1. How Good Is Our Service - April 2022
  2. How Good Is Our Service - April 2022

How Good Is Our Service - April 2022

Monthly Performance Report

On this page you will find information on:

Assets and Facilities

assets and facilities

Overview of Progress

Property Maintenance

Voids performance has dropped in April to 88.4% from a high of 98% in March in the last quarter of 2021/22 due to an increase in the number of high cost repairs requiring to be carried out in some properties. This has impacted on the turnaround times, however it still exceeds our target of 85% and we continue to look at ways to streamline operations and achieve the highest possible level of performance.

Property Maintenance continue to achieve our target of 100% for Gas Servicing in April with 389 properties surveyed. With robust measures in place to monitor performance we are confident of maintaining this throughout the year.

Reactive repairs are ongoing and we continue to make good progress in reducing the backlog of all non-essential repairs. The Care & Repair service continues to be well received with Aids & Adaptation works ongoing across the stock.

The Smoke & Heat alarm installation programme has reached its conclusion and we have achieved our plan of visiting all properties across the estate in line with Government targets with 93% of properties now fitted with Smoke & Heat alarms. The remaining properties have been no accesses and we will continue to re-schedule these as and when tenants contact us. We continue to carry out the installation of Smoke & Heat alarms for residents in East Dunbartonshire eligible through our Care & Repair service. We are also referring residents who do not meet the criteria to Scottish Fire and Rescue Service where they can request a Home Fire Safety visit to determine whether SFRS can provide them with assistance.

Kitchen, Bathroom, Heating and Roofing upgrade programmes have remained on hold in April with recommencement scheduled for May. Progress continues in carrying out reactive and larger scale refurbishment works across the education and non-housing stock with decoration works ongoing in the school estate.

Facilities Management

The rollout of the new FM structure continues with significant progression and employee displaced meetings were concluded during April. The remaining vacant positions have been identified and relevant paperwork submitted to enable a recruitment exercise to commence.

The majority of the FM Management team has been recruited with all FM Lead posts now filled. A Building Manager and Catering Co-ordinator post remains unfilled, however these positions are advertised and interviews will be scheduled following the advert closing date. Training was delivered in April to Building Managers, focusing on policy and Leadership skills and further training is scheduled during the summer holiday period.

The service supported Snack n Play during the Easter holiday period within six identified Primary schools. This included the provision of Janitorial, Cleaning and Catering services. A hot lunch was provided along with day and evening cleaning to ensure a safe environment was provided.

New regulations on Single-Use Plastics comes into force on 1st June, which will have an impact on the delivery of the lunchtime service. In preparation of the new law, the service is liaising with suppliers and procurement to source alternative products and planning is underway to ensure this is in place within the required timescales.

Covid continues to impact on the uptake of school meals and income levels. The uptake of free school meals has improved over previous months and we expect this trend to continue due to the easing of restrictions, however uptake remains lower than pre-pandemic levels. Our focus remains on improving the uptake in the lower performing schools. Significant work was undertaken to ensure the lunch menu complies with the revised Nutritional regulations and we continue to work with suppliers to source alternative food products, ensuring the menu complies with the revised regulations and meets all nutritional standards.

Estates

There are 73 Operational Assets, which require an annual Gas Safety Check. For the month of April, 3 properties required their annual Gas Safety Check.  All 3 properties were serviced prior to the anniversary date. With robust measures in place to monitor performance, we are confident that all safety checks will be completed throughout the year. 

Officers continue to progress reactive repairs across the Education and Operational Estate on a daily basis with over 150-200 repairs processed on average every month through Property Maintenance or our external contractors.

The Quality Assurance service continue to inspect the cleaning standards across the Educational Estate, with over 40 assets inspected and reports produced monthly.

Estates Management continue to market vacant premises within the non-operational estate, with three vacant properties let to local companies/individuals over the month of April.  At present the non-operational estate is over 93% occupied.

Officers continue to progress the current active disposals with colleagues in Legal Services to ensure that capital receipts are delivered and ongoing liabilities ie. rates, utilities, security etc are reduced.

Development & Investment

Good progress continues to be made through the construction phase of projects at Allander Leisure Centre, Boclair Academy, ASN Kirkintilloch, Kirkintilloch Community Sports Complex and at our Affordable Housing developments at the Loaning, Lenzie and Kerr St, Kirkintilloch.  Redecoration remains on-going at Wester Cleddens and Twechar Primary Schools. A variety of other projects which will improve the condition and suitability of the school estate are also in development and will be progressed over the course of this financial year.

