contribution to the wider national and cross authority picture.

Community Planning and Partnerships Team

• A programme of wellness kitchen sessions for families and young tenants is building skills, confidence, and social connections. Opportunities to expand this work with third sector partners are being explored to further support wellbeing
• In partnership with Greater Glasgow and Clyde NHS, the Community Vaccination Programme is being delivered locally, helping ensure residents can easily access vaccinations within their communities.
• The team is delivering on the priorities set out in the CLD Plan 2025–27, including actions within the Local Child Poverty Action Report.
• Community development colleagues are working closely within priority areas, supporting local people to build strong, sustainable community organisations and helping tackle poverty and inequality
• The Resettlement and Community Planning Partnership teams have agreed new plans aligned with the Council’s wider priorities, and are working closely with partners at both local and national level
• Alongside this, the Resettlement Team is working with internal services to deliver welcome and community connection events for asylum seekers, helping people understand available support and feel more connected in their local area.

Housing Services - Operations & Estates Team and Homelessness & Prevention Teams

• There were 14 nominations from the Housing waiting list sent to a Registered Social Landlord 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
• Housing continues to review processes and make changes to them where possible to allow for a more customer, person centred approach
• The new on-line CRM system training has been issued for Housing staff using the system and now up and running
• The team is part of new Steering Group to re-establish and implement new procedures for processing and issuing Tenant Recharge
• 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. Weekly 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
• Ensuring turn around times on void properties falls and offers are out with applicants on these properties.
• 34 households made a homeless application during February (31 last month)
• Of the 45 appointments arranged; 11 failed to attend (32%)
• Five households were supported by the Homelessness Out of Hours Service (six last month)
• Three households were placed within unsuitable accommodation (Five nights).To date the Council has not breached the unsuitable accommodation order
• The Homelessness & Prevention Team hosted a partnership event and agreed key focus of the Council’s Rapid Rehousing Transition Plan (RRTP)

Key areas of focus in February for the Communications & Engagement team included the reopening of Bearsden Hub, Milngavie Primary School progress and Lenzie Academy project consultation events.
Media relations increased this month with seven releases issued (2 in January), three photocalls, (zero in January) and 22 media enquiries dealt with (15 in January).

All releases are on the Council website news section and the local coverage achieved equated to an equivalent advertising value of £4,768  (£1,115 in January.)

Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn all saw increases in followers with the most popular posts this month relating to playpark vandalism, ASN showcase event and the reopening of Bearsden Hub.

Across the Council’s four social media channels the average engagement rate was 4.5% (a good engagement rate is 0.5, anything above 1 is deemed great).

The Council website had 186,159 visits (excluding internal traffic). The most popular page was the Bin collection schedule tool with 31,566 views.

There were 8,830 call-to-action button clicks. 

The most watched video on Facebook was Garden Waste permit 2026 with 14,393 views and on YouTube it was the meeting of the Policy and Resources Committee with 30 views.

Two videos were created this month with 43 design jobs completed overall.

In February 2026, 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 complaints across all service areas, ensuring they are addressed appropriately, and that adequate responses are provided within statutory timescales.

Throughout February the Customer Service team handled a variety of enquiries and requests for service including 8551 telephone calls, the team also served 159 appointments and 903 drop-in customers in Community Hubs. As anticipated the team were busy with garden waste permits, with this peaking in February, the team processed 905 permits for customers. 

With essential repairs completed, preparations are underway for the re-opening of Bearsden Hub in March. The team will ensure all necessary equipment is installed and the hub is ready to welcome customers back. 

The Emergency Response Centre team continued to provide support to both East and West Dunbartonshire’s analogue to digital programmes, this will be ongoing until the telecom infrastructure suppliers make the final switchover in January 2027. Development of the digital call handling platform, Chubb Sky Response, is ongoing with productive collaboration between Local Authority users of the system and the Scottish Digital Office, sharing best practice and knowledge ensuring the system functionality is continually improving. The team handled 19369 community alarm activations and 421 out of hours calls across January, similar to the previous month. 

The project to replace analogue community alarm telecare equipment in the Council’s sheltered housing properties progresses with work completed in the second of six sites and work begun on the third site; the ERC team ensures data is accurately input to the system and newly installed community alarm equipment is tested and working providing a seamless transition to a digital service for our vulnerable sheltered housing residents. 

Recruitment continues for both Customer Service and Emergency Response Centre Agents.

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.

Communications & Engagement

• Promotion of International Women’s Day events including posters, recipe booklet, social media and Provost speech
• Delivered communications to promote the Bishopbriggs taxi rank consultation with website updates, creation of the survey, creation of a Storymap, press release and social media
• Promotion of the Employee Travel Survey 2026 with creation of survey, Employee Zone updates and issuing of Employee News?
• Design and promotion of a range of assets of events for EDLC including the class timetables, health walk poster, adult performance programme and The Ultimate Bubble Show
• Promotion of key awareness days including Safer Internet Day, Adult Support and Protection, World Gaelic Week and LGBT History Month.

Corporate Performance

• The Council’s Annual PPR summary overview was published on the Council website alongside the latest data for 2024/25 Local Government Benchmarking data

• Q2 HGIOS reports were issued to Elected Members via technical note in advance of formal submission to April Council.

• Work is underway for the preparation of Business Improvement Plans 2026-29 and related performance management guidance for 26/27

• Work continued to progress the annual renewal of the Council’s insurance arrangements

• Continued assistance was provided to the change team in relation to the rollout of Oracle Fusion

• Data support and assistance provided in the ongoing service reviews in the Health and Social Care Partnership.

Customer Services

• Preparations are underway for the re-opening of Bearsden Hub following the completion of essential repairs

• Recruitment continues to fill vacancies in both Customer Services and Emergency Response Centre

• Work continues in sheltered housing complexes to replace analogue community alarm equipment.

Human Resources & Organisational Development

• Continued engagement with the Trade Unions on strategic and operation HR initiatives, including service reviews and policy development.
• Continued support for employees and managers on HR policy based and guidance noted, with support in attendance on ER case work
• Presented the Councils Sexual Harassment and revised Dignity at Work polices to be to the Policy & Resources Committee for approval
• Within Payroll Services, the team have maintained and processed the payover of the various payruns within timescales, with the completion of a series of statutory
• Commencement of Payroll activities which support the Year End cycle
• The HCM Project Board, continues to provide oversight and governance in support of moving to the new HR/Payroll system
• Teams across HR and Payroll continue to undertake series of milestones and output required as part of the HCM project, whilst managing operational work
• The People Development team delivered sessions across a number of topics including SMART Working, Induction and EDC policy sessions
• Continued support by team in the facilitation of statutory training in a number of services areas to ensure continued compliance and certification
• In February, 288 delegates received training across a range of topics.  

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For the first time since opening the Allander has seen growth in income and participation plateau. Period 11 had a very modest increase in headcounts versus the same period last year.
The cumulative DD membership total dropped from 14,214 to 14,205 from period 10 to period 11. Last year (same period) this increased from 13,311 to 13,599. Period 11 last year resulted in 101 membership cancellations; this year it increased to 191. It is recognised that the DD membership has probably peaked and the focus is on retention rather than growth to ensure that income remains stable. 

The LeisureDrome evidenced a 4.1% increase on Group Fitness attendance, compared to previous year. To meet the extra demand, numbers have been increased and additional classes added to the programme. The Fire Service carried out a Fire Risk Assessment on the 16 February with the report in the main a positive response to Fire Safety throughout the building. 

Period 11 saw the culmination of the Library Service’s Coding & Gaming project with three activity days at Milngavie, Kirkintilloch and Bishopbriggs libraries. Each day had workshops showcasing the results of regular sessions with programmable buggies, a chance to roam in the Minecraft Realm and LEGO sessions with Creatovators. Over 150 people attended. 
 
A Creative Crafting month saw Milngavie and Lennoxtown libraries have a major push in attracting people to crafting together in their local library.The Creative Crafting programme is designed to help people overcome loneliness by providing opportunities for them to meet new people in their community while learning new, or developing existing, creative skills. 

Libraries hosted a variety of talks aimed at attracting a wide range of users. The programme included talks by former Children’s Commissioner, Tam Baillie, on the importance of play to child well-being, the Head of Veterinary Pathology from Glasgow Veterinary School on the seal population of Marion Island, George Robertson on the Karakoram mountain range in Asia and Finola Scott talking about poetry and the inspiration behind it.  

