How Good is Our Service - September 2025

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Voids performance in September is at 97.3%, up from 86.8% in August and is above 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. 

Property Maintenance have achieved our target of 100% for Gas Servicing in September with 372 properties serviced in the month.  We continue to achieve our target each month, and we are confident this will continue throughout 2025/26. 

Non-Emergency repairs performance in September exceeds our target of 12 days with an average turnaround of 10.21 days for the month, which is slightly up from 10.44 days in August.  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. 

A revised school lunch menu was implemented at the start of the new term in August. The Service has received positive feedback from pupils and schools in relation to the school lunch menu. Following discussions with Education, a new coloured band process will be implemented in Craigdhu PS ensuring pupils are provided with the meal choice chosen by parents. 

The uptake in school meals within the Secondary schools was 55% which is substantially higher than the months prior to the summer holiday period. The Primary School uptake in school meals for September was 70%. 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 61% of the school menus now using locally sourced produce.

Four of the first 15 new mechanised crossing points have been installed at Wester Cleddens Road (at St Helen’s Primary School), Lammermoor Road (serving Oxgang PS), Wester Cleddens Road (at Rannoch Gardens) and Wester Cleddens Road (at Abbotsford). The recruitment exercise for additional school crossing patrollers is being progressed with a view to staffing all vacant crossing points which are not currently or due to be mechanised. The service has robust measures in place to monitor performance with regards gas safety compliance across the Operational Estate. 

Estates & Facilities are currently leading on obtaining new EICR’s for all educational properties over the coming months, which need updated every 5 years.  

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. Works to Colquhoun Park PS (senior area) and Balmuildy PS (infant area) have been addressed following substantial water ingress as a result of recent bad weather. Works are still progressing to replace the biomass flue to ensure the biomass remains operational over the winter period at Castlehill PS.  

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 marketing of Lenzie Public Hall has commenced with the deadline for offers extended to 21 November following requests from two local Community Groups who have shown an interest in the building
 
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.  

Good progress continues to be made through the detailed design and construction tender process for the Westerhill Development Road project. The Stage 2 report for the project, seeking approval for the final total development cost, will be considered by Council in December 2025 ahead of a target construction phase start in Easter 2026.

Works continue to progress at Bearsden Community Hub to remove and replace RAAC from the roof on the extension at the rear of the building (completion expected in January 2026) and refurbishments of Milngavie Primary School (completion July 2026); Campsie Memorial Hall (February 2026); Torrance Community Centre (February 2026) and through the construction of a replacement Balmuildy Primary School.

The development of design proposals for the new Lenzie Academy project at Whitegates Park remain underway, with the proposal of planning application notice submitted in May. The second round of pre-application consultation events are scheduled to take place before at the end of October 2025 and will be followed by the submission of the planning application in December 2025.

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.  A Stage 1 report for the Milngavie Early Years project, including an update on design proposals, costs and development programme will be submitted for consideration by Council in December 2025.

The Service continues to develop the next phase of a building decarbonisation strategy for the school estate, operational estate and for the existing affordable housing stock, with a variety of surveys, pilot projects and further feasibility reviews planned throughout the remainder of this and next financial year.  

The 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 installation of External Wall Insulation to targeted properties in Bearsden, Milngavie and Kirkintilloch and Cavity Wall Insulation to properties at Lennox and Park Avenue, Bearsden is now complete.  

Planning applications for the development of affordable housing by the Council at the site of the former Merkland School, Kirkintilloch, the site of the former Campsie View School, Lenzie and the site at Nithsdale Crescent, Bearsden will be considered in October. Planning submissions have been submitted for sites at the former Main Street in Torrance and the site of the former Auchinairn Primary School.

At Twechar Canalside, the construction of 15no. affordable Passivhaus houses is underway and continues to make good progress.

• 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. Further upgrades are due to take place in the coming weeks
• 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 October and November
• 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 September 2025, the service continued to engage in the local Co-Production arrangement with Police Scotland, with regular community harm and risk meetings being held to provide the focus for joint work and activity to protect local communities across the East Dunbartonshire area. The service also continued to develop intelligence led approaches for all areas of work to target local public health, community safety and consumer protection activity towards the areas of greatest need, risk and priority.

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 complaints and service requests. Officers also responded to internal consultations such as licence applications and planning applications. 

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 started to deliver enforcement work in relation to the new Transport (Scotland) Act 2019 parking prohibitions relating to pavement, double and dropped kerb parking across the Council area from the beginning of September. Parking enforcement activity to support the traffic free schools’ pilot and all other school areas was also prevalent during the month of September.    

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. Throughout September, Licensing Advisors were involved with service provision in relation to civic licensed events and liquor licensing across the council area. Trading Standards continued to liaise with partner organisations on issues of doorstep crime and consumer fraud and provided scam awareness training and assistance to those affected. Licensing Advisers and Trading Standards Officers in the team also continued to deliver proactive inspection work, along with reactive service request work and project activity directed at a range of business premises across the area (including age restricted product sales test purchase programming, fair trading and civic / liquor licensing).  

Vaccination clinics in Kirkintilloch Town Hall and Milngavie Town Hall are preparing to deliver the winter programme increasing to 2 days per week in each location from October in partnership with NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.

Our Resettlement Team offers compassionate, tailored support to individuals and families participating in humanitarian programmes.  By recognising and responding to each person’s unique needs and circumstances, the team fosters a respectful and empowering approach that encourages self-determination. This works pays a crucial role in helping people settle successfully in east Dunbartonshire, while also contributing to stronger, more connected and resilient communities. In addition, the team works closely with national partners and organisations involved in providing asylum accommodation and wider support. 

The Grant Advisory Committee met along with team members to assess Community Grant applications and recommend funding for approval at Community Planning Partnership Board meeting on 9th October.

The Equality Mainstreaming consultation has now been concluded, with the team currently coding and analysing responses to inform the forthcoming report for Committee. This consultation saw a welcome increase in engagement and participation from our residents, businesses and employees, providing valuable insights that will strengthen the report’s findings and support future equality planning.

Health Issues in the Community Course commenced. This is delivered by colleagues in partnership with Social Care Partnership at The Hive in Lennoxtown. The course will run for 11 weeks and will explore the way issues affect our health including employment, food, income, housing and poverty.

Colleagues within the team are working to deliver Drama workshops and themed workshops for children during October school holidays in most deprived areas.

Housing manages 3,893 social rented properties; 3,810 of these are mainstream accommodation and 83 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 3,336 applications - made up of the following:

• General Waiting list - 2,499 applicants waiting (3 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 - 608 applicants (5 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) - 241 applicants (7 of which are on offer) (Applicants who have no accommodation or will have nowhere to stay within the next 2 months. This queue does not allow the applicant to choose area or house type)
• Priority waiting list (Urgent medical) - 2 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, 4 properties were allocated. All of which were general needs. 

They were let to the following queues:

• 2 to the priority homeless queue
• 1 to the transfer queue
• 1 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
• Officers responded to several noise complaints for an event held at Woodhead Park organised by Home Church
• An Officer took an annual water sample of the regulated private water supply as part of our statutory duties under The Water Intended for Human Consumption (Private Supplies) (Scotland) Regulations 2017. The results indicated a failure on microbiological parameters at the point of sample which was a domestic house - this has been followed up by Officers
• Service of a health and safety prohibition notice at a food business for an illegal piece of gas equipment
• Three hygiene improvement notices for food hygiene were served on two different food business
• Officers served East Dunbartonshire Council’s first Compliance Notice on a food business in Bishopbriggs for inadequate allergen information being available to consumers
• 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 new parking restrictions across the authority relating to pavement, double and dropped kerb parking
• Community Warden attendance at training events with Alzheimers Scotland to qualify as dementia friends and with MCR Pathways to become mentors under their national programme
• Community Warden engagement to develop links on community safety matters at several local forums (e.g., Bishopbriggs Dementia Café, Craigdhu Primary School, Milngavie Church, and in the Milngavie area generally as part of co-production work relating to Rural Crime Week)
• Delivery of targeted dog fouling patrols and initiatives across a range of parks, open spaces and other known issue areas within East Dunbartonshire
• Delivery of anti-social behaviour patrols at a range of hot spot locations across the neighbourhood with an increased visible presence across local communities
• Inspections, reactive service request visits and targeted project work by the Trading Standards Team throughout the reporting period to maintain local compliance with consumer protection legislation with specific consideration to the home improvement sector and age restricted sales
• 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
• Provision of tailored advice to businesses requiring Public Entertainment Licences and/or amendments to liquor licences
• Introduction and incorporation into the team of some new Trading Standards Officer resource
• Increased submission of logs to the National Intelligence Database for Trading Standards with contribution to the wiser national and cross authority picture.