The early stages of projects at Milngavie, Primary School, Bearsden Primary School, Westerton Primary School and Balmuildy Primary School have all continued to progress through the period. Final contractual arrangements are being put in place for the refurbishment of Brookwood Villa, with works due to start in May/June 2022.

Preparations are well underway for the restart of capital works across the Council’s Affordable Housing stock and these are due commence over the next reporting period (May 2022). The next phase of the Council’s new-build Affordable Housing programme has now been released for tender via development partners at Hub West Scotland with returns due in June 2022. 

Key Achievements / Areas of Focus

  • Achieved 100% compliance for Gas Servicing with focus on this continuing going forward
  • Continue to monitor and improve processes within Voids to ensure turnaround times exceed our performance target.
  • Recommence Kitchen, Bathroom, Central Heating and Roofing upgrade programmes
  • Assess and improve functionality of Total Mobile and the integration with Servitor to enable a more streamlined and efficient service
  • Improve communications with customers and stakeholders to ensure the highest level of service delivery
  • Continue to utilise robust reporting mechanisms for enhanced performance and service delivery
  • Continue to carry out the installation of Smoke & Heat alarms for residents in East Dunbartonshire through our Care & Repair service
  • Progress decoration works across 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, which are required over May (1 property) and June (1 property) with contractors.
  • Full relaunch of capital improvements in the Council’s Affordable Housing estate, including kitchen/bathroom replacement.
  • Final contractual agreements for the refurbishment of Brookwood Villa.
  • Improve uptake of nutritious school meals
  • Improve communications with customers and stakeholders to ensure the highest level of service delivery
  • Reduce FM overtime
  • Commence recruitment exercise to fill identified vacant FM positions
  • Identify and resource FM services for the provision of Snack n Play and 1140hrs during summer holiday period.

Customer and Business Support Services

customer and business support services

Overview of Progress

In April 2022 the focus of the Communications & Engagement team has been delivering the communications requirements in relation to the local government elections, promoting the COVID memorial plans for East Dunbartonshire and preparation of information and guidance for refugees settling in the area. A total of 28 media enquiries were responded to this month and 11 media releases were issued generating coverage in local and national media with a value of over £5k. Social media posts continued to generate good interaction across a range of themes and social media audiences continue to grow across all channels.

In April 2022 the Corporate Performance and Research team have continued to fulfil all required duties in relation to reporting of performance and provision of data returns in the required timescales. Performance Guidance has been produced in relation to the move to monthly reporting, and work has been progressing with the Communications team to produce video summarising the annual public performance report to make is more accessible to a wider audience.

The Customer Services team continued to deliver customer services in April across all channels including responding to enquiries on social media and through email and web forms, meeting the call response time target for telephones and meeting all appointment requests for face to face services. The team has been prioritising appointments for disclosure checks for those offering their homes to support Ukrainian refugees and supporting the applications for free bus travel cards in East Dunbartonshire in line with the national initiative.

The Revenues and Benefits team have continued to process collection of council tax, administration of benefits and the Scottish Welfare fund.  April was a particularly busy month for the team as they completed year end processes for 2021/22 and Council Tax billing for 2022/23. In addition, they processed the Scottish Government Cost of Living award of £150 Council Tax discount for 23,000 households and continued to process high numbers of Self Isolation Support Grants.

The ICT Services team continue to support the Council’s information technology assets and systems to ensure high availability and performance in line with agreed service levels. Work has progressed in partnership with the Business and Digital Change Team to deliver the first stage of our migration to Microsoft 365 services. The team have also been supporting the Major Assets team with the delivery of key transformational projects including the new Boclair Academy.

The Shared Services team continue to provide support across all Council services. The Local Self-Isolation Assistance Service and National Assistance closed on 30 April after two years of providing support, initially to shielders and then extended to support those that had to self-isolate.  The closure of this service will allow the team resume other duties that have been on hold due to restrictions around the pandemic. Work has started on the Annual Letting process for Community Letting and the transport team are working through the contract requirement for the next academic year. The team also supported Education through the school placing requests process. 