The Wintering Well programme continued, with demo’s on the use of SAD lamps and how to get the most out of the Wintering Well boxes. 

The Auld Kirk Museum and Lillie Art Gallery received 1,703 visitors during period 11, with the continuing photographic and Royal Glasgow Institute of Fine Art exhibitions proving very popular.  

There were 6,030 digital visitors to Museum, Archive and Local Studies collections across Art UK, Trails and Tales, Flickr and EDLC websites and social media platforms. 

The Arts & Events programme saw 93 people take part in arts workshops,178 attended a theatre performance at Kirkintilloch Town Hall and Kirkintilloch Town Hall and Kilmardinny House hosted 75 events. Archives & Local Studies received 1,522 visitors and 460 enquiries.

Training Opportunities

During February, the Active Schools team delivered a range of training courses to support school staff and volunteers across East Dunbartonshire.This included Mini-Fit training for volunteers which was hosted at Baljaffray Primary School and an additional Mini-Fit training session delivered to Snack & Play staff in partnership with the Early Years team. 

Andy Lynch – Community Sport’s APP Coordinator, delivered a Strength and Conditioning CPD course for secondary school staff hosted by Lenzie Academy.

Inclusive Dance training was also organised for volunteers with a view to promoting more accessible physical activity opportunities for all.

Festivals/Events

A range of school festivals took place across East Dunbartonshire during February. This included Games Night festivals at Bearsden Academy, Boclair Academy, and Douglas Academy, which focused on participation for all and supporting the transition of primary school pupils to their secondary school. Coordinators also organised a netball festival at Turnbull High School for Bishopbriggs primary schools.

Active Schools Coordinators from the Turnbull HS cluster supported the school’s Active Girls Day where a range of sports were on offer promoting female participation.

The Active Schools team also hosted the Greater Glasgow ASN Table Cricket Festival at Woodland View which was attended by five schools including four from East Dunbartonshire.

ASN Showcase

The Active Schools & Community Sport team were invited to Woodland View to present on how successful partnership working has led to increased ASN sporting provision for young people across East Dunbartonshire.

Inclusive Sport Forum

The most recent Inclusive Sport Forum meeting was hosted at Bearsden Academy on 4 February. The forum aims to create more opportunities for young people with additional support needs to participate in sport and physical activity in East Dunbartonshire. Partners from community clubs, Education, the NHS, Scottish Disability Sport and national governing bodies joined EDLCT staff for productive discussions and the sharing of good practice.

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The Service has made very good progress against priorities in the Business and Improvement Plan (BIP) 2025-2028.

• The Education Leadership Team (ELT) is making initial plans to progress the Curriculum Improvement Cycle (CIC) in East Dunbartonshire Council (EDC) through a strategic approach with all sectors working in partnership.The Quality Improvement Managers (QIM) are leading on this with a strong focus on pedagogy and the implementation of a new Cluster Approach

• The IMAGINE Leadership have planned, developed and agreed Leadership opportunities for Session 26/27 in line with the action plan. A new Primary and Additional Support Needs Depute Head Forum and Into Headship support network will be launched during Session 26/27 alongside implementation of professional learning developed during the current session

• As part of the Association for Directors of Education in Scotland (ADES) QUAD for Leadership, the Quality Improvement Officer with responsibility for Leadership supported by a Primary Head Teacher has shared with the QUAD the Education Service’s Leadership Framework. Each of the Local Authorities who form the QUAD will share their approach to Leadership Professional Learning as a mechanism to share best practice and enhance existing approaches. 

School and Early Years Centre Awards and Achievements

• St. Matthew’s Primary pupils were the National UK winners of The Sustainables Academy competition
• Westerton Primary have been recommended for Gold Rights Respecting Schools accreditation after a successful from an RRS/UNICEF advisor
• Baljaffray has achieved the Science, Technology Nation award for promoting excellence, equity, inspiration and connection in STEM
• Millersneuk Primary school HMIE Inspection graded the school Very Good in Learning and Teaching and Raising Attainment and Achievement. HMIE Inspectors recognised the welcoming and supportive environment where children feel valued which has been created by the Head Teacher and staff. HMIE identified that children make strong progress in literacy and numeracy and enjoy a wide range of leadership and extra-curricular activities which builds their confidence, teamwork and communication skills. 

Early Years, Primary, Secondary and Supporting Families

• The majority of Early Years Deputes and managers have completed the Trauma Awareness and Trauma Leadership level one training to ensure trauma informed practice and spaces is evident within their settings.There is a catch-up session in March for those who could not attend. This supports the SSSC registration requirements of leaders and will be rolled out to practitioners
• Into Headship candidates have successfully completed Module 1 of the programme. Candidates now begin leading a Change Initiative within their own establishment
• In additional to the existing Professional Verifiers, Two Primary Head Teachers, One Secondary Head Teacher and the Secondary QIO have undertaken Professional Verification Training for Into Headship. Professional Verifiers play an essential and important role in the assessment of Into Headship candidates' final assignment
• Middle Leaders Leading Change participants have completed five of the six facilitated Professional Learning sessions and are developing or leading a change initiative in their own establishments
• The Quality Review of Bearsden Academy took place 23 to 25 February 2026. During the review 60 lessons were observed and a range of focus groups and discussions captured the views of young people, staff, parents and partners. The review team identified major strengths and outstanding practice across the four core Quality Indicators and highlighted practice worth sharing more widely.

ASN and Children’s Services

• The Additional Support Needs (ASN) Showcase took place in Woodland View School on Wednesday 18 Feb 2026. It was attended by over 300 participants including; teachers, support assistants, social workers and colleagues from Health.There were 38 seminars and the opportunity to learn about and/or deepen awareness and knowledge of priorities in ASN. All evaluations are positive and evidenced how learning will be transferred and used within own context
• The Pupil Forum, “My Voice, My Choice” met online on Friday 13 February 2026. Most school representatives attended and  actively engaged with key themes covered including Child-Friendly Complaints, Anti-Bullying Guidance, and Mental Health and Wellbeing. Schools were notified of a Keep Scotland Beautiful Youth Forum Networking Event at the University of Strathclyde in March 2026, and to submit notes of interest to be picked to represent East Dunbartonshire. The successful schools were Torrance Primary School, Milngavie Primary School and Craigdhu Primary School
• S6 Pupils from St Ninian’s, Turnbull and Bishopbriggs high schools delivered an Alternative and Augmentative communication Workshop to 45 multi-agency staff. Talking Mats training has been delivered to a further 32 staff from education and social work.These communication supports allow staff to effectively gather children and young people's views and involve them in decisions about their care and support
• Whole Family Wellbeing Team have developed and delivered a parent Sleep Workshop to families.This programme is based on Sleep Action resources and aims to provide parents/carers with early practical supports
• The parent/carer Coffee and Chat drop-in sessions at Hillhead Community Centre have been well attended. Visiting services providing support to families have included Glasgow NHS Neurodevelopmental Team, East Dunbartonshire Citizens Advice, East Dunbartonshire Carers Link, Glasgow NHS Speech and Language Therapy and Scottish Autism.

Educational Psychology Service (EPS)

• NHS Education for Scotland (NES) Level One Trauma Informed Practice training was delivered by EPS to early years leaders and to participants at ASN Showcase event. Participants learnt that trauma is common, about responses to trauma and ways of supporting and improving outcomes for people who have experienced trauma. There was a recognition of the importance of self-care.This Trauma Informed Training met the requirements for NES Level 1 training and was part of the roll-out of the Education Strategic TIP plan
• The strategic group met with Non-Violence Resistance (NVR) Innovations to review a three year progression plan which has been developed to support in making East Dunbartonshire self-sustainable in the delivery of training.The third professional learning community of the session was hosted this month where practitioners presented on the work that they carried out as part of their Level 3 training as well as sharing resources with the wider group. A pre and post evaluation measure for direct work with parents/carers has been finalised and shared across professionals
• The revised Addressing Dyslexia Guidance is in final draft form.The development and implementation plan which sits alongside the guidance draft training plan is complete
• Early Years Centres (EYCs) were provided with the second part of the input on the UUA tools for supporting individual learners.The next session will be a showcase event where practitioners are invited to share their progress with engaging with the UUA resource (April 2026)
• An EP has contributed to the short-life working group focussed on the Home Link Officer role.The group have revised the role profile, created practice guidance for all HLOs and have created an evaluation tool to gather data on the practice and impact of HLOs.