Community Planning and Partnerships Team

• Round 1 2025-26 Community Grant Scheme closed on 25th July and the Grant Advisory Committee met in September and made their recommendations that will be put to the CPP Board in October
• The team delivers targeted community development, using a variety of tools to address inequality in our place areas. A program of October school holiday events are in the late planning stages and will be held within our identified place areas
• The Resettlement Team continues to collaborate with both local and national organisations to deliver a humanitarian resettlement programme that is centred on the needs and experiences of each individual and family
• Health Issues in the Community Course is being delivered in Lennoxtown, in partnership with The Hive
• Wellness Kitchens are being delivered to a targeted audience, providing more than just nutritious meals. They offer an opportunity for participants to connect, share experiences and build supportive networks, while also addressing health and wellbeing inequalities within the community. Through this approach, the programme fosters stronger social connections and empowers individuals to make positive changes in their lives
• Delivered East Dunbartonshire’s first dedicated Gaelic Day, the event would provide a rich and inclusive programme of community based adult learning classes designed to promote language learning, celebrate Gaelic culture and create new pathways for community participation in Gaelic.

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

• The Estates team received 8 new reports of anti-social behaviour during the month of June and 4 open cases were resolved
• There were 11 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
• Half day training session at Macgregor House this month focused on updates from each area of housing including Rents, Policy, Estates and Homelessness with an overview and was well attended
• 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 Recharges
• 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
• Ensuring turn around times on void properties fall and offers are out with applicants on these properties
• Decrease in homeless applications; 21 applicants made a homeless application during September (-22% compared to x27 applications last month)
• 12 households were supported by the Homelessness Out of Hours Service (decrease since last month – 14)
• 11 homeless applicants were made an offer of settled accommodation.  None of which had been waiting longer than 3 years
• 13 households were moved to temporary accommodation
• 5 households referred to the Rent Deposit Guarantee Scheme (x5 housed) and x5 households assisted with RSL/HA rent in advance to move to settled accommodation
• No households were placed within unsuitable accommodation during September and no breaches of the UAO, however the Council is at immediate risk of breaches due to pressure of case numbers
• 4 EDC tenants with arrears were referred for Prevention Advice. To date 10 EDC tenants with arrears have been referred for Prevention fund
• Temporary Accommodation satisfaction survey was sent out to customer moving into temporary accommodation between 1 August and 24 September, 60% return rate to date
• Rapid Access contract awarded to the Blue Triangle.  Further update on contract and service provision will be given at a later date
• The Council’s Landlord Registration Officer received 103 applications; 19 new registrations, 40 renewals and 44 updates.  The council collected £4,931 income during July 2025
• The Councils RRTP report for 2024/5 was returned to the Scottish Government (due date 3 October 2025)
• Two team members successfully completed their Level 4 Housing Diploma at Motherwell College.

Key areas of focus in September for the Communications & Engagement team included launch of pavement parking enforcement, graffiti reporting and Trading Standards messaging.

Media relations remained consistent this month with 11 releases issued (10 in August), three photocalls (three in August) and 14 media enquiries dealt with (30 in August.)

All releases are on the news section and the local coverage achieved equated to an equivalent advertising value of £7,304 (£7,032 in August).

Facebook, X, Instagram and LinkedIn all saw increases in followers with the most popular posts this month relating to pavement parking enforcement, new Lenzie Academy consultation and Balmuildy Primary school sod cutting.

Across the Council’s four social media channels the average engagement rate was 2.6% (a good engagement rate is 0.5, anything above 1 is deemed great).

The Council website had 155,400 visits (excluding internal traffic) with the most popular page Bins and Recycling receiving 21,280 views.

There were 4,270 call-to-action button clicks, 2,883 of these were customers completing online forms.

The most watched video on Facebook was Save Time, Report it Online with 2,353 views and on YouTube it was LDP3 Call for Sites and Ideas with 376 views.

One video was created this month with 57 design jobs completed overall.

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

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

The Customer Services team handled a variety of customer enquiries and requests including 9,019 phone calls, 110 Community Hub appointments and 748 Community Hub drop-ins, these figures are broadly similar to the previous month. Throughout September the team focussed on improving enquiry response times, it is essential the team provides a prompt and efficient service to customers across all contact channels, this targeted approach significantly reduced the number of enquiries awaiting action and improved call answer time. Work will continue to maintain and improve overall response times. 

Final configuration and testing of Community Hub appointment functionality within the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system took place this month. This will enable customers to make an appointment online when they need to come in to see the Customer Services team. Currently appointments can be arranged via telephone only, this new option provides customers with greater choice and will enable them to make appointments themselves outwith office hours. This is part of our approach to increasing digital access to services and it is anticipated this will be live in November 2025.  

Interviews were held for an Emergency Response Centre Agent vacancy; the successful candidate will join the team in early November when all requirements of the recruitment process have been completed.

Progress continues to be made in the analogue to digital change programme, work has begun to replace analogue telecare equipment in the sheltered housing complexes across East Dunbartonshire, the Emergency Response Centre team continue to carry out essential admin tasks on the call handling platform as well as undertaking the testing of equipment. 

The CCTV replacement project has faced technical challenges; however, it is anticipated that progress will be made as these various technical issues are resolved. 

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.

A key focus for the team in 2025/26 is the implementation of the new Oracle Fusion HR & Payroll system to replace the iTrent system which is over 10 years old. The implementation of the new system is incredibly resource intensive involving many of the HR & OD teams and wider teams across the Council.

Communications & Engagement

• Continued to promote the Gambling and LDP3 consultations
• Completed design work to promote Mugdock Park’s upcoming event programme including Halloween map, what’s on brochure and Plain Bob event
• Supported Civil Contingencies during Storm Amy with key messaging related to flood reporting
• Proofed, designed and online publication of the Strategic Housing Investment Programme 2025 for issuing to Scottish Government
• Supported the Winter Service Policy launch with design and website publication as well as planning of Name a Gritter competition. 
  •    Promotion of key awareness days including 999 Emergency Services Day, Suicide Prevention Week and National Fitness Day.

Corporate Performance

• The comprehensive annual Local Government Benchmarking Framework (LGBF) overview was finalised for reporting to the October meeting of Council
• The development of revised complaints handling procedures, including a Complaints Handling Toolkit and training materials for introduction in Q3 2025/26 continued
• The CRM system was updated to include further categories of complaints for enhanced complaints reporting from Q3 2025/26
• Continued assistance was provided to the change team in relation to the rollout of Oracle Fusion particularly on the Data Migration requirements from the old to new system
• Data support and assistance provided in the ongoing reviews of disability services in the Health and Social Care Partnership.

Customer Services

• Targeted action was  taken to improve customer enquiry phone response times, balanced with digital and social media online demands and face to face service delivery in the Community Hubs
• Progress continues to be made developing and implementing additional functionality across the primary systems used across the Customer Services team
• The team continues to provide support and assistance to teams across the Council as well as residents and customers, particularly in relation to service delivery change and in response to emergency and civil contingency situations. 

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
• 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
• Following implementation of the new rates of Local Government Pay Award in August, HR and Payroll implemented the back pay due in September payrun
• 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 ongoing operational work
• With multiple HCM project workstreams continuing, in September the service worked on Data Migration processes to refine these ahead of the live cutover from old to new HR & Payroll system
• The People Development team delivered sessions across a number of topics including SMART Working, H&S, Induction and EDC policy sessions. In total 211 delegates received training across topics in September 2025
• People Development have been supporting/facilitating sessions in First Aid, REHIS & Education Leadership Programme administration, plus Oracle HCM testing.

• The Summer Reading Challenge concluded with 1,018 children signing up to join the challenge, with the theme “Story Garden”. 529 children completed the challenge by borrowing and reading 6 books or more over the school Summer holiday period
• The library service Children & Families team ran the Festival of Facts; an annual celebration of non-fiction material. The theme this year was Ingenious Inventions, chosen to fit in with the Coding & Gaming project, funded by the Public Libraries Improvement Fund (PLIF). Activities were held in Westerton and William Patrick Libraries, and included Virtual Reality tasters, Reversing goggles that turn the world upside down, Invention Bingo and a visit from Zoolab with a presentation about how engineers have taken inspiration from the natural world to create ingenious inventions. Over one hundred participants took part
• Feedback from Festival of Facts
  “Well organised event – my 6 year old loved it.”
  “Zoolab presentation was excellent.”
  “We’re really happy that events like these are available in our town.”
  “General ‘good buzz’ in library, happy children reading, colouring. Big thank you!”
• 325 people attended events at Westerton Library, which opened its doors as part of Westerton Gala Day.  Events ranged from a talk from author Cee Tee Jackson to a massage therapist!
• The Conversation Café formally started on 16 September, following on from successful taster sessions. These informal social events are designed to support those for whom English is a second language
• 750 visitors attended events across 17 venues which took part in this year’s Doors Open Day. The events were so popular this year that one venue had to remain open for longer than scheduled, due to demand. Visitor feedback was incredibly positive, with many people discovering venues for the first time. Staff and volunteers commented on how fantastic it was to be involved in the events and activities. This year saw an increase of 129% in visitors, compared with last year
• The Lillie Art Gallery, opened “Scotlantartica” an exhibition by artist Michael Durning. The exhibition explores the history of Scots in Antarctica. The Artist gave a talk as part of the national Art History Festival  2025
• “Civic Through The Years: Land and Sea” opened at Kirkintilloch Town Hall. This is an exhibition of Art work created by Artists who live or work locally in East Dunbartonshire
• Archive & Local Studies received 1739 visitors and 386 enquiries. 127 people attended a series of workshops, events and school visits as well as a new Family History Course. 