Key Achievements / Areas of Focus

Communications & Engagement

  • Production for ‘what to expect at the polling station’ video to provide voter reassurance of safety measures in place, alongside wider election communications
  • Launch of waste campaign to raise awareness of new materials accepted for recycling and to increase recycling participation, including billboard posters and ‘myth buster’ videos
  • Produced a suite of guides for refugee arrivals to the area focusing on key services and practical ‘welcome to your home’ guide.
  • Designed new signage for Kirkintilloch Town Centre to enhance visitor experience and encourage footfall including new signs for carparks/key locations, town centre maps and information boards.
  • Promotion of key events and themes days including International Workers Memorial Day, World Parkinsons’ Day and Earth Day.

Corporate Performance & Research

  • Initial work is underway to update the operational risk registers which are due to be formally reported to Council following the summer recess.
  • Arrangements have been put in place for monthly reporting of HGIOS performance from May 2022 onwards, including a dedicated monthly performance portal for Executive Officers on the Pentana performance management system.
  • Additional assistance has been provided to the change team in regards to reporting and analysis of data held on council systems to assist with ongoing project work.

Customer Services

  • Continuing to deliver Registration services including marriage ceremonies which are increasing following the lifting of COVID restrictions.
  • Supporting the application process for the new young persons’ free bus travel passes.
  • Continuing to process school clothing grant and free school meal applications as they arise.
  • Processing Taxi licence applications and renewals with an appointment based system in place for document checks and the issue of licences/licence plates.

Revenues and Benefits

  • Completed the year end processes for Council Tax 2021/22.
  • Administered the Scottish Government Cost of Living award, crediting around 23,000 Council Tax accounts with £150 and issuing revised bills.
  • Administered the Self Isolation Support Grant applications and payments.

ICT Services

  • Completed the configuration of Microsoft M365 in preparation for the migration to new services.
  • Installed and configured new VPN servers to support the M365 project.
  • Supported Legal and Democratic Services in the preparation for the May elections and configured ICT equipment for new Elected Members.

Shared Services

  • Completed year end processes for Education and Social Work.
  • Concluded the provision of the Local Self-Isolation Assistance Service and National Assistance on 30 April 2022 after 2 years of providing support and guidance for local residents.

Completed the processing of applications for School Placing requests for Education.

East Dunbartonshire Leisure and Culture Trust

EDLC

Overview of Progress

Leisure Centres

  • April attendances were slow but steady as footfall grows back due to increased customer confidence. Swimming and Gym had highest attendances with group fitness classes the next most popular activity. Community sports clubs are still not back up to full capacity due to the impact of the pandemic on their numbers.

Libraries

  • The pandemic has had a significant impact on service delivery including capacity for activities and venues. One branch did not fully re-open until mid-April due to challenges in recruiting staff following the pandemic. The majority of visits are still through digital access with 36,572 in total and only 13,615 visits were in person. In person visits are expected to increase each month as customer confidence grows and more services fully resume.

Heritage and Arts

  • The museum and art gallery have seen a steady return of in person and digital access with 547 in person visits and 3,378 through digital access.

Sports Development

  • The Easter programme offered a variety of activities at the three leisure centres over the first two weeks in April followed by a return to term time classes. Work is ongoing to increase numbers attending all term time classes and return to pre-covid levels although the lack of available coaches has delayed progress.

Active Schools

Throughout this school term the Active Schools team has built on existing work with schools, adapting projects as COVID restrictions allowed. Recovery from COVID is a core theme across all work with a particular focus on the following three areas:

  • Re-establishing extra-curricular activity.
  • Identifying, training and supporting volunteers.
  • Providing inclusive activity within the local community.

Key Achievements / Areas of Focus

Leisure Centres

  • With the direct debit membership not showing the anticipated increase that was projected there will be a concerted campaign to push sales and retain existing customers. This marketing campaign will be called Spring into action and will commence at the end of May 2022.
  • Planning for the opening of the new Allander Leisure Centre.
  • A new disability netball group started to use Kirkintilloch Leisure Centre and the employability charity StreetLeague has also restarted its programme at the centre.

Libraries / Heritage and Arts

  • Additional external funding has been secured to establish projects reaching out to new users and to encourage previous users to return. 
  • Team planning is focussed on improving marketing and publicity with the objective of increasing physical visits back to pre - pandemic levels.

Sports Development

Almost 200 children took part in a range of Easter activities including the following:

  • Multi-sports Camp
  • Football Centre
  • 1 to 1 and group swimming lessons
  • Trampolining Camp

Vacancies for sports coach posts have been advertised across a range of sports to address the shortage of qualified coaches.