School Planning and Improvement

• Evacuation/invacuation process for all Education establishments has been drafted in preparation of sharing with Civil Contingencies
• The consultation for Lenzie Academy new build continued with the school for finalising of plans being performed
• Milngavie Primary School Refurbishment Project continues to progress well. Scheduling of consultation with the Parent Council has taken place with visit to school in March being finalised
• Research on temporary provision for Milngavie Early Years Replacement building is ongoing.This is required during the build/demolition of current building
• Balmuildy Primary School new build continues to progress with internal furnishings being confirmed. Early Years staff are now working on the structure of staffing for the new Early Tears centre
• Workforce planning is ongoing with all schools, ensuring that the relevant staffing is in place for new session in August 2026.

Skills for Life, Learning and Work

• Recruitment has started for the next phase of the Parental Employment Programme. This provides six months paid work placement opportunities within the council for parents who are on low incomes/ unemployed. Previous phases of the programme have been very successful in supporting participants secure sustained employment. The programme is fully funded through the Scottish Government’s Tackling Child Poverty strategy.

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Finance

The month of February saw the Finance Team continuing to respond to audit queries on the 2023/24 accounts as this audit progresses towards finalisation. As the finance team works through a critical period of demands on the team, an additional 1 FTE resource continues 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. However, the Service is currently working with fewer accountants, and some absence within the team. An internal training process has begun to remedy this long term.

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 final Treasury Management Report of 2024/25 and interim report for 2025/26 have now been submitted.

The team was also working toward the finalisation of the 2026/27 budget position, in order to provide a balanced position in a highly challenging financial context.

Revenues & Benefits

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 93.63% is behind the target of 94.56% for this point in the year. This reflects a continued trend of more residents making 12 annual payments instead of 10, which reduces the monthly income from April to January but should see increases in March. The team completed test annual billing in February which affected the normal processes including reminders. Test annual billing is essential to ensure accurate billing for 2026/27 Council Tax collection. The Council’s Recovery and Enforcement Procedures continue to be applied, and individuals being signposted to the exemptions and discounts available as appropriate.

Shared Services

The Shared Services Team continues to provide support across all Council services.  The Homecare Team continues to support an initiative from the Planning & Commissioning Team, processing variations in addition to their normal workload.  The Transport Team continue to manage the day-to-day contracts and procure any ad-hoc contracts as required.  

ICT Services

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 1,130 tickets in February and dealt with 254 telephone calls. ICT Support have implemented a satisfaction survey for incidents resolved, 96.1% of respondents were happy with the service provided.  ICT Infrastructure continues to support the delivery of major projects in conjunction with the Business & Digital Change Team and Major Assets team. The Infrastructure Team has completed planning for the Milngavie EYC decant and rebuild. The team continues to review telephony services across the estate in preparation for the PSTN switch off. The team continues to monitor the underlying infrastructure to ensure maximum performance.   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 ICT Security Team is reviewing Multi Factor Authentication options for Oracle Fusion and HCM.

Housing Rent and Tenant Participation

The maximisation of housing rental income and pursuit of rent arrears continues to be a priority for the service, 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. Active rent arrears of £1,081,758 are £135,029 lower than at the same period as last year with the team committed to working with tenants to reduce arrears further.
 
The Tenant Participation Team continues to provide direct ongoing support to active Tenants and Residents Associations.

Business & Digital Change Team

During February 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.

Internal Audit

Work continues towards completion of several audits on the 2025/26 plan as the team provides assurance over key areas of risk, making recommendations and following up on these to improve the control environment. Audits near completion include Green Waste Permits, a review of the Supply Teacher Database and a review of Winter Planning arrangements.    

Corporate Fraud 

The Corporate Fraud Team continues to prioritise the investigation of referrals and the proactive vetting of applications across key service areas, including Housing, Education, Licensing, and Estates. This work is essential to safeguarding access points and preventing fraud or error from entering council systems.

As part of this effort, the team has received in excess of 6,000 data matches from the National Fraud Initiative (NFI)—a data matching exercise led by Audit Scotland to detect fraud and error. These matches were released in phases and have now all been received.  All  high-risk and high-value matches have been reviewed. The matching of Council Tax records against Electoral Registration records and against HMRC are both nearing completion; the savings and additional income identified now total £0.4m.  

An application was submitted to the Cabinet Office to join a working group being established to assist in the identification of Second Homes & Empty Properties. This application was successful and the group will commence work in May 2026. 

A tailored training programme was developed and delivered for employees in Revenues & Benefits. While the development of an in-house anti-fraud and bribery training package has been temporarily paused due to resource constraints, it will resume when capacity allows.  

The Economic Crime and Transparency Act 2023 has from 01 September 2025, introduced a new criminal offence applicable to public bodies who fail to prevent fraud by employees or agents. The team have attended briefing sessions held by CIFAS on the measures required to be taken to ensure compliance. A briefing document for SLT and fraud risk assessment templates have been developed and issued to SLT for consideration.

The team has experienced difficulties in obtaining information from certain external data holders, who can now only release information under the provisions of the Investigatory Powers Act 2016.  Policy is required to be developed and committee approval obtained to ensure that the investigatory process is not compromised and to ensure our compliance with legal requirements.    

Finance 

• Responding to audit queries on the 2023/24 draft accounts as the audit progresses towards finalisation. The Charitable Trust accounts have been finalised for 2023/24 have now been signed by Trustees and Auditors
• Mugdock, HRA & Charitable accounts finalised for 2024/25 unaudited positions. General Fund in final weeks of finalising unaudited position which can be finalised on the completion of the 23/24 audit
• 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. A practice of grow your own has begun and is hoped to be see benefits over the next few years
• 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:
  • 2,090 Council Tax bills and 9,070 Benefits notifications; and,
  • 380 crisis grants and community care grant applications were received
• The team received and dealt with 1,680 documents for Council Tax queries and reduction and 660 for benefits. In addition, the team received 2,200 ATLAS notifications from DWP
• The team dealt with 2,390 telephone enquiries.

ICT Services 

ICT Services are working closely with the Business and Digital Change Team to implement M365.  

The Infrastructure Team

• Completed the installation of new interactive panels across the Education estate
• Replaced 26 obsolete laptops with new Windows 11 laptops.  Carried out the in-place upgrade of 130 laptops from Windows 10 to Windows 11 across the corporate estate
• Completed planning for new Wide Area Network Services at Balmuildy Primary
• Enabled network connectivity in Marina G3 for Scottish Parliamentary Elections

ICT Security

• Addressed remediations for the annual IT Health Check.
• Maintained the Council’s perimeter defences
• Completed Pay360 evaluation with the vendor and made recommendations to the project team.

Shared Services 

• The Residential Team added 81 service agreements to CareFirst for clients moving into care homes or for supported living services within their own homes
• The Homecare Team added 336 service agreements to CareFirst for clients receiving a homecare service or a direct payment
• Direct Payment Audit Team – 34 (30 standard, 4 final) audits completed for clients receiving self-direct support
• The EMA Team dealt with 10 Education Maintenance Applications in February, 10 were processed through SEEMiS, 13 require further information.

Housing Rent and Tenant Participation

• Active Tenant Rent Arrears were £1,081,758 which is a decrease of 11.1% on same period as last year (week 47)
• 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.
  Business & Digital Change
• During this period, the Business Systems team successfully upgraded three system environments, resolved 14 incidents, supported 6 projects and developed a new interface for fortnightly payments while continuing to contribute to the ongoing Windows 11 rollout.
• The team continue to progress database migrations and decommissioning activity to move services onto supported infrastructure
• HCM parallel payroll reconciliation was completed with an acceptable level of quality. Business user training is finished, and the fifth iteration of data migration has begun. Multifactor authentication (MFA) deployment planning is finalised, with MFA rollout for Fusion Phase 1 users scheduled for June/July 2026
• Progression of key prerequisites to support the integrated housing management system, ensuring readiness for upcoming improvements and changes
• Undertaking an options appraisal to identify a replacement for business reporting functionality approaching end of support
• Contributed to process mapping to support Phase 2 of the housing project
• Report development to enable the comparison between legacy Saffron data and the current housing management solution for flatted properties
• Preparation is ongoing for the launch of the Disclosure Scotland application, built internally using the Microsoft Power Platform with a live deployment scheduled for mid-March
• Progression of merging duplicate records within CareFirst, refining the process through testing before carrying out in the live system.