• The Leisuredrome celebrated National Fitness Day on Wednesday 24 September 2025
• Free swimming, badminton, pickleball and group fitness classes were made available to EDLC members and our wider communities. The activities were enjoyed by many and the feedback from participants was very positive. Having started back in 2011, National Fitness Day has seen millions get involved each year and while bringing people together through physical activity has a hugely positive impact, the campaign has evolved to encourage everyone to view this day as just one step in a much bigger journey. Last year this was evidence when we achieve 70 new memberships on the day but on this occasion the number of new sign ups were low. However, the main hall participation was exceptional attracting many new customers to the likes of pickleball and badminton
• Charlie’s Big Adventure Soft Play introduced taster sessions for crafts for 5 – 12 years on Friday 19th and Monday 22 September. The sessions were full, and the feedback was excellent. Plans afoot to implement this activity on a weekly basis going forward.

• Gym attendances for 12-15 years achieved 3,232 visits. Friday evening proved to be hugely popular and long waiting times were a result. Sessions of 50 minutes were created to help alleviate the issue. Ensuring numbers were manageable and there was no wait time
• The sauna/steam area still provides significant revenue each period. Averaging nearly £10,000 per period. This still provides some challenges and there are further requests for female only sessions. 

Kirkintilloch Leisure Centre Gym experienced another successful period with 12,483 visits, over a thousand more than in the same period last year. Swimming saw a 9% increase over the previous year and overall the Centre’s usage was up 7% on September 2024.

ED & WD Meeting

The East Dunbartonshire Active Schools team met with their counterparts from West Dunbartonshire for a networking session aimed at sharing ideas and strengthening collaboration. During the meeting, both teams presented examples of good practice and discussed key themes related to their work. The main purpose was to build connections with another local authority and gather fresh ideas to enhance the Active Schools programme in East Dunbartonshire.

Fit for Girls Programme Launch

The Active Schools team have been working in partnership with sportscotland and the Youth Sport Trust to bring the Fit for Girls programme to East Dunbartonshire. Three S3 girls were selected from 8 secondary school to create a cohort of Fit for Girls Ambassadors. The pupils attended a series of workshops designed to enable the girls to make a significant positive impact on female participation in school sport.

The aim of the programme is to:

• Increase girls’ participation in sport/physical activity by addressing challenges
• Raise the profile of sport/physical activity for girls and young women
• Support a group of girls to help address these challenges within their own school environment.

The Fit for Girls Ambassadors will continue to work closely with the Active Schools team as they look to implement their ideas in their own schools.

Dance Leaders training

The Active Schools team recently hosted a 4-day Dance Leaders training course for pupils from East Dunbartonshire secondary schools as part of their Young Leader training programme. The training aims to upskill these pupils in their delivery of dance and to help them develop their leadership skills. The pupils who attended now have their SCQG Level 4 in Dance Leadership qualification and will go on to deliver dance sessions in their own secondary schools and cluster primary schools.

Whole Family Wellbeing Fund

Active schools and Community Sport launched the Whole Family Wellbeing Fund programme with 1 swimming session and 1 multi sports session. Our swimming session seen 8 children from Woodland View attend the Allander LC for a block of 6 weeks of swimming. Our first block of multi sports sessions took place in the ELR unit in Harestanes PS, with gymnastics coaches delivering a range of different movements to the participants.  The programme will continue through the academic year with targets sessions in EDCs ELR and Nurture units hopefully encouraging families to attend our leisure centres and utilise the free family swim pass.

Community Sport - Framework and Syllabus

After our community sports in-service and training days, a new framework and syllabus for our dryside community sports classes was created. The community sport coordinators along with sports coaches created a 20 week syllabus which will be followed for all community sports classes. The framework was launched in Kirkintilloch LC with feedback to be provided from the coaches over the next month and developed within a working group. Once completed the same framework will be used to create consistency across all 3 sites in our community sports classes.

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

• In line with the Education Service Plan 2025 – 2028 all the IMAGINE Leadership Groups have been meeting to identify their priorities for the first year of their plan. This includes clear priorities, tasks, timescales and evaluations of impact
• The IMAGINE Leadership Group has formed and collaboratively agreed an action plan based on the Leadership Strategic Framework. Key areas of focus include the implementation of leadership Professional Learning for Senior and Middle leaders, the development of Early Years Practitioner Leadership Pathways and the development of support networks for Depute Head Teachers
• The IMAGINE Partnerships group have met and agreed an action plan. Key priorities for the group are implementing the Parenting Strategy, create a Supporting Families Strategic Framework, develop a Transition Policy and approaches, and launch the Mental Health Strategy
• The IMAGINE Learning and Teaching Group met to review actions and outcomes in Priority 2 of the Education Service Plan, with a view to developing a shared understanding of these across all sectors. The group engaged in professional dialogue to begin to build a team, sharing experiences, skills and views about the role of the IMAGINE learning and teaching group.

• St Matthew's Primary School achieved the Gold Sports Scotland Award and four aspects of the STEM Nation Award; Leadership in STEM, STEM Family Learning, Employability and STEM Partnership Working and STEM Curriculum and Learner Pathways
• Meadowburn Primary School achieved their STEM Nation Aware in all five areas in both English Medium Education and Gaelic Medium Education. The school also successfully achieved their Gold Reading Schools Award
• Craighead Primary successfully achieved their Silver Rights Respecting Schools award
• Gartconner EYC have been awarded a Maths Week Scotland 2025 Small Grant Fund to support the creation of a series of Wild Maths experiences. The children will be involved in nature-based learning that brings maths alive through stories, planting and open-ended play.

Early Years, Primary, Secondary and Supporting Families

• All schools and Early Years Centres (EYCs) have received focused and constructive School Improvement Plan and Standard and Quality report feedback from Quality Improvement Officers (QIOs).  QIOs have had an initial Quality Assurance Visit to all establishments to discuss priorities and support continual improvement
• The implementation of aspects of the Leadership Strategic Framework have successfully begun. The first of the rolling programme of Corporate Policy Professional Learning was delivered by the People Development officer. Targeted at Senior Leaders across the Primary, Secondary, ASN and Early Years sector the focus on the EDC Attendance Management Policy provided participants the opportunity to understand the effective implementation of the policy
• As part of the Leadership Strategic Framework 22 applicants across the Primary and Secondary sector were successful in applying for the EDC Middle Leaders Leading Change programme. Focusing on supporting aspiring and substantive Middle Leaders to develop their leadership knowledge and skills the programme will begin in October
• Early Progress Reports for all probationers have been submitted to the Local Authority. Almost all probationers are making satisfactory progress. A few probationers have been identified as requiring a higher level of support resulting in additional supports being identified as part of individual action plans
• Almost all probationers have participated in five high quality professional learning session delivered by the Probationer Manager, Central Team Officers and Teaching staff to support improving their pedagogical practice
• All Early Years Centres have been offered the opportunity to attend Learning Partnership Groups (LPGs) for Heads and Deputes and Senior Early Years Workers. Almost all centres were represented. An introduction to the new shared Quality Framework was presented to all with the new format of HMIE and Care Inspectorate Inspections discussed. The Self Evaluation Toolkit developed to support evidence-based evaluations was shared and further support will be offered to centres with regards to implementation
• Information and guidance related to Protection of Vulnerable Groups (PVG) checks, including for volunteers, work experience pupils, external organisation staff, and parent groups was shared with all Head Teachers
• Updates on Additional Support Needs (ASN) and Children's Services, specifically guidance on SEEMiS Pastoral Noting and updated Child Protection file contents was shared with all Head Teachers
• Secondary school Head Teachers worked on two workshops - SQA results, including a review of cumulative attainment data for S4, S5, and S6 pupils, and the sharing of authority targets for 2026 and reviewing School Improvement Planning
• 8 cluster training sessions on the new Framework for Equity in Literacy have taken place with 488 practitioners attending. 87% of primary schools were represented, 63% of secondary schools and practitioners from ASN also attended. Evaluations from the sessions were very positive with almost all practitioners acknowledging that the training has increased their understanding of the framework and its purpose
• 6 primary schools have started on their Reading Recovery journey, with a further 4 schools engaging in year 2 of the training
• Almost all primary schools have registered to take part in the Euroquiz 2026 Heats. The East Dunbartonshire Council Heats are scheduled to take place in March 2026, with the winners representing the Council at the final in Edinburgh in June 2026
• The Literacy Development Officer has established a Teacher Reading Group. The aims of the group are to foster young people’s reading for pleasure through supporting teachers’/members’ own reading for pleasure and research informed practice as well as supporting the profession by building a professional community around reading for pleasure. There is representation from 7 of our primary schools on the group.