Active Schools

  • Active Schools Annual Plan 2022-23 has been submitted and approved by Sportscotland.
  • Term two participation data completed by all Active School Co-ordinators.
  • ASC support for Inter-Secondary School Competition.
  • Continued roll out of volunteer and young leader training.

Education

education

Overview of Progress

School Improvement Programme

  • Construction of the new Boclair Academy continues to make very good progress. The decant from the current school to the new school is at an advanced stage to support the opening of the new school in August 2022.
  • Work is continuing to progress well at Waterside, the location for the new build Additional Support Needs (ASN) school. Site visits and workshops have taken place with both Campsie View and Merkland schools to continue to focus on the delivery of the new school. The next part of the consultation with involve stakeholder engagement with the Interim Parent Council to name the new school. 
  • Feasibility work for Lenzie Academy is ongoing and consultation with staff, pupils and parents/carers has begun.
  • Bearsden & Milngavie Primary school refurbishment projects are underway with the project team preparing the brief. Site visits have been undertaken at both schools during the period.

Early Years and Supporting Families

  • Heads and Depute Heads of Early Years Centres have been supported by the Central Early Years team to allocate funded early years places for the new session in August 2022. Over 1500 applications have been received with a further 900 applications for funded hours within our Funded Providers in Partnership. All parents have been notified of allocations.
  • The Supporting Families service continues to see an increase of Requests for Assistance for parenting advice and support from Primary Schools and Early Years Centres, as well as self- referrals through the parenting mailbox. Currently, 35 parents are benefitting from one to one support.
  • The Snack and Play service was delivered over Easter in 6 schools, offering places to 185 children and young people. The service ran from Monday 4th April to Thursday 14th April (inclusive), 10am -3pm each day. Each of the Hubs had a designated Hub Manager, supported by a Quality Improvement Officer.
  • Merkland Playscheme also operated to support children with mild to moderate additional support needs. 66 children were offered a place and transport was provided for all children.
  • The Fear-Less Triple P (Positive Parenting Programme) has recently begun; this is designed to support parents with managing anxiety and stress in both themselves and their children.
  • Little Explorers Nurture Day (LEND) is a family day for parents with children under five and resumed in April. This involves multi-agencies coming together to provide activities and supports for families within Auchinairn and Hillhead Community Centres for 1 day a week. Supports include parenting drop-in sessions, storytelling, sports activities and baby massage. Such sessions provide valuable opportunities for parents with children under the age of five to meet with other parents as well as accessing support for themselves and their child/ren.

 Schools

  • Almost all probationer teachers continued to meet the Standard for Full registration as part of their Probationary year. A few probationers continued to require additional support to meet the GTCS standards and were identified as Cause for Concern. Additional support and advice was provided by the Probationer Manager.  All probationers completed a Practitioner Enquiry as part of developing their commitment to Professional Learning.
  • Almost all schools supported students across both the Primary and Secondary sector as part of the Local Authorities commitment to partnership working to support Initial Teacher Education.
  • From April to September, 5 clusters in Kirkintilloch, Lenzie and Bishopbriggs will be involved in the national Dandelion Schools Growing Initiative, in conjunction with Keep Scotland Beautiful. Pupils involved will become citizen scientists in Scotland’s largest community-led growing experiment, as well as creative producers of their own Harvest Festivals, sharing learning, lunch and live music. All primary schools have had potatoes and compost delivered to be shared with their families. All secondary schools have received state of the art hydroponic growing cubes to cultivate a variety of herbs and vegetables. Each cube streams live data on growing conditions directly to the citizen project.
  • Meadowburn Primary School shared their Eco Schools Green Flag learning journey at a Senior Leadership professional learning event. They showcased how they have used this awards scheme as a pupil leadership opportunity while enriching the curriculum with links to the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
  • The EDC Pupil Forum participated in training from the West of Scotland Development Education Centre (WOSDEC), who support Global Citizenship and Learning for Sustainability.
  • The ASN team delivered Young Carers Training to teachers and senior managers from schools. All evaluations reported an increase in knowledge and awareness for Young Carers; and half of attendees expressed an interest in setting up Young Carers groups in their schools.
  • The Quality Improvement Team collaborated with the Attainment Advisor to create and deliver a bespoke professional learning offer for Primary Head Teachers. Almost all schools participated in a two day learning event on Self-Evaluation for Continuous Improvement. This event was highly evaluated by participants and the Quality Improvement Team have used feedback to identify future professional learning priorities for school leaders.