Internal Audit

• The Team is working on completing the 2025/26 Internal Audit Plan, in line with available resources. There is a vacancy at the Audit & Risk Manager level and one Audit Senior post from November onwards. The Audit & Risk Manager is transitioning back into her role from February 2026
• 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
• Work on the 2025/26 plan continues with audits such as Green Waste Permits, the Supply Teacher Database and Winter Planning Maintenance being near completion
• Work has been completed in the form of a gap analysis & action plan for the new Global Internal Audit Standards. Audits recently completed include Complaints, Property Maintenance – Supplier Management and HSCP Performance Management.

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. A target date of the end of March has been set for completing the NFI exercise so that results can be included in the Audit Scotland NFI report
• The team also continues to undertake vetting on applications, from several services, in order to prevent fraud, error 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 require an update of the policy base to support action – specifically the creation of a Communications Data Policy
• The team will also be focussing on the measures required to ensure compliance with The Economic Crime and Transparency Act 2023. 

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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 focus of this report with 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 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.

In February 2026, the HSCP performed above target on all three of its identified performance indicators. 

Promotional activity in support of:

• Safer Internet Day 2026
• HENRY Fussy Eating Workshops
• Random Acts of Kindness Day.

HSCP Wide

• Improve quality and relevance of information on HSCP website and maximise the potential of HSCP website to enable people to manage their own health and care needs
• Implement year one of the East Dunbartonshire Public Health Framework
• Review and refresh the HSCP Medium-Term Financial Strategy
• Review of Business Support Function
• Implement outcome of the HSCP leadership review.

Children and Criminal Justice Services

• Implementation of Children's Social Work Services Review
• Introduction of Just Enough Support (Fair Access, Transport, Eligibility Criteria)

Adult Services

• Continue with the work streams associated with the Learning Disability review and agreement obtained to take forward the John Street review
• Review and develop new commissioning strategy for Adult Commissioned Services
• Review the model of delivery for HSCP clinical mental health services across adult and older people care group
• Adult and Children & Families Services Commissioning Review 
• Review of adult Social Work delivery model.

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Land Planning & Development have progressed a number of significant work streams during February 2026 in line with the Business Improvement Plan commitments.  

Work on the next Local Development Plan (LDP3) for the area is ongoing. The Council received the outcome of the Gate Check on the Evidence Report for LDP3 on 05 November 2025. Officers are continuing to work with relevant internal services to address the matters set out in the Reporter’s recommendations, and a revised Evidence Report will be taken to Council for approval at the soonest possible date.

In order to address the Reporter’s recommendations, the Land Planning Policy Team have contacted the stakeholders that had previously commented on the Indicative Local Housing Land Requirement to advise of a proposed minor methodological change, and to give those stakeholders an opportunity to comment on the change.  The period for comments ended on 18 February 2026.  All comments received will be taken into account in preparing the revised Evidence Report.

The Land Planning Policy Team has received a request to consider trees at Whitegates Park in Lenzie for Tree Preservation Order status. A report on the matter was approved at Policy and Resources Committee on 03 February 2026. 

The Land Planning Policy Team has received a Local Place Plan (LPP) from Lenzie Community Council. All LPP’s received by the Council are to be placed on a ‘Local Place Plan’s Register’ on the Council’s website where they demonstrate that the minimum requirements legislative requirements have been met.  A report recommending that the Lenzie Local Place Plan be registered was approved at Policy and Resources Committee on 03 February 2026.

Work with consultants on the preparation of an Urban Greening Factor to support the development of LDP3 is continuing.

Work is continuing on identifying priority projects for inclusion in the Council’s new Greenspace Strategy, which will replace the current Green Network Strategy and current Open Space Strategy.  Work is continuing on an updated Open Space Audit which will support the development of the strategy.

Following the public consultation on the draft Climate Action Plan, details of input received are being written up in a report of consultation which will be taken to Council alongside the final CAP.  

Further progress was made on the feasibility study for a heat network in central Kirkintilloch, which secured Scottish Government funding based upon an opportunity identified in the Council’s Local Heat & Energy Efficiency Strategy (LHEES) Delivery Plan. This includes a close-off meeting being organised for March 2026 to finalise the study in the 2025/26 financial year.

A report for Community Planning Partnership Board in March has been drafted to provide an update on East Dunbartonshire Climate Action Hub’s work for 2026/27.

A presentation has been drafted to share East Dunbartonshire Council’s approach to the just transition to all staff at the Scottish Climate Intelligence Service (SCIS) to help to guide where SCIS could add value through their capacity-building work and the ClimateView platform.

Updates were made to the Council’s School Travel Plans based on engagement with colleagues across the Council.

Additional work was undertaken to refresh the Council’s Parking Management Plan to reflect progress on a range of relevant Council, regional, and national transport initiatives and to prepare an updated version.

The Employee Travel Survey was issued in February 2026. Over 400 responses were received and analysis of the results has begun to estimate emissions from Council homeworking and commuting.

The eight Active Travel Strategy evidence reports that were taken to by PNCA in January 2023 have been reviewed and are being updated to reflect more recent local, regional, and national developments.

Support was received from partners across the Glasgow City Region to use limited regional funding to match fund the Nature-Based Investment Study in order to allow partners to learn lessons from it. Information was provided to support the application to Scottish Government. The study will involve quantifying the current greenhouse gas emission absorption potential of nature in East Dunbartonshire and setting 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.  

A Strategic Environmental Assessment service continues to be provided to colleagues across the Council.  Sustainability input has also been provided for various planning applications in addition to ad-hoc projects from other Council teams.

The Council’s three-year contract with ESRI is due for renewal and the process has been initiated by ICT to ensure continuity of GIS services. 

The school placement requests work on distances is under way with officers are working with colleagues in the Education Service. 

The Team are currently working with a number of Teams across the Council on a range of GIS projects including Greenspace Strategy Mapping, Secondary Gritting zone maps, Mapping support for FOI.  The Team also continues to provide support in the preparation of LDP 3, Kirkintilloch heat network study and the Council’s Open Space Audit 

A GIS Service & Error Reporting Action app continues to work well with service users utilising the software.
 
The Team completed multiple address register/update requests and several address queries and new ArcGIS online accounts requests from Teams across the Council.

The GIS server and Maps are fully operational and running.

Idox system is fully operational. Users can access Uniform live/Enterprise, Unimap web, DMS, Stamper and Planning Application. Support has been provided on a range of Idox requests including Data extracts from Uniform database, Stamper fault reports/solutions, Uniform Enterprise Task manage workload and Microsoft access reports.

The daily One Scotland Gazetteer Improvement service file is currently processing successfully with no data quality adjustments necessary.

Planning for a forthcoming upgrade of Uniform, Unimap web and the Public access platform later this year has commenced. 

Transition to the new IHMS system continues to be supported by the IHMS Project team. Officers are utilising both Test and Live environments and are configuring enhancements following regular upgrades of the NEC system in preparation for moving on to Phase 2.  

Systems officers are assisting with day-to-day processing of direct debits and the set-up of rent accounts in both Test and Live environments and continue to monitor/escalate issues as they arise. Officers can now utilise bespoke reporting functionality within IHMS. 

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 on behalf of ALACHO. 

Policy officers continue to review the Council's Allocations Policy in line with phasing in of IHMS. Further policy work supports development to the IHMS ensuring that governance sits behind features and enhancements to the NEC system. 

Policy officers attended training on the introduction of The Housing (Scotland) Act 2025. Officers will consider the implications of the 2025 Act and will deliver training to staff on emerging changes to policy or practice. 

Both Policy and Housing Estates teams are preparing to progress a feasibility study into the cost effectiveness and viability of lock up garages and garage ground sites. 

The Chubb project team are working closely with Housing and B&DC teams to ensure the successful transition of analogue telecare to digital telecare throughout the sheltered housing complexes. Three in-person briefings to tenants have been delivered to answer queries and help planning on site activities. Two of the six complexes are complete to date with positive feedback from tenants. 

Sheltered Housing Wardens are working closely with tenants to ensure a robust service is provided during the Telecare switchover to the new system and to minimise disruption to tenants as equipment is removed and replaced. Wardens will receive training from ERC staff to programme pendant devices should any be lost or broken that will streamline the process and provide tenants a more immediate response. 