Additional Support Needs (ASN) and Children’s Services

• 11 education staff enrolled on an Introduction to British Sign Language (BSL) course delivered in partnership with New College Lanarkshire in the Kirkintilloch Learning Campus. Staff are part of school communities identified as a priority in upskilling staff to better support pupils that require BSL support. Upon completion, staff will have achieved SCQF Level 3 by January 2026 by completing in-person twilight sessions every Wednesday. Progression to SCQF Level 4 is being planned too
• Early Years Depute Head of Centres and Managers took part in a Supporting Learners session on 01/09/2025, learning about topics such as parental supports, building safety and resilience in stakeholders and promoting a positive culture/ethos in centres
• The ASN Leads meeting took place in September 2025. Almost all schools attended, and all evaluations were positive demonstrating a shared and deeper understanding of the topics covered: Pans Panda Condition and Supports and NSPCC new materials and resources. Additional updates were provided about the Interpretation Service which will ensure a coherent approach to accessing translation and interpreter services in all schools. Analysis of LLG data was shared. This helps identify areas of need with a view to sharing resources within each cluster
• Pastoral Notes and Chronology Guidance is completed. This was shared with all head teachers at both the primary and secondary head teacher meetings (11th and 18th September) as well as to the ASN leads. The Guidance will ensure children's records are used and updated as relevant and appropriate
• Chronology and Bullying and Equalities (BEM) training session was delivered to the Guidance team at Boclair Academy in September 2025. This is part of an ongoing training agenda to build staff capacity in using both SEEMiS modules. Quality assurance of effective use of chronologies and BEM is carried out through quality reviews and Child Protection Audits. All staff highly evaluated the training session. Analysis of BEM data is reviewed annually.

Educational Psychology Service (EPS)

• Further revisions have been made to the draft dyslexia guidance. An enhanced working group has been established, and plans are in place to develop the guidance into an education service strategy
• SHINE twilights have been delivered to primary and secondary school staff on the local authority results from the SHINE Survey. Advice has been shared with all schools on how to use the school level reports to address the mental health needs of their pupils
• EPS continues to co-deliver of Transforming Connections Level 2 trauma training which has been positively evaluated by multi-agency participants
• An Introductory session took place for practitioners new to play pedagogy (Early Level) and 4 Early Years Centres/schools hosted visits for practitioners to see their practice in action
• EPS continues to co-deliver of Transforming Connections Level 2 trauma training which has been positively evaluated by multi-agency participants
• In September there was an Introduction session for practitioners new to play pedagogy (Early Level) and 4 Early Years Centres/schools hosted visits for practitioners to see their practice in action.  

School Planning and Improvement

• The annual Census for Pupil, Teachers and Early Years was performed mid September in line with Scottish Government guidelines. Awaiting update from Scottish Government prior to finalisation and results are generally released to all Local Authorities early December
• Work continues to progress well with the project for the programme of works at Milngavie Primary School.  A visit has been made to the school and discussions have taken place to provide the pupils with progress update at future school assemblies
• Balmuildy Primary School rebuilt project continues to progress well, with the construction team beginning the works of the new building.

Skills for Life, Learning and Work

Count Me In - Adult Learning 

Having successfully applied for SQA accreditation to deliver National 5 Applications of Maths, over 20 learners have signed up to begin this course. This is in addition to currently ongoing courses in National 3 Numeracy, National 4 Applications of Maths and bespoke adult numeracy.

Links have been developed with the Parental Employability Programme to deliver Financial Skills, Money Handling and Supporting Learners in Numeracy training courses 

Family Numeracy Learning sessions have continued in a number of new as well as previously visited schools across the authority, while an SLA Supporting Learners with Numeracy training day scheduled for October 10th currently has 40 staff members signed up to attend.

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The month of September saw the Finance Team continuing year end tasks required for the collation of 2024/25 accounts, completing the first monitoring reports of the financial year and planning for the 2026/27 budgets. In addition, the team continues to respond to audit queries on the 2023/24 accounts. 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 two fewer accountants, and some absence within the team.

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 will be provided after the 2024/25 accounts are complete, however the first report for 2025/26 has been submitted.

The team is now beginning the 2026/27 budget process, agreeing and distributing the guidelines and timetable, in order to provide a balanced position in a highly challenging financial context.

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 55.25% is very slightly behind the target of 55.63% for the year. The Council’s Recovery and Enforcement Procedures continue to be applied, and individuals being signposted to the exemptions and discounts available as appropriate.

The 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. The Transport Team informed successful applicants for  concessionary travel seat applications. The General Team continue to adapt to the new process for overtime administration in preparation for the new payroll system. 

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 1291 tickets in September  and dealt with 320 telephone calls. ICT continues to support the delivery of major projects in conjunction with the Business & Digital Change Team and Major Assets team. The ICT Security team continues to monitor the estate and perimeter defences alongside ongoing improvements to ensure that our systems and data are protected.

The maximisation of housing rental income and pursuit of rent arrears continues to be a priority for the service, 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 £1,059,486.67 are currently £63,976.13 lower than the projected target of £1,123,462.80 for this period, 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

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

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

Work continues towards completion of several audits on the 2024/25 plan as the team provides assurance over key areas of risk, making recommendations and following up on these to improve the control environment. A gap analysis and action plan for the new Global Internal Audit Standards (GIAS) has been developed and will be progressed.  Audits completed in the period include the Administration of Medication and Un-Notified Absences. Audits near completion include Complaints Management, Green Waste Permits and a review of the Supply Teacher Database.     
 
Work is progressing on the completion of the Council’s Annual Governance Statement 2024/25. 

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. The team continue to review the high-risk and high-value matches. The matching of Council Tax records against Electoral Registration records is nearing completion, the savings and additional income identified now total £0.360m. The review of data matches against HMRC is ongoing and is not anticipated to continue throughout the year. A tailored training programme is being developed 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 01/09/2025, 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.

Finance 

• Responding to audit queries on the 2023/24 draft accounts
• Timeline agreed for the 2024/25 year end with work on year-end tasks underway
• First monitoring reports for 25/26 produced
• Finance team is working with Mastek to upload budgets for 2025/26
• 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 is hoped to be followed 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
• First Treasury management report of year submitted for review.

Revenues and Benefits 

• In the month of September, the team issued:
  • 3,060 Council Tax bills and 10, 060 Benefits notifications; and,
  • 125 Non-Domestic Rates bills
• 355 crisis grants and community care grant applications were received
• The team received and dealt with 1,520 documents for Council Tax queries and reduction and 560 for benefits. In addition, the team received 2,500 ATLAS notifications from DWP
• The team dealt with 2,450 telephone enquiries.

ICT Services 

• ICT Services are working closely with the Business and Digital Change Team to implement M365  
• The Infrastructure Team:
  • Installed 107 Interactive Panels at 10 primary schools: Baljaffray, Balmuildy, Castlehill, Colquhoun Park, Meadowburn, Millersneuk, Oxgang, St Helen’s, Thomas Muir and Westerton
  • Replace the Education Core switch at the main data centre
  • Started replacing obsolete laptops with new laptops and Windows 11
  • Started the in place upgrade from Windows 10 to Windows 11 across the corporate estate.
• ICT Security have:
  
  • Monitored incident reporting through partners
  • Addressing remediations for the annual IT Health Check
  • Maintained the Council’s perimeter defences
  • Monitored the migration of devices onto newly configured hybrid platform
  • Completed a health check on critical monitoring software
  • Upgraded the Firewall software to maintain security.

Shared Services 

• The Residential Team added 100 service agreements to CareFirst for clients moving into care homes or for supported living services within their own homes
• The Homecare Team added 352 service agreements to CareFirst for clients receiving a homecare service or a direct payment
• Direct Payment Audit Team – 19 standard audits and 2 final audits completed for clients receiving self-direct support
• The EMA Team dealt with 36 Education Maintenance Applications in September.  The team processed 31 on SEEMiS.