Skills for Life, Learning and Work

  • East Dunbartonshire Council was the first council visited by HMIe as part of the new National Thematic Review on the role of Community Learning and Development in supporting Covid-19 recovery. The inspectors met with a number of partners, staff, volunteers and learners and overall feedback was very positive. Strong partnership working between local organisations was highlighted as a key strength. A full national report will be published later this year.
  • East Dunbartonshire Local Employability Partnership has made 7 awards through a new employability grants programme to a range of organisations to deliver new employability provision locally. Funding for this has been provided through the Scottish Government's No One Left Behind programme. Provision is focused on a number of areas, including preparing to work in the social care, construction and early years sectors, closing the disability gap, criminal justice, young people, carers and supporting employers create new jobs.

Key Achievements / Areas of Focus

  • The Service is successfully supporting the construction of the new Boclair Academy and ASN School. This will continue to be an area of focus, along with planning for Lenzie Academy and the refurbishment of Bearsden Primary and Milngavie Primary.
  • Snack and Play delivered high quality provision for 251 children and young people during the Easter break. Planning is well underway for the service to operate during the Summer break; this will include an offer for children and young people in Campsie View School.
  • All sectors of the Education Service have supported probationer teachers to achieve success in their placements. The Service will now focus on planning for probationers next session, ensuring that a high quality professional learning programme is in place to support.
  • The Quality Improvement Team supported schools to refresh and improve approaches to self-evaluation for continuous improvement. The team will now focus on auditing Standards and Quality Reports and School Improvement Plans for next session.
  • The recent HMIe National Thematic Review recognised the success of the Community Learning and Development Team in supporting recovery. The team will share this work across the Education Service.

Finance & Audit

finance and audit

Overview of Progress

The month of April saw a focus on year end activities across Finance and Audit. With the Budget and Period 10 Reporting now completed attentions have been turned towards the financial year end with early engagement meetings being held with Audit Scotland, our external auditors.  This work is important to set expectations, manage resources and identify any issues prior to work taking place. The meetings also included consideration of issues identified in prior year with updates being provided and a discussion on fraud risk as this is a requirement of international standards of auditing (ISA 240).  No material issues or risks were noted with the process moving forward as planned. For Finance this involved following year end timetable and procedures to prepare working papers, closing of period 12 and the posting of accruals.

Returns to Scottish Government were made, including those relating to Coivd-19 Business Grants, which has represented an additional pressure on the Teams.

Internal Audit have been focussing on producing the year end reports of the Annual Audit Report, a first draft of the governance statement for inclusion in the accounts, and work commenced on the Annual Follow Up Report. Auditors provided advice on controls relating to the issuing of £200 of cash to Ukrainian refugees who have arrived in East Dunbartonshire, provided as an interim payment to help with subsistence costs. A form was developed to acknowledge receipt of the cash payment and this was signed by an independent witness, which provided a control over the distribution of this cash.

The Internal Audit Plan for 2022/23 has been drafted and some initial scoping work has been carried out for 2022/23 audits, whilst audits that were ongoing at the year end are being progressed towards their conclusion.

In addition to undertaking investigations as a result of referrals received the Corporate Fraud Team undertake vetting of applications for services such as Housing, Education, Licensing and Estates to secure the gateways by preventing fraud or error entering the system.

Key Achievements / Areas of Focus

  • Officers have now received Audit Plans for the Council and Mugdock Country Park with these being reviewed and completed with the intention of discharging these through technical notes in the near future.
  • The Treasury team continue to monitor cash flow closely due to the increased financial transactions due to Covid, ensuring that there is liquidity for all Council activities, including all the various Covid grant payments. Additional borrowing continues to be taken in line with the Council's capital programme expenditure.
  • Internal Audit has recently completed the following engagements: Memorials & Headstones Procedures, Financial Assessments Process and Control Self Assessments.  In addition, the team have provided consultancy support to Finance relating to Reconciliations in order to help mitigate the impact of vacancies in the team. The Chief Internal Auditor continues to highlight that, despite the pandemic and required changes in the Internal Audit Plan, suitable work will have been completed at the year end to undertake year end assurance processes.
  • Work has been carried out on the 2022/23 Internal Audit Plan, with areas of focus agreed with Senior Management. The full plan will be presented to the next Audit & Risk Management Committee in June 2022.
  • Corporate fraud have liaised with Police Scotland to arrange an awareness raising session on Serious Organised Crime and implications for local authorities.