The Housing Estates officer is delivering 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 duties. 

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 team are currently processing further green business and digital adoption support, enabled through Year 4 Shared Prosperity Fund allocation. This will provide an additional level of support which would not be available without additional funding and sees a continuation from work undertaken with the first three years of SPF funding.  The digital grant is aimed at Cyber Security for businesses allowing update of their online presence/equipment to ensure their systems and information are secure The Green Business Support Grant is aimed to encourage replacement of equipment/infrastructure which will reduce their carbon footprint. The grants have proved very popular and now fully subscribed. With SPF ending 2025/26, work is now underway to examine business support programmes that can be funded through the Local Growth Fund and the ‘transition’ revenue allocation expected for 2026/27, subject to approval at the Glasgow City Region Cabinet in March. 

Increased Start Up Support - the team are currently working on mentorship programmes for start-up businesses to help them with marketing, finance and digital requirements, as better preparation at start-up can help businesses to be sustainable longer term. The annual ongoing Business Grants (start up and growth) are ongoing and now fully subscribed. A good Business Start Up rate has been achieved so far in 2025/26, with 130  new Start Ups recorded by February. Numbers have been slow to pick up after Christmas, but there is a high level of interest and engagement with the Business Gateway programme from possible new businesses. 

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 are working with City Deal team looking at promotional methods and opportunities to encourage investment at Westerhill. The Site Enabling & Regeneration Fund is now open, offering grant support to parties interested in developing proposals for regeneration and commercial development. 

The team continues with a range of work to ensure the delivery of the Council’s City Deal project. Full Business Cases (FBC) for the two project elements – Bishopbriggs Town Centre Civic Space and Westerhill Development Road – were approved at a meeting of Council in Dec 2025 and subsequently approved at Glasgow City Region (GCR) Chief Executives Group 16th February. 

The Westerhill Regeneration Area (WRA) planning guidance and its associated delivery plan is now adopted under LDP2. Work is taking place to promote the location and 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 (WDR). Contracts are being finalised for construction following the FBC approval. 

Work continues on Bishopbriggs Town Centre Civic Space project. Work continues with relevant landowners to secure the area on a long-term lease, and this is nearing completion. Contracts are being finalised for construction following the FBC approval. 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. Bus Infrastructure Fund funding has been identified that will be allocated to the A803. This will support Design work for improvements to Balmuildy junction.

The team are working with the Glasgow City Region Programme Management Office on the proposed use of additional City Deal funding that has been allocated to all eight-member local authorities for the Enabling Commercial Space programme. At P&R in May 2025, approval was given to utilise the funding to help deliver commercial floorspace in the Southbank area, linked to the Councils asset strategy for this location.  

The Campsie Memorial Hall project in Lennoxtown secured funding from the Scottish Government’s Regeneration Capital Grant Fund, and is nearing completion.

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 September 2026 as part of the fourth year of SPF funding. Work is underway with the Glasgow City Region to understand how the new Local Growth Fund allocation will be distributed. 

The Lennoxtown Main Street Improvement Project is in the construction phase and will run until summer 2026. This will see major enhancement to the village centre environment improving the Main Street as a trading environment, somewhere to access local services, and to visit. 

The Lennoxtown Greenspace Project aims to repurpose disused red blaes pitches at Station Road and Ferguson Parks to provide outdoor recreation spaces, enhance biodiversity, and improved active travel routes. The project has secured funding from the Scottish Government’s Vacant and Derelict Land Investment Programme (VDLIP). The VDLIP funding will deliver improvements to Station Road Park where it’s anticipated works will begin in 2026. The designs have been developed in partnership with the local community. Work relating to this procurement is ongoing.   

Construction of the Twechar Canalside Outdoor Pursuits Centre is complete, the official opening took place in October.  The centre is being run by the Twechar Community Action. 

Work is ongoing with the Milngavie BID and Kirkintilloch BID as they move through year one of a five-year term. 

Work is taking place to develop a follow up business case to set out more details on what is required to prepare a Visitor Levy and how a Visitor Levy could operate in East Dunbartonshire. The work will set out options for consideration at the relevant Council committee. 

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 throughout the area.  

Work is progressing well on the A807 Active travel route, with construction completed for Phase 1a. The associated TROs for the next stage of the project were agreed at November 2025 PNCA Committee. Preparation is underway for detailed design and programme setting of Stage 1b. 

The BetterPoints East Dunbartonshire App has been launched to promote sustainable transport and active travel. The app allows users to track their sustainable travel journeys and earn rewards for travelling in such a way. 

The Traffic Free Schools project continues, and approval has been received (at May 2025 PNCA Committee) to deliver the initiative in a second phase of schools to enhance accessibility and sustainable modes of transport for children and school communities. Lennoxtown Primary, Meadowburn Primary and Thomas Muir Primary are the chosen schools to pilot the scheme in the 2025/26 academic year. 

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 51 applications and validated 47 applications. 

The Building Standards team have received 90 building warrants and approved 94 applications.  

The Planning Enforcement team have opened 10 new cases and closed seven cases.

The Development Applications team have been busy preparing reports for the next forthcoming Planning Board and Local Review Body meeting. 

The Team have been supporting the Council’s Housing and Major Assets teams with pre application technical advice for the next round of projects.

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 the remaining telecare installation at all Sheltered Housing complexes.
• Progress on Lennoxtown Main Street
• Site Enabling & Regeneration Fund is now open.

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Throughout February, the Democratic Services Team continued to support the internal governance of the Council, in addition to certain regulatory functions. Five governance meetings took place during February. 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.

As part of the Primary and Secondary Schools Registration process, the Team continues to deal with mid-term applications and appeals for placing requests in relation to the 2025/2026 school year and has commenced arrangements for the annual placing request appeals. The deadline for placing requests is 15 March 2026, and appeals are scheduled for June 2026.

The Team continues to engage with the Electoral Registration Officer, Electoral Commission, Electoral Management Board, Association of Electoral Administrators, Regional Returning Officer and contractors in preparation for the Scottish Parliament elections scheduled for May 2026. This is the most complex and demanding electoral event that the Team administers. Detailed planning commenced in 2025 and includes officers from various services.  In addition, the Team has liaised with colleagues in West Dunbartonshire Council as the Scottish Parliamentary constituency is cross-boundary.  Regular update Technical Notes will continue to be issued to Members as planning progresses. Work also continued, locally and nationally, in preparation for the Local Government Elections in 2027.

Following the by-election for Ward 3 - Bearsden South, on Thursday, 29 January 2026, the Team updated membership details and contacts, including the Council website.  

The Team continues to support Children’s Hearings Scotland as part of the North Strathclyde Area Support Team. Ongoing support was also provided to Community Councils. The Team continues to participate in local and national resilience partnership meetings and training exercises.

The Council continued to deliver registration services during January 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 which may impact on demand for services, in relation to both storage and registration in the event of a mass casualty event or periods of excess deaths.

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.

Key Achievements / Areas of Focus

• Registration & Customer Services completed 59 birth and 225 death registrations in February. 12 marriages and one civil partnership were also registered in this period
• Citizenship Ceremonies were held to welcome 14 new citizens.
• Continued development of the new committee administration system, which included further support for report writers, elected members and development of additional functionality
• Information Management received and processed 130 FOI/EIRs, nine internal review requests and 19 SARs (Subject Access Requests).

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 February is 100% 

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.

Key Achievements / Areas of Focus

• During February, the Team processed five contract review forms and one contract award letters, one open market purchase, 28 taxi licence applications and three housing repair grant awards were received in February. All were processed within the timescales.  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 negotiating key construction contract terms for the Westerhill Development Road project, supporting review of options appraisal for the Westerhill Development Road professional services contract, to include Project Management for the construction phase, and Bishopbriggs Town Centre Civic Space project award of construction phase design consultancy contract
• Property and planning work included concluding purchase of 10 Lammermoor Road, Kirkintilloch, leases for the former Milngavie Youth Centre and 8 Main Street, Lennoxtown, section 75 for Little Baldoran farm, Campsie Road, Milton of Campsie for developer financial contributions towards affordable housing and healthcare in connection with steading and barn conversion to form three residential units
• Contracts and procurement work in this period included supporting procurement with variation of Bearsden Hub construction contract, contracts awarded for design and build of Twechar Pump Track and HCM Payroll Specialist; freelance outdoor services agreements issued for Bikeability services, and a contract change notice for Oracle Upgrade
• Grants offers issued include grants under the Whole Family Wellbeing Fund
• The Litigation and Licensing 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 and support the Housing Service. Additional work included successfully obtaining a banning order to protect a vulnerable adult and publishing the Licensing Board’s new Statement of Principles for Gambling.