Housing Rent Arrears

• Active Tenant Rent Arrears were £1,059,486.67 which is a decrease of £192,801.05 on same period as last year (week 26)
• 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 3 key components, strengthening the Council’s security and compliance position. The team also managed 5 incidents, supported 7 projects and contributed to the ongoing rollout of Windows 11. In addition, they have played a key role in decommissioning a legacy solution, improving efficiency and reducing maintenance overheads
• Work has begun on our sheltered housing telecare modernisation – with the properties at The Rowans being selected first for installation
• Training has been completed for the new telecare devices in the wider authority and our colleagues in the Technology Enabled Care team will be ready to begin replacement of our remaining analogue devices
• The development of the Lettings replacement app is underway – presently investigating the use of APIs from Fusion to retrieve account balance details for booking
• The replacement Community HUB and Mavis Valley booking systems are in the final stages of user acceptance testing. The Mavis Valley system is scheduled for launch on the 20th of October
• The IHMS Implementation Team is carrying out an address correction initiative to improve data quality across the property portfolio and support integration between NEC Housing and Servitor
• The AIM system upgrade is progressing as planned with go live scheduled for the 3 December, subject to resolution of current technical issues
• Fusion HCM Delivery Team is preparing for the parallel pay run (PPR) data migration cycle and continue to verify the system design and configuration against iTrent. There has been further development of the business case for Fusion ERP's new support and maintenance contract
• The Fusion HCM Delivery Team continues to work closely with services on change management, training, benefits realisation and planning for the transition to the new platform.

Internal Audit

• The Team is working on completing the 2025/26 Internal Audit Plan, in line with available resources.
• Advice is continuing to be provided by Internal Audit in line with the Internal Audit Charter to support the enhancement of governance arrangements, risk management and controls
• Work on the 2025/26 plan with audits such as Complaints Management, Green Waste Permits and the Supply Teacher Database being near completion. Work has begun on 25/26 audits of Winter Planning Maintenance
• Work has been completed in the form of a gap analysis & action plan for the new Global Internal Audit Standards. 

Corporate Fraud 

• Corporate Fraud is investigating allegations received, focusing on suspected fraud or error within Education, Housing and Revenues Services and on the remaining cases resulting from the NFI
• The team also continues to undertake vetting on applications, from several services, in order to prevent to fraud and any potential reputational damage
• The team is focused on maximising its value adding activity through prioritising large value cases, which in some instances are challenging to resolve and 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 main focus of this report with particular reference to three identified performance indicators in accordance with the Council’s strategic approach to business improvement planning.

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

In September 2025, the HSCP exceeded its targets across all identified key performance indicators.

• The Joint Learning Disability Team celebrated Scottish Learning Disability Week by hosting conversation cafés in services we support across East Dunbartonshire. We visited John Street Residential home, Empower Unity Day Services and the Allander Day Centre and spoke about what the theme I Am Here means to them
• Promotional activity in support of:
  • Suicide Prevention Week
  • Power of Attorney.

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
• Refresh Digital Strategy in line with the new Strategic Plan 2025-30
• Review and refresh the HSCP Medium-Term Financial Strategy
• Review of Business Support Function
• Review of HSCP Management Structure
• Develop the 2025-2030 HSCP Workforce Plan.

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.

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

• The Evidence Report for LDP3 has been submitted to the Planning and Environmental Appeals Division to undertake the Gate Check assessment. A Call for Ideas and Sites consultation as part of the preparation of the Proposed Plan for Local Development Plan 3 (LDP3) was undertaken between 21 July 2025 and 15 September 2025. Officers will consider all of the information received during the consultation as part of the preparation of the Proposed Plan
• The Land Planning Policy Team has prepared and submitted a response to the Scottish Government’s consultation on draft guidance on ‘Planning Obligations and Good Neighbourhood Agreements’. The team has also been working in partnership with Development Management colleagues on preparing a response to a government consultation on ‘Permitted development rights to support the provision of new homes.’ The response will be submitted to the government by the closing date for comments on 27 October 2025
• The Land Planning Policy Team Leader has been leading on a review of the first year of the National Planning Improvement Framework, including meeting with officers from Inverclyde as our peer planning authority and providing updates on progress with the Improvement Action Plan to the National Planning Improvement Team
• Work is continuing on identifying priority projects for inclusion in the Council’s new Greenspace Strategy, which will replace the Green Network Strategy and Open Space Strategy.  Work is continuing on an updated Open Space Audit which will support the development of the strategy
• A final engagement exercise on a Food Growing Strategy for the area was undertaken in August, with the feedback received being considered by officers before the finalisation and adoption of the strategy – expected in November 2025. 

• The Draft Climate Action Plan (CAP) was published online along with accompanying papers in advance of a Council decision on whether to approve the draft CAP for consultation, which will be made on 2 October. The consultation is being organised in collaboration with the Council’s comms team and EDVA, and will include an online survey, drop-in events, public engagement events, digital events, school engagement and bespoke events to respond to requests for engagement from communities. It will commence on 13 October 2025, subject to Council approval
• A report and presentation providing an update on the draft Climate Action Plan and consultation is being prepared for Community Planning Partnership Board in October 2025. In addition to summarising key points on the draft CAP and consultation, the paper and presentation will aim to set the groundwork for a coordinated approach with partners to delivering on East Dunbartonshire’s emissions reduction and climate change resilience targets
• Following a successful bid for Scottish Government funding to support a feasibility study for a heat network in central Kirkintilloch,  based on an opportunity identified in the Council’s Local Heat & Energy Efficiency Strategy (LHEES) Delivery Plan, a consultant has been appointed and a project kick-off has been scheduled for October. View Technical Notes 2025, Issue 116 - Kirkintilloch Town Centre Heat Network Feasibility Study
• Recruitment of a new Sustainable Transport Policy Officer and Climate Change Policy and Strategic Environmental Assessment Officer have been completed. The Climate Change Policy Officer joined the team on the 1 September the new Sustainable Transport Policy Officer’s induction has been scheduled to begin on 6 October
• Data has been gathered to estimate the Council’s carbon footprint and prepare the Public Bodies Climate Change Duty (PBCCD) Report and Carbon Management Plan (CMP) for 2024/25. A report is being prepared for PNCA committee in November to seek approval of the CMP and PBCCD reports.  Both report will include estimated emissions from employee commuting and homeworking based upon data gathered from the employee travel survey earlier in 2025 in addition to a section on climate change adaptation
• A Technical Note on the Call for Views on the Scottish Government’s forthcoming Climate Change Plan from the Scottish Parliament’s Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee has been published and the response has been submitted to Scottish Government
• A procurement advisor has been allocated for the Nature-Based Investment Study to pave way for a consultant to be appointed to quantify the current greenhouse gas emission absorption potential of nature in East Dunbartonshire and set out options to leverage additional public and private investment to support environmental outcomes, contribute towards the Council’s net zero targets and deliver meaningful action to preserve and bolster flourishing biodiversity. The study will likely need to be progressed in phases due to limited availability of funding
• Following proposed grid infrastructure upgrades in East Dunbartonshire being collated and submitted to NESO - such as plans for heat decarbonisation, transport decarbonisation and major developments – ongoing meetings are being held to provide input on the UK’s Strategic Spatial Energy Plan. Feedback was submitted following events in August and September 2025
• A Strategic Environmental Assessment service continues to be provided to colleagues across the Council including for the Greenspace Strategy and Food Growing Strategy. Sustainability input has also been provided for various planning applications in addition to ad-hoc projects from other Council teams.

• The new GIS server is now up and running. We have successfully migrated numbers of maps and data from old server to new one. The maps include EDC Corporate Map, Ash dieback Map, The Estates and Property Map, The Glasgow & Clyde Valley Green Network (GCVGN) Map, Winter Maintenance Map and others
• The Team are currently working with a number of Teams across the Council on a range of GIS projects including Greenspace Strategy Mapping, Mapping support for FOI, The Team also continues to provide support in the preparation of LDP 3, Kirkintilloch heat network study, EDC Open Space Audit
• A new GIS Service & Error Reporting Action app: we have received multiple requests through this system. The team has resolved most of them
• The Team completed multiple address register/update requests and several address queries and new ArcGIS online accounts requests from Teams across the Council.