Health and Social Care Partnership

HSCP

Overview of Progress

The HSCP and its staff continue to work through the constraints of the pandemic to support the most vulnerable people in our community and promote social justice, equality and safety. In doing so, the Partnership rigorously applies its Business Continuity Plans and Covid-19 Recovery and Transition Plans.

The Covid-19 outbreak has continued to impact on a number of the performance metrics. Ongoing adaptation and prioritisation of health and social care resources in response to critical response management, the continued implementation of the vaccine programme and the impact of physical distancing, have all impacted on our ability to deliver the full range of services as they were delivered pre-pandemic. 

Despite these significant operational challenges, the HSCP continues to deliver on the majority of its full suite of performance indicators with only 3 not achieving or exceeding target performance last month.

Key Achievements / Areas of Focus

  • Business continuity plans have been reviewed and updated and are utilised across the HSCP to support teams to continue to deliver services safely in line with public health guidance whilst taking cognisance of ever changing pressures through staff availability.
  • Continued use of Recovery and Transition Plans to inform the process of guiding service recovery through and out of the pandemic.
  • Launch of the HSCP Strategic Plan 2022-25
  • Take Home Naxalone promotion within the Alcohol and Drug Recovery Service including training to council staff and local volunteers

Children and Criminal Justice Services:

  • There has been an increase in the number of Looked After and Accommodated placements across East Dunbartonshire throughout 2021-22.  Work is ongoing to redress the balance of care by reviewing out of authority placements and continuing the Foster Carer recruitment campaign.
  • Delivery of year 2 of House Project which will improve outcomes for young Care Leavers.
  • Implement the Children’s Services Plan which covers areas such as Community Mental Health and Wellbeing, Keeping Children Safe, Corporate Parenting and Healthy Lifestyles.
  • Implement The Promise with a focus on Family Group Decision Making.
  • Implementation of the Children and Young People’s Mental Health and Wellbeing Framework.
  • Refresh EDC child protection procedures to reflect the new national child protection guidance.
  • Address the unpaid work services backlog to ensure those sentenced are able to complete their hours and are not breaching any order.

Adult Services:

  • Continue to ensure that we provide Self Directed Support training to Social Work and Health practitioners to instil confidence and knowledge about the options amongst the workforce. 
  • Continue to implement our Digital Health and Care Actions, seeking to link traditional telecare with telehealth monitoring and technology enabled care. Aiming to maximise the experience of remote technology and implement the Analogue to Digital Telecare Transformation by 2024.
  • Work continues to analyse and manage care home admission pressures, taking into account the potential consequences, both personal and organisational, for decision-making, with the aim to optimise the service model in relation to quality and efficiency.  Although there has been a downturn in the numbers seeking a Care Home placement, the complexity of those being managed in the community continues to rise.
  • Continuing to provide multi-disciplinary intensive oversight, support and assurance for all care homes and other registered care providers in the area.
  • Continue to pursue achievement of compliance with target timescales for adult protection cases.
  • Taking forward the Allander Leisure and Day Care Centre - to be augmented by informal community based support network and the development of community led partnerships to facility the growth of employability and third and voluntary sector supports.
  • Conduct a strategic review of all formal and informal social supports for older people to inform a five year strategy and commissioning plan, including centre based day care. 
  • Refresh the HSCP Carers Strategy.
  • Review of commissioned Mental Health and Alcohol and Drugs services.

Housing

housing

Overview of Progress

  • Void levels continue to remain low with 41 void properties sitting with Property Maintenance (PM) at the end of the first quarter. Joint working continues with Property Maintenance to reduce void turnaround and relet times and continued use of Smart Sheets allows closer monitoring of void performance and reduce/stabilise void loss.
  • Joint working with Police Scotland, Social Work, Legal Services and Community Safety continues to address and resolve antisocial cases of a more serious nature. 
  • Full escalation of rent arrears actions have now resumed, which includes legal action and evictions where decree has been granted against a tenant in serious rent arrears. The current economic climate which is seeing a significant increase in daily living and utility costs are impacting on many tenants’ outgoings and