During February, the Procurement Service continued to support other 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, Lennoxtown Main Street, 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 continues to place a significant demand on the resources of the Team.  In addition to the above, the Team is now testing 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 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 October 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.

The Team was also heavily involved with multiple Capital programme requirements, system software renewals, Grant funded projects, Council Building planned maintenance and Housing New Build Maintenance support.

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

Key Achievements / Areas of Focus

• 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 Redwood upgrade , Fusion HCM Phase 2, IHMS, City Deal projects to support Westerhill Development Road, Capital projects such as school estate Professional Fees, Lennoxtown Main Street, school new build contracts, and general budget projects such as school maintenance works, Systems Support 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. 
• Completed the 2024-2025 Annual Procurement Report to include alignments with organisational Climate Action Planning, Circular Economy Strategy, Community Wealth Building & the City Region Community Wish List planning.
• Preparation of Annual Procurement Strategy 2026-2027
• Processing invoices, payments, and Fusion housekeeping actions.
• Continued efforts to improve payment KPI’s, planning and communications for Oracle Fusion
• Continued Business Critical expenditure considerations within Buyers Work Centre for spend in excess of £16,500
• Ongoing work on the review of Contract Standing Orders for alignment with organisational changes, financial management and Procurement governance for reporting to Council in September 2026
• Continued Fusion Redwood upgrade actions and communications in alignment with the quarterly Oracle schedules, 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 September 2026
• Review of resourcing considerations to support Project workload and business as usual priorities
• Supporting Scottish Parliamentary election planning.

During February, the Strategic Commissioning Team dedicated considerable time and resource to support the HSCP in progressing its Transformation and budget savings programme in relation to commissioned services.  In addition, the team continued to direct and support the commissioned market on a daily basis and intervened if/where necessary to support sustainability and/or other related pressures.     

Key Achievements / Areas of Focus

• Aligned to the HSCP’s 26/27 budget saving programme, identified several budget saving proposals to help support delivery of a balanced budget
• Working collaboratively with several providers, progressed robust transitional arrangements to support an individual from an out of area placement back to her local community.  The partnership approach ensures the individual’s needs and outcomes are met within a more appropriate community setting, whilst demonstrating the value of working collaboratively with providers to ensure statutory obligations and strategic and operational priorities are delivered
• 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
• Contributed and supported financial year end arrangements. 
• Contributed and supported transitional planning arrangements for 2026/2027
• Continued to monitor and report on financial frameworks underpinning strategic reviews to ensure accuracy, alignment with the HSCP’s medium term financial plan and respective commissioning delivery plans
• Contributed to and supported progression of multi-agency collaborative inpatient redesign approaches geared towards alleviating acute and community pressures
• Continued discussions with external HSCPs to explore the potential to co-produce & co-design a collaborative service model capable of providing cross boundary generic support to meet identified needs & outcomes & deliver value for money
• Aligned to the Mental Health and Alcohol & Drugs Review, progressed future commissioning and contracting arrangements with providers pending implementation at the commencement of the new financial year. 

Click image to enlarge.

The Roads and Neighbourhood Service continue 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:

• Roads Network Operations
• Roads Technical & Engineering 
• Streetscene Technical Support (including Bereavement and Arboriculture)
• Streetscene Operations (including grounds maintenance, street cleansing and cemetery operations)
• Waste Services (including domestic & commercial waste & recycling collections)
• Fleet Services (including fleet operations, maintenance, and transportation)
• Mugdock Country Park
• 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 have filled the remaining Roads Technician with the successful candidate starting in February 2026.

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 are also working on their 2025/26 Capital Programme 

The Winter Maintenance period is ongoing with weather forecast monitored and resources deployed as required.  

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 continues to work with Legal colleague to oversee the TRO process associated with the potential implementation of 20mph speed limits across various the remaining geographical areas.

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 are continuing with the autumn/winter 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 team also continue to support roads with footway gritting when additional resources are required. 

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 continuing with the autumn/winter grounds maintenance tasks. 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 continue to work with Striling Council to explore the possibility of Car Parking charges within the five car parks in the park. 

The Waste Team has continued the frontline service operations for the collection of over 400,000 assorted household bins over the month of November, 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 1438 tonnes of waste through this contract in January, 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, RIDDOR and support for services when requesting statistics under Freedom of Information requests as well as personal injury claims incident reports.  The H&S Team continues to work cooperatively with Trade Union colleagues to review statistics and other health and safety activities.

Ongoing 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 and review of risk assessments and safe contractor management. During February, the team have been working closely with Greenspace, visits to culverts alongside Structures teams and flood risk engineer, Mugdock Country Park, Community Planning & Partnership, Fleet, Estates & Facilities, Education and School Improvement Team for projects based at schools, school play equipment inspection and other health and safety enquiries.

The H&S Manager participated in the Equally Safe at Work working group as well reporting at second tier H&S Committee meetings for Corporate, Education and attended HSCP H&S Sub-Group with NHS colleagues. The H&S Manager has been working at VAWG Partnership as vice chair, supporting the drafting of their strategy. The team were present at third tier (service level) meetings for Property Maintenance, Streetscene, Fleet, Waste and Transport. 

Education, IT and Customer Services teams were assisted with workplace assessments managing occupational health and individual risk assessments in collaboration with HR colleagues as well as supporting return to work assessments for long term absences. Display Screen Equipment and First Aid needs assessments are continually reviewed alongside line managers. 

Asbestos Awareness, Duty Holder and Fire Extinguisher training were conducted through this period for Education, as well as UFAS training for Estates & Facilities. Other training sessions delivered were H&S refresher for joiners in Property Maintenance as well as working at height and ladder safety. 

The focus continues for Construction Design and Management (CDM) compliance with a revised Scaffold Trade Specification for all council scaffold contractors and site visits, reviewing construction phase plans, risk assessments and method statements for refurbishment, roofing, drainage, demolitions, general estate repairs and new build and greenspace projects. For D&I teams, Balmuildy PS new build and Milngavie PS refurbishment as well as other schools, Torrance Community Centre, Campsie Memorial Hall, Housing works all received several site visits and report together with Mugdock Country Park repair works and playground. The team participated in CDM meetings and site visits to LP&D’s Lennoxtown Main Street, amongst other projects. To support Estates & Facilities 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 fire safety concerns, assess fire doors where required and support with personal emergency evacuation plans, offering expert advice. Lenzie Academy fire risk assessment action plan was reviewed as well as PPP secondary schools were targeted this month working together with Head Teachers, Estates & Facilities and the School Improvement Team as well as preparing for Scottish Fire and Rescue Services (SFRS) fire safety audits, which will be undertaken in February and February 2026. SFRS audits have taken place in some of our council sleeping premises and our fire safety officers have supported the audits post visit to address specific areas highlighted.

Roads Network Operations Teams (including Street Lighting)

Between 1 February 2026 and 28 February 2026, we have identified 331 defects in East Dunbartonshire Council carriageways and footways. We have completed 267 repairs on time (approx. 80.66 %), 20 repairs late (approx. 6.04 %) and 44 repair (approx. 13.3 %) are in list for action and are still within SLA (incomplete).
Below chart compares our last three months performance:

Road Project & Maintenance Works February 2026

Below information indicates the list of footway and carriageway capital resurfacing projects, Minor work, Road pothole Repairs committed in February 2026 in East Dunbartonshire Council areas.

Bardowie

• Craigmaddie Road - Carriageway Surface Defect Repair
• Craigmaddie Road - Carriageway Surface Defect Repair.

Bearsden

• Almond Road - Carriageway Surface Defect Repair
• Ralston Road - Carriageway Lining Works
• Hillcrest Road - Carriageway Surface Defect Repair
• Upper Glenburn Road - Carriageway Surface Defect Repair
• Laurence Drive - Carriageway & Footway Junction Improvements
• Ralston Road (plus 4 more) - Carriageway surfacing capital programme 2025/26
• Thomson Drive - Drainage Upgrade
  Ledcameroch Road - Carriageway Install New Traffic Signals
• Carse View Drive - Carriageway surfacing capital programme 2025/26
• Gartconnell Road - Carriageway surfacing capital programme 2025/26
• Ralston Road - Carriageway surfacing capital programme 2025/26.
  