• Transition to the new IHMS system continues to be supported by the IHMS Project team. Officers are utilising both Test and Live environments until snagging is complete 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 IHMS and continue to monitor/escalate issues as they arise
• Performance Monitoring Officers continue to complete monthly statistics and dashboards that inform the HGIOS Report and Annual Return on the Charter. In addition, a Quarterly Return is voluntarily submitted to Scotland’s Housing Network that informs an annual benchmarking analysis against other social landlords
• Performance Monitoring Officers are completing a monthly Voids Return for Scotland’s Housing Network who are actively monitoring voids timescales nationally
• Systems and Performance Monitoring officers completed BOXI training and can now utilise bespoke reporting functionality within IHMS
• Policy officers continue to work on revising the Council’s Allocations Policy
• 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
• Procurement of a new Digital Telecare system provider is now complete. The project team are ensuring the successful transition of analogue telecare to digital telecare throughout the sheltered housing complexes and will deliver in-person briefings to tenants at each site. Asbestos surveys will be carried out at each site to ensure that operatives commissioned can access properties safely
• The Housing Estates Officer is working closely with sheltered housing Wardens to ensure a robust service is provided to tenants during the Telecare switchover to the new system and to minimise disruption to tenants as equipment is removed and replaced
• The Housing Estates officer 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 respective roles. 

• Working with numerous public sector agencies to ensure all support mechanisms to help business and create jobs are fully utilised, including development of new skills & technologies. Cost of doing business continues to be a concern and resources to help and inform businesses continue to be priority with combined support materials available through the Find Business Support website. A range of support is provided via the team and the Business Gateway contract to new emerging and existing businesses. This includes provision of local business support grants to support start up and growth SMEs
• Digital Boost will no longer be funded through Scottish Government although webinars will continue to be delivered by Business Gateway National. The team are using currently available expertise to support companies on their digital journey, as well as developing further internal expertise. The team have started preparation for 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
• 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
• 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 and regeneration grant set to go live November (2025).

• The team continues with a range of work to ensure the delivery of the Council’s City Deal project. The Outline Business Case (in-line with City Deal & HM Greenbook requirements) was approved at the Glasgow City Region November 2024. Work is underway on the Full Business Case (FBC) stage for the two project elements – Bishopbriggs Town Centre Civic Space and Westerhill Development Road. 
• The Westerhill Regeneration Area (WRA) planning guidance and its associated delivery plan is now adopted under LDP2. Work is taking place to examine how different aspects of the WRA can be supported to a delivery stage, out with the current City Deal Projects. 
• Work is ongoing on the Westerhill Development Road (WRA) which is currently at DMRB Stage 3. The planning application has been submitted. At Council in June, a report on the WRA was approved, and additional capital funding has been provided to enable the project to continue to progress through the FBC stage. Work continues with relevant landowners to progress the project. 
• Work continues on Bishopbriggs Town Centre, including procurement of main works contractor to establish a construction cost. Work continues with relevant landowners to progress the project. 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, and more updates will be provided in a Technical Note. 
• 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, 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 now on site
• The programme management of the Shared Prosperity Fund is ongoing to support services and projects across the Council. A range of projects have been identified and are being progressed for implementation up to end of March 2026 as part of the fourth year of SPF funding
• The Lennoxtown Main Street Improvement Project has concluded the development of technical designs. The project will progress to the construction phase with a contractor now procured. Enabled with external funding from Transport Scotland for Tier 2 Active Travel Infrastructure Fund. A report was presented on the project to the 28 August Place, Neighbourhood and Corporate Assets Committee
• 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. Officers will finalise the design via further community consultation later in 2025. Work to prepare for detailed design and construction services is underway
• Construction of the Twechar Canalside Outdoor Pursuits Centre is complete, the lease has been agreed and the building handed over to the operator. The centre is beginning to operate and the official opening will take place in October
• Work is ongoing with the Milngavie BID and Kirkintilloch BID as they move through year one of a five-year term. 

• The construction phase of Canniesburn Toll Improvement Project is now complete. The project is now finished and nearing the end of its defects stage. Monitoring of the new signals are being  carried out in September 2025 with the findings being reported to the next appropriate meeting of Committee. Detailed updates have been provided in various Technical Notes.
• Feasibility and design works are progressing on a range of active travel infrastructure projects included in the Local Transport and Active Travel Strategies, including works to improve various active travel paths 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 are being prepared for reporting to a future PNCA Committee. Preparation is underway for design. Surveys and consultation work which be starting for the next phases through 2025/26. 
• 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, which started over August. 
• 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 50 applications and validated 43 applications.
• The Building Standards team have received 79 building warrants and approved 99 applications.  
• The Enforcement Team opened 3 new cases and closed 8 cases.
• A Technical Note was issued to notify Elected Members of the Planning Service’s reduced planning enforcement levels. Individuals reporting breaches will be notified of the expected delays which will be beyond those set out in the current Planning Enforcement Charter.
• 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. 

• Delivery of engagement sessions on the call for ideas and sites for Local Development Plan 3 (LDP3)
• Commencement of the second phase of the Traffic Free School projects
• The new GIS server is now up and running.

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

The Team continues to engage with the Electoral Registration Officer, Electoral Commission, Electoral Management Board and Association of Electoral Administrators in preparation for future electoral events, particularly the Scottish Parliament elections scheduled for May 2026.  This is the most complex and demanding electoral event that the Team administers, and so detailed planning has commenced, and includes officers from various services.  Officers will also liaise with colleagues in West Dunbartonshire Council as the Scottish Parliamentary constituency is cross-boundary.  Regular update Technical Notes will be issued to Members as planning progresses.

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 September and when able, supported colleagues in neighbouring authorities.  In addition, the service continued to engage with partners across Greater Glasgow as part of ongoing resilience planning for winter and other potential incidents, in relation to both storage and registration 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 64 birth and 173 death registrations in September. 29 marriages and 1 civil partnership were also registered in this period
• Citizenship Ceremonies were held to welcome 8 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 204 FOI/EIRs, 8 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 September is 100% except for taxi licences which is 90%.

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 September, the Team processed 13 contract review forms and 2 contract award letters, 1 open market purchase, 30 taxi licence applications, and 7 housing repair grants.  All were processed within the timescales except for 3 taxi licence applications.  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 negotiations for land acquisition required for the Westerhill Development Road project, negotiations with landowners in relation to various land matters for the Bishopbriggs Town Centre project, review of contract for the Bishopbriggs Town Centre construction contract.
• Property and planning work included site licences for surveys for the Lenzie Academy Project, four purchase settlements including purchase of land at Cleddens for AHIP2 project.
• Contracts and procurement work in this period included contracts awarded for the emergency demolition of Campsie View School, demolition of Merkland School, Auchinarin School & Lister Petter Building, managed print service, rapid access accommodation and housing support, the design and build of Westerton Play Area Project, traffic management services, purchase of grounds and plant equipment; a data sharing agreement with Hanen to provide additional needs support; variations to contracts with Care Homes for social work pay uplift.
• Grants offers accepted included Glasgow City Region City Deal 2025-2026, cycling Scotland bikeability 2025-2026 and road improvement safety fund 2025-2026.
• 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 reporting to Policy and Resource Committee on the consultation and engagement with the taxi trade in relation to fares.  In addition, the team successfully obtained a dismissal for a court case where an application sought compensation for the refusal to grant a licensing application and providing assistance to the Chief Finance Officer in responding to an appeal against a decision on non-domestic rates.

During September, the Procurement Team continued to support services across the Council in the delivery of various projects, including ongoing support to several strategic procurements/projects, particularly in relation to City Deal, ICT, Business & Digital Change, and various Capital projects. In particular, the Team continued to be heavily involved in data cleansing, Solution redesign, Communication planning, Key User training and support, Data Reconciliation and Supplier data correction as part of the ongoing management of the new Fusion Financial system. This has placed a significant demand on the resources of the Team as it is responsible for four of the six workstreams. 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 also continuously works to manage and support the operational activity in terms of the buyers work centre, Fusion catalogue management, supplier management and payment processing, and in May 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, Transport Contracts, 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 upgrade , Fusion HCM Phase 2, IHMS, City Deal projects to support Westerhill Development Road, Capital projects such as  school estate Professional Fees, school new build contracts, and general budget projects such as school maintenance works, School Transport contracts 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
• Information gathering to support 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
• Processing and payment of Welfare Support Payments in line with Council support requirements
• 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
• Ongoing work on the review of Contract Standing Orders for alignment with organisational changes, financial management and Procurement governance
• 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 June
• Review of resourcing considerations to support Project workload and business as usual priorities
• Data extraction, review, and redaction for the submission of external third party spend for the 2024-2025 financial year to Scottish Government.

During September, the Strategic Commissioning Team continued to support the HSCP to progress transformation and budget saving related priorities whilst managing and providing daily oversight across the commissioned market.   

Key Achievements / Areas of Focus

• Finalised current Option Appraisals aligned to transformation, redesign, and budget priorities
• Finalised plans to support and integrate individuals with complex health needs who are currently in long stay hospital settings, into more appropriate / homely community settings
• 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
• Monitored financial frameworks underpinning strategic reviews to ensure accuracy, alignment with the HSCP’s medium term financial plan and respective commissioning delivery plans
• Progressed strategic needs analysis of commissioned Children services to help inform strategic planning & Commissioning Strategy development
• Contributed to and supported progression of multi-agency collaborative and commissioning inpatient redesign approaches geared towards alleviating acute and community pressures
• Engaged with external HSCP’s 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.