Bishopbriggs

• Fettercairn Gardens - Carriageway Surface Defect Repair
• Martyrs Place - Carriageway Surface Defect Repair
• Greenhill - Carriageway Surface Defect Repair
• Kirkintilloch Road - Carriageway replace and reset gully.
  

Kirkintilloch

• Drumhill - Carriageway Surface Defect Repair
• Northbank Road - Carriageway Surface Defect Repair
• Rotary Way - Footway Water boundary box repairs
• Southbank Drive (plus 9 more) - Carriageway surfacing capital programme 2025/26
• Newdyke Road - Carriageway Install New Traffic Signals 
• Southbank Drive - Carriageway surfacing capital programme 2025/26
• Calico Way - Carriageway Surface Defect Repair.
  

Lenzie

• Orchard Field - Carriageway Surface Defect Repair
• Moncrieff Avenue - Carriageway Surface Defect Repair
• Alder Avenue - Carriageway Surface Defect Repair
• Oak Drive - Carriageway Surface Defect Repair
• Juniper Court - Carriageway Surface Defect Repair
• Laurel Avenue - Carriageway Surface Defect Repair
• Lindsaybeg Road - Carriageway Install New Traffic Signals 
• Craigenbay Crescent - Footway surfacing capital programme 2025/26
• Craigenbay Road - Footway surfacing capital programme 2025/26.
  

Milngavie

• Middleton Drive - Carriageway Surface Defect Repair
• James Watt Road - Carriageway Surface Defect Repair.
  

Milton of Campsie

• Derrywood Road - Carriageway Surface Defect Repair
• Scott Avenue - Carriageway Surface Defect Repair
  
• Cannerton Crescent - Carriageway Surface Defect Repair.

Twechar

• Kelvin View - Carriageway Surface Defect Repair
• Macdonald Crescent - Carriageway Surface Defect Repair
• Auchinstarry Road - Carriageway surfacing capital programme 2025/26.

Waterside

• Bankhead Road - Carriageway Surface Defect Repair.

Carriageways and footways Safety inspection

Between 1 February 2026 and 28 February 2026, East Dunbartonshire Council completed 12 scheduled safety inspections. None of these inspections are related to Footway inspection and all 12 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:

Winter Maintenance - February 2026

Between 1 February 2026 and 28 February 2026, we carried out 103 chemical actions (gritting) in East Dunbartonshire Council. In total we used 436.34 tonnes of salt. Please see below report.

Routine Annual Gully Cleaning – Performance Data (1 April 2026 to 31 February 2026)

As part of our contribution to the How Good Is Our Service report, we are pleased to provide data on routine annual gully cleaning.

• They are a total of 6,040 gullies on primary and key routes within East Dunbartonshire. Between 01 April 2025 and 28 February 2026, a total of 5,014 gullies on these routes were attended for cleaning.
• On secondary routes, there are 14,117 gullies in total. During the same reporting period, we successfully cleaned 13,113 gullies on these routes.
• There are a total of 22,314 gullies exist on all routes in East Dunbartonshire. Between 01 April 2025 and 28 February 2026, a total of 18,833 gullies on these routes were attended for cleaning.
  This data reflects our ongoing commitment to maintaining drainage infrastructure and minimising flood risk across the road network. Please see below table.

Structures

• 2025/26 General and Principal inspections programme near completion. Some CCTV surveys outstanding
• 2026/27 General and Principal inspections programme commenced
• Review & response to abnormal load requests.
• Assisting other departments in the assessment of non-council assets
• Structures framework contract now out to tender
• Procurement process underway for replacement of FB52 Clober Road Footbridge. Expected to go out to tender March
• SCC12 West Board Twechar Main St parapet heightening works commenced. Expected completion early March
• FB04 Westerton Footbridge improvement works commenced. Expected completion mid-March
• Arrangements made for temporary CCTV at SCC17 Lochcrog Rail Bridge as a graffiti deterrent. Camera to be deployed early March
• Contractor appointed for MAC05 Glasgow Rd bridge height restriction signage. Works to be undertaken in March.
• Contractor appointed for FB52 Clober Rd deck improvement works. Works to be undertaken in March
• Review and approval of various aspects of A807 Active Travel design.

Flooding 

• River Glazert Restoration Project, Lennoxtown - Progressing to tender development. Landowner agreement being discussed via EDC Legal for Licence of occupancy with NHS & Balglass Farm
• Kelvin Tributaries Project – SEPA agreement being reviewed by legal before project is re-tendered in new financial year
• Flooding and Drainage - Reviewing capital works for 2026_27 to commence in new financial year. 

Drainage 

• CCTV and Root cutting works carried out at Mains Estate to find route and condition of culvert. Completed
• Remote Reel and CCTV work on Cloberfield, Milngavie. Completed
• Emergency civil works for flooding to footpath at 47 Buchanan Drive Bearsden. Completed
• Baljaffray Road capital works. Completed.
• Officers attended Street Works Supervisor 5-day course
• Assisted Major Assets with survey works Milngavie Youth Centre
• Finalised capital spreadsheet for next financial year
• Douglas Place phase 1 work packs in place for March start.
• Made progress with capital civils contract review
• Uploaded several CCTV reports for capital works
• Made work packs for non-running gullies to be programmed for 26/27
• CCTV and root cutting works carried out at Mains Park, Milngavie to find route and condition of culvert located in area of park
• CCTV investigation works at Balmuildy Road junction as part of active travel corridor road improvements. 

Development

New housing developments at Rob Roy Place and Old Balmore Rd are now adopted by East Dunbartonshire Council

Site visits to monitor progress on developments currently under construction

Site meetings to inspect developments and identify remedial works prior to adoption by East Dunbartonshire Council

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 and temporary traffic management permits

Coordination of future works relating to development sites

SRWR Inspections for Q3 2025/26 have been agreed and sent for invoicing

FPN issued for January 2026

All Capital and Footway surfacing Notices recorded on Register for year 2026/27.

Traffic

• Completion of Iain Road, Bearsden junction improvement project
• 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 the area
• Purchase of 20no Vehicle Activated Signs for 20mph roads
• The mechanisation of School Crossing Patroller sites is ongoing with civils work completed at 11 sites. Some power connections are outstanding.

Streetscene Operations

• Street cleansing and mechanical sweeping; removal of fly posting and uplifting of fly tipping, mechanical street sweeping and installing replacement or additional bins
• Graffiti removal
• Ongoing cemetery operations, digging and carrying out interments, installing headstone foundations, benches etcWinter cyclical works on going; pruning of shrub beds and tree works. Winter gritting.
• Checking and clearance of culverts
• Play park inspection 
• Football pitch lining and School athletic tracks initial marking
• Responding to Customer Service Requests and complaints.
• Removal of dead animals and excess waste at recycling centres.
• Winter servicing of machinery.

Streetscene Technical Support

• Play Area Bishopbriggs Park – contract awarded  - onsite now – due to be complete in April 26
• Play Area at Stanley Drive – contract awarded – due to be complete in March 26
• Play Area Eastside  - contract will be awarded imminently for replacement equipment  - to be completed prior to end of March
• Play Areas – annual external safety inspection complete – reports received – review ongoing
• Merkland Play Area – contractor appointed to remove all equipment as per Technical Note – now complete
• Twechar Pump Track – award now made – start date to be confirmed
• Cemetery Management Rules – Scottish Govt regs now being finalised and implemented prior to March 2026 – EDC rules will now be updated for submission to committee probably for May 2026
• Headstones/Memorials Inspection  – inspections complete at Campsie Cemetery and New Kilpatrick Churchyard   – make safe progressing at Campsie and thereafter to New Kilpatrick
• Cadder Cemetery Extension – Planning application submitted – likely date for determination June 26
• Langfaulds Cemetery - consultants working to finalise design works for next phase
• Ash Dieback Survey on Roadside – further survey complete – analysis ongoing of trees identified – EDC or private and next steps
• Schools Estate – tree survey findings analysed – orders being raised for any priority works – largely complete 
• Tree Planting – programme progressing across the district – works predominantly in Bishopbriggs due to low canopy coverage in this area
• Etive Park Allotments – now fully up and running – Officers working with Allotment Holders to progress an Allotment Association
• Community Growing Facilities – progressing improvement works via Shared Prosperity Fund – programme progressing for 25/26  
• Rosebank Allotments – Officers continue to liaise with Allotment holders and committee
• Nature Restoration Fund – projects identified for 25/26  - all progressing  
• Management Plans – Lenzie Moss, Whitefield Pond, Cairnhill Woods and Heather Avenue – 1st year actions progressing
• TCV Partnership – environmental improvement works are progressing on the John Muir Way  - 3 year programme in total – 2nd year to commence in April 26
• Clyde Valley Green Network – liaison re EDC Wetland Strategy.
• Merkland LNR – Scottish Water undertaking infrastructure works to site – now complete  - reinstatement progressing – discussions with Scottish Water ongoing
• Glazert Project – team input into overall project re trees and biodiversity aspects – planning consent and construction both approved
• School Bulb Show – judging complete with prizes and awards distributed
• 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/Westerhill
• 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

Mugdock Country Park – February 2026 footfall – 50,795. This is 13,000 less than the previous February.  This decrease is directly attributable to the closure of Mugdock Road and Craigallian Road by Stirling Council.

Events

There were nine events hosted by Mugdock Country Park detailed in the table below. In total, 89  people participated in an event at MCP. Two of these events were sold out and the average booking capacity for February 2026 was 63%.

The pre-audited income including VAT was £1161.  This is a decrease from February 2025 which achieved £2,010.  This is attributable to fewer Saturday events, as a consequence of increased weekend volunteering opportunities. 

Forest Families: Gnomes and Homes    

• Capacity - 10    
• Total - 8   
• Total - £64.00
• % Capacity - 80%.

Stargazing at Mugdock: Big Jupes!

• Capacity - 25   
• Total - 25
• Total - £200.00
• % Capacity - 100%.

Forest Families: Woodcraft Wonders

• Capacity - 24 
• Total - 4
• Total - £28.00
• % Capacity - 17%.

Wild at Mugdock: Woodcraft Wonders

• Capacity - 10
• Total - 3
• Total - £24.00
• % Capacity - 30%.

Forest Families: Kites Above

• Capacity - 24
• Total - 10
• Total - £70.00
• % Capacity - 42%.

Wild at Mugdock: Whittling for Adults

• Capacity - 15
• Total - 13
• Total - £104.00
• % Capacity - 87%.

Winter Junior Ranger Camp: Woodlands, Wildlife & Wilderness (3 days)

• Capacity - 10
• Total - 9
• Total - £540.00
• % Capacity - 90%.

Wild at Mugdock: Prussian Blue - Amazing Cyanotype printing for ADULTS

• Capacity - 12
• Total - 12
• Total - £96.00
• % Capacity - 100%.

Forest Families: The Dark Hours of Mugdock

• Capacity - 24
• Total - 5
• Total - £35.00
• % Capacity - 21%.

Total

• Total - 89
• Total - £1,161.00
• % Capacity - 63%.

Exhibitions: EXPLORE! An Exhibition of Works by John Hutchinson.

School Sessions: There were two Mosshead Primary School.

Park Operations

• Regular work: Fire drill, servicing vehicles, edging of carpark, clearing of low roofs, brushing of estate paths of winter debris,  weekly litter picking, daily emptying bins, dog bins, cleaning toilets, weekly courtyard deep clean, bin housings, tables etc., monthly park checks, toadstool trail, car park checks, making new wooden planter covers for courtyard decoration, deep spring clean / organisation of Agricultural Shed and clearing out of old tools.
• Project work: Continuing with installing new play park fence and installation of new fence/ramp in the Walled Garden manufacture / installation of gates to the new Play Area, chipping storm debris with hired chipper in Gallowhill as part of the Gallowhill project, and working with Community Pay Back volunteers on clearing felling piles and tidying stone dykes as part of the Gallowhill Project. 
• Reactive site maintenance: clearing courtyard drains due to heavy rainfall. 
• Income generation: Market set up, Courtyard decoration production, weekly banking, room booking set up. 

Ranger tasks

Over February there were 10 volunteer days (50hrs) with a total of 66 volunteers. During that time-period the following was carried out:

• Boardwalk replacement: 4 meters of boardwalk removed, with stobs and runners and treads replaced (Moothill)
• Heathland management: 10 2mx2m heather patches cut on primary heathland (Drumclog Moor SSSI)
• Grassland management: removal of gorse from grassland to benefit floristic value (Drumclog Moor SSSI)
• Woodland management: deer exclosure rotation. 21/35 completed (Mugdock Wood SSSI)
• Grassland management: Brush cut and remove raspberry thickets (Craigend Field)
• Invasive species removal: clear and burn a large section of rhododendron (Lower Peitches Moor)

Visitor Centre – 

• The total unaudited Retail takings for January 2026 were £1,373  inc VAT. This equated to January 2025, which achieved £1,985. As with December 2025 and January 2026, the largest sellers were Homeware followed by Clothing. February takings are down on February 2025 which achieved £1,825, and can be attributed to the reduction in visitor numbers. 

Non-retail income comprised of:

DONATIONS - 95.35
LETS (Non Vat) - 276.00
LETS (VATABLE) - 618.00

• The social communication campaign was centred on snow scenes around the Park
• Printed What’s On leaflets for March and April 2026 are available from shop
• April’s What’s On event posters and easter posters are displayed at MCP and locally. 

• Play Area work has commenced
• Decorative screen:  has been installed, new steps are built and Electrical design for the bandstand lights are awaited.

• The Clyde Valley Residual Waste contract accepted 1438 tonnes of general waste throughout February from our households and Street Cleansing Tems for recycling pre-sort, and then ongoing production of energy from waste. This was a reduction of 14% compared to February 2025.
• The Garden Waste Permit applications are live ahead of the garden season commencing in March.  In February 13934 permits were purchased, making a total of 16974 permits purchased ahead of the service start date.
• Mavis Valley Household Waste Recycling Centre received 10,172 bookings throughout February.
• The team have continued work with colleagues in Business Change to bring the Mavis Valley booking system in-house.  The launch date has now been confirmed as 13th April 2026.
• The team have implemented a new commercial route review.  There has been a focus around optimising the routes, ensuring all contracted agreements are adhered to and creating new procedures.
• Waste Services Officers have been present on the vehicle during the implementation speaking to our customers and assisting the frontline crews with contractual agreements.
• The Waste Technical and Compliance Team dealt with 53 Corporate Complaints in February.
• The Waste Technical and Compliance Team dealt with 761 general enquiries in February.
• The team attended a Zero Waste Scotland Reuse Workshop to support in developing a framework and guidance document intended to be used by councils across Scotland.
• The changes to the frontline residual collection frequency has encouraged residents to utilise the food recycling available at the kerbside. We have noted an increase in food waste tonnage of 8% in comparison to February 2025.

• Between 1 to 29 February 2026, the team inspected and repaired 245 vehicles and items of plant, all in accordance with our servicing schedules and defect procedures. Of which, 78% of these jobs were completed within three days of the initial booking
• We are currently awaiting delivery of several new vehicles and plant assets to replace older equipment as part of our scheduled fleet replacement programme
• We continue to support Council services by delivering ASN transport and distributing essential supplies to vulnerable residents, including meals for early years facilities and lunch clubs
• Work is progressing on managing the capital programme for fleet asset replacements throughout the financial year.
• We are maintaining our CPC training schedule to ensure all relevant drivers meet their requirements before the deadline. Furthermore, we continue to manage our fleet operations in full compliance with operator licensing legislation, maintaining a 'Green' DVSA Operator Compliance Risk Score for both Traffic and Compliance
• Our in-house maintenance team continues to support front-line operations, covering everything from standard vehicle repairs to the upkeep of horticultural and construction plant equipment
• We are currently in the process of replacing our Fleet Management and Telematics systems, as well as undertaking a full update of our Fleet Policy
• We have implemented a data-led approach to fleet management, evidenced by our recent utilisation analysis. With an overall fleet utilisation rate of 93.02%, we are successfully meeting operational demands. Furthermore, by using telematics data to identify under-utilised assets, we can refine our vehicle replacement programme, ensuring resources are focused on high-demand service areas while driving down the overall fleet size
• We are actively monitoring external hires.