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

This Service area is divided into eight portfolio groupings:

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

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

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

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

The 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 with vacancies advertised and interviews planned for Septemberto backfill the remaining lighting technicians and electricians’ posts. 

The Roads Network Operations Team are planning for the 2025/26 Roads Winter Maintenance Period for both carriageway and footway winter maintenance. The remaining recruitment of squad leaders and operatives is scheduled before the winter maintenance period to ensure the team are fully staff and able to respond to the demands of the season. The initial rock salt order has been delivered and is now in the salt dome at Broomhill. 

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 following the implementation of 20mph in Bearsden and Twechar.

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

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

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

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

The 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 spring and summer 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 September, 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 1595.96 tonnes of waste through this contract in September, 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 requests for 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 contractor management safety.  During this period, the team have been working closely with Mugdock Country Park, Housing, Community Planning & Partnership, Fleet, Greenspace, Estates & Facilities, Education and School Improvement Team for projects based at schools and school play equipment inspection.

The H&S Manager participated in the Equally Safe at Work working group as well as 2nd Tier H&S Committee meetings for Corporate, HSCP and Education. The team were present at 3rd Tier (service level) meetings for Property Maintenance, Streetscene, Land Planning & Development, Fleet, Waste and Mugdock Country Park. Services were assisted with workplace assessments managing occupational health and individual risk assessments in collaboration with HR colleagues. Display Screen Equipment assessments are continually reviewed alongside line managers. 

Fire Warden training was conducted through this period for Hilton depot, Property Maintenance receive scaffold and asbestos training as well as UFAS training for Estates & Facilities. Other training sessions delivered were Duty Holder and Manual Handling for Education, risk assessment and incident reporting and ladder safety. 

Depot inspections were carried out this month as well as the issue of Safety alerts and Toolbox talks to support safe operations as a safety targeted approach. 

The focus continues for Construction Design and Management compliance with site visits, reviewing construction phase plans, risk assessments and method statements for refurbishment, roofing, 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 and Housing works received several site visits together with Mugdock Country Park repair works and playground. Documents were reviewed for upcoming projects, such as LP&D’s Lennoxtown Main Street, solar panel maintenance and repair and several ground and building surveying works, 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. PPP Schools were targeted this month for fire safety risk assessments working together with Estates & Facilities for review of carbon monoxide detectors. Scottish Fire and Rescue Services audits have taken place in some of our council sleeping premises and Council fire safety officers have supported the audits post visit to address audits’ focus areas.

Roads Network Operations Teams (including Street Lighting)

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

Between 01/09/2025 and 30/09/2025, we have identified 171 defects in East Dunbartonshire Council carriageways and footways. We have completed 101 repairs on time (approx. 59.06%), 15 repair late (approx. 8.77 %) and 55 repair (approx. 32 %) are in list for action and are still within SLA (incomplete).

Below chart compares our last three months performance:

Road Project & Maintenance Works September 2025:

Below table indicate the list of footway and carriageway capital resurfacing projects, Minor work, Road pothole Repairs committed in September 2025 in East Dunbartonshire Council areas.

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Carriageways and footways Safety inspection

Between 01/09/2025 and 30/09/2025, East Dunbartonshire Council completed 18 scheduled safety inspections. 3 of these inspections are related to Footway inspection and 15 of them related to carriageway inspections. All inspections were completed and comply with East Dunbartonshire Council tolerance between inspections dates. Details of these inspections are as below: 

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Winter Maintenance – September 2025

No action was taken in East Dunbartonshire Council between 01/09/2025 and 30/09/2025.

Routine Annual Gully Cleaning – Performance Data (01 April 2025 to 31 September2025)

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

• There is a total of 6,730 gullies on primary and key routes within East Dunbartonshire. Between 01 April 2025 and 30 September 2025, a total of 4,830 gullies on these routes were attended for cleaning.
• On secondary routes, there are 22,968 gullies in total. During the same reporting period, we successfully cleaned 10,775 gullies on these routes.

This data reflects our ongoing commitment to maintaining drainage infrastructure and minimising flood risk across the road network. Please see below table. 

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Roads Technical & Engineering Teams 

Structures

• Review & response to abnormal load requests
• Assisting other departments in the assessment of non-council assets
• Procurement process underway for FY25-27 structures framework contract
• SAC17 Lochgrog Railway bridge on Wester Way - graffiti painting works undertaken 4 September
• SAC34 Blacklands Place VRS repair completed 9 September
• SBC05 Goyle Bridge Japanese knotweed – two treatments completed by 10 September
• SUC09 Burnbrae bollard installation completed 3 October
• SAC08 Park Burn VRS and retaining wall repair planned for 23 - 24 October
• SUC09 Burnbrae approach wall cope installation planned for 30 - 31 October.

Flooding 

• River Glazert Restoration Project, Lennoxtown- PNCA approved for construction funding and progressing to tender development. Ongoing
• Held meetings with contractors for the flood bund at Castle Circle, Lennoxtown to close out section 75 agreement. Ongoing
• Dealing with various locations flooded on 15 July 25 in Bishopbriggs and surrounding areas. Climate Ready Park flooding investigations are ongoing with designers. Contractor drainage investigations in area completed and provided all information to designers for review. Update to affected customers provided and continue to provide flood advice and support. Ongoing
• Kelvin Tributaries Project – consultants have issued RIBA1 draft report for project team (East Dunbartonshire Council & SEPA) for review. Ongoing.

Drainage 

• Thorn Drive, Bearsden. Drainage relining underway
• Glenhead Road, Lenzie. Drainage works complete
• Future works planned at Manse Road, Bearsden for October/November and Thomson Drive, Bearsden (this is remedial works at no cost to East Dunbartonshire Council).

Development

• 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
• Coordination of future works relating to development sites
• Process road opening and temporary traffic management permits. Scottish Road Works Register inspections have been agreed for Q2 and invoices raised. Fixed Penalty Notices have been agreed for September and sent for invoice.

Traffic

• The Bearsden 20mph is live. Public consultation for Bishopbriggs is complete and a report is being prepared for PNCA. Consultation for Kirkintilloch/Lenzie has completed and is underway for the villages is underway. Milngavie will follow
• 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
• 23 schools are participating in the Junior Road Safet Officer scheme and have received journals and materials. Inductions begin in October
• The mechanisation of School Crossing Patroller sites is ongoing.

Greenspace, Streetscene & Mugdock Country Park Teams

Streetscene & Mugdock Country Park update – September 2025

Streetscene Operations

• Summer cyclical works ongoing
• Street cleansing and mechanical sweeping; removal of fly posting and uplifting of fly tipping, mechanical street sweeping and installing replacement or additional bins. Includes cleaning of precinct areas
• Graffiti removal
• Ongoing cemetery operations, digging and carrying out interments, installing headstone foundations and benches.
• Checking and clearance of culverts
• Play park inspection
• Herbicide works in open spaces, including Japanese knotweed treatment
• Pitch marking and overmarking, soiling holes
• Housing tidy-ups, on request
• Responding to Customer Service Requests and complaints
• Removal of dead animals and excess waste at recycling centres
• Overseeing contracts relating to Verge cut (2nd cut) and hedge cutting
• Flood banking maintenance.

Streetscene Technical Support

• Play Area Bishopbriggs Park – public voting to be rerun in October 2025
• Play Areas  Westerton –  public voting undertaken  - start to date to be confirmed 
• Play Areas Kincaid (MOC)  - public voting undertaken  - start date mid November
• Play Areas at Angus Avenue/Fir Park - public voting undertaken  - start date for Angus early November
• Play Area at Stanley Drive – returns received – currently being evaluated
• Play Areas – annual external safety inspection complete – awaiting reports
• Twechar Pump Track – consultation complete for potential pump track adjacent to Healthy Living Centre – available online – brief now with procurement
• Cemetery Management Rules – Scottish Govt regs now being finalised and implemented prior to March 2026 – East Dunbartonshire Council rules will now be updated this financial year
• Headstones/Memorials Inspection  – inspections complete at Campsie Cemetery and New Kilpatrick Churchyard   – ‘make safe’ arrangements progressing  in Auld Isle
• Cadder Cemetery Extension – Planning application submitted
• Langfaulds Cemetery - pre start undertaken with consultants to finalise design works for next phase
• Ash Dieback Survey on Roadside – further survey now undertaken – this will assess level of deterioration across roadside trees
• Schools Estate – tree survey findings analysed – orders being raised for any priority works
• Storm Floris – number of trees across district impacted – clear up largely complete
• Climate Ready Park – almost complete – final works and reinstatement works now progressing 
• Etive Park Allotments – now fully up and running – Officers working with Allotment Holders to create an Allotment Association
• Compost Training Day - Compost Training Day for the Allotment Plot holders at Etive Park.
• Canniesburn Sheltered Housing  - creation of 2 raised beds and accessible path works to facilitate food growing
• 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
• Heather Avenue – liaison with School re wildflower planting
• Nature Restoration Fund – projects identified for 25/26 and works now progressing  
• Management Plans – Lenzie Moss, Whitefield Pond, Cairnhill Woods and Heather Avenue – now complete and shared with community groups  - 1st year actions progressing
• TCV Partnership – environmental improvement works have commenced on the John Muir Way  - 3 year programme in total
• Clyde Valley Green Network – liaison re East Dunbartonshire Council 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
• 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 East Dunbartonshire Council.

Mugdock Country Park Footfall September – 63,185

There were 7 ranger sessions in September: 

Event: Bats about Mugdock
Date: 5 September 2025
Capacity: 25
Booked Eventbrite: 19
Price: £8
Total attended: 19
Total income: £152
% Capacity: 76%

Event: Forest Families - Whittling
Date: 7 September 2025
Capacity: 24
Booked Eventbrite: 6
Price: £7
Total attended: 6
Total income: £42
% Capacity: 25%

Event: Forest Families - Bird Feeders
Date: 14 September 2025
Capacity: 24
Booked Eventbrite: 9
Price: £7
Total attended: 9
Total income: £63
% Capacity: 38%

Event: Forest Families - Mini Shelters and Homes for Gnomes
Date: 21 September 2025
Capacity: 24
Booked Eventbrite: 13
Price: £7
Total attended: 13
Total income: £91
% Capacity: 54%

Event: Wild at Mugdock - Shelter building
Date: 21 September 2025
Capacity: 10
Booked Eventbrite: 9 
Price: £8
Total attended: 9
Total income: £72
% Capacity: 90%

Event: Junior Ranger Day Camp: Wonderful Wildlife
Date: 26 September 2025
Capacity: 10
Booked Eventbrite: 10
Price: £20
Total attended: 10
Total income: £200
% Capacity: 100%

Event: Junior Ranger Day Camp: Maps & Navigation
Date: 29 September 2025
Capacity: 10
Booked Eventbrite: 10
Price: £20
Total attended: 10
Total income: £200
% Capacity: 100%

School Sessions

• Sessions this month were 5 x Wellbeing Support, 4 x Lennoxtown Primary, 4 x St Machan’s Primary and 4 x Mosshead Primary.

General Free Events

• Mugdock Market
  Tranquillity and Ruin Exhibition

Park Operations

• Regular work: Security, Fire inspections and servicing, litter picking, emptying bins, dog bins, cleaning toilets, weekly courtyard deep clean, bin housings, tables etc., playpark, toadstool trail, car park checks, grass cutting and edging, strimming of visitor areas and weeding of beds around Visitor Courtyard. Grass cutting and strimming around courtyard, walled garden, castle and other outlying areas, edging with blower and brushes our courtyard/car parks (ongoing and not completed). 
• Project work: installation of borders in Walled Garden, supervision and assisting with cleaning of portaloos for septic tank project.  Courtyard Autumnal decorations, working with Community Service Volunteers.
• Reactive site maintenance: has included continuing tree work caused by Storm Floris, installing signage in South Car Park. 
• Income generation activities include undertaking setting up of set up of monthly market, setting up power and seating for musical performances in the Bandstand, setting up of BBQ bookings in the three BBQ locations. 

Ranger tasks include: 

• Over September there were 13 volunteer days (58hrs) with a total of volunteers (7 MCV, 3 Midweek, 2 Corporate, 1 Criminal Justice). During that time-period the following was carried out:
• Orchard management (removal of unproductive trees and guard clearance)                                                                          
• Reduction of tree crowding (birch/sycamore removal)                
• Grassland management: removal of invasive sycamore/birch from grassland to benefit floristic value (Craigend Field)      
• Grassland management: planting of wildflower plugs (Craigend Paddock)
• Historic landscape management: sycamore/common raspberry removal (Craigend Avenue)
• Historic building management: clearance of Domestic Range area to raise the castle’s profile (Mugdock Castle). 

Visitor Centre – 

• Stock orders amounted to £973
• The total unaudited Retail takings for August 2025 were £2327 inc VAT
• The largest sellers were Homeware followed by Toys
• There were 789 visitors to the shop, resulting in 376 sales, which is a conversion rate of 48%. The average transaction value is £6.19 in September. This is a similar conversion rate to August, however, a slight reduction in ATV.  

Non retail (not audited) income comprised of: 

DONATIONS £600.00
LETS (Non Vat) £393.63
LETS (VATABLE) £318.00

Marketing / Communications

• The social communication campaign was centred on Throwback Thursdays focused on archive photos of Mugdock Loch, behind the scenes focused on the work of volunteers to remove native species e.g. birch and bracken.  General promotion included the continuation of the Bird Trail, Events.  Paid for promotion was for general Autmn programme. 

Projects

• Play Area: Pre Start meeting conducted with Kompan. 
• Decorative screen: Design shared with Joint Management Committee. Assistance by Procurement with contract tender.  Application for additional funds to provide lighting
• Walled Garden volunteering included box hedge removal and replant, along with continuing the painting of the wall
• On-going issues with septic tank being addressed by Corporate assets team. 

Waste Services

• The Clyde Valley Residual Waste contract accepted 1595.96 tonnes of general waste throughput in September from our households and Street Cleansing for recycling pre-sort, and then ongoing production of energy from waste. This was a reduction of 7.87% compared to September 2024
• The changes to the frontline collections have encouraged residents to utilise the food recycling available at the kerbside.  We have noted an increase in September of food waste tonnage with a 11% increase in comparison to tonnage collected September 2024
• In September we are showing a difference in tonnage in both our recycling waste streams from the kerbside in comparison to September 2024. There is a 4.36% decrease in paper/cardboard and 17.63% increase in cans, glass & plastics.
• The team have been liaising with colleagues in Business Change to bring the Mavis Valley booking system in-house, to operate through the Customer Services Relations system and provide both a saving and an improved system.  We aim to make this change in January 2026
• The Garden Waste Permits continue to roll out, with 82 being purchased in September. This brought the total figures at this time to 30,960 permits sold to residents
• The waste operational team continue to utilise the new digital technology in the creation and delivery of efficient frontline collection routes. The team have been working in the back office throughout September with a focus on the Commercial Waste Service
• Mavis Valley Household Waste Recycling Centre received 13,047 booking throughout September with a 91% attendance rate overall
• The team supported Westerton Gala Day with the provision of waste and recycling services
• Asbestos training was rolled out for employees at both our Mavis Valley Recycling Centre and to our Technical Support team. This is aimed to mitigate the risk of asbestos entering any of the municipal waste and recycling streams. 
• Fire Warden Training was update for a number of employees at Hilton Depot.
• The team have been working closely with our internal audit team to review the processes involved in the Garden Waste Permit scheme
• Work took place across the team in the completion of the Zero Waste Scotland Data Gathering exercise.
• APSE submission was prepared and submitted for Waste Services
• Gas and Leachate Monitoring was carried out by the team at the old Mavis Valley landfill site, this information was submitted to Sepa for review.
• The Waste Technical and Compliance Team dealt with 79 Corporate Complaints
• The Waste Technical and Compliance Team dealt with 623 general enquiries via Customer Services.

Fleet Services

• During the period 01/09/2025 to 30/09/2025 there were 259 vehicles/plant inspected/repaired in line with the servicing schedule and defect procedure
• 75% of jobs were completed within 2 days of being booked in.
• We currently have a variety of vehicles/plant on order to replace an aging fleet in line with the vehicle replacement programme
• Support Council services in the delivery of ASN Transport including the distribution of essential supplies for vulnerable individuals throughout the period including meals for early year’s facilities and lunch clubs etc     
• Continued work on the management of Capital programme for the replacement of fleet assets through the financial year.        
• Continued work on the CPC training programme, to ensure all drivers that require CPC training achieve this before the deadline to remain compliant
• Continued support to front line service operations through the provision of in-house fleet maintenance function including work on horticultural and construction plant equipment
• Management of Fleet Operations in compliance with Operator Licencing legislation with a DVSA Operator Compliance Risk Score of Green for both Traffic and Compliance 
• The team carried out a variety of gate checks, any issues that were identified were reported to the relevant management team.
• Monthly audits have been implemented to ensure MOT station compliance
• We continue to monitor external hires
• The team worked extremely hard during this period to ensure the frontline services had enough vehicles/plant during the period to carry out their duties
• Work is ongoing to replace the fleet management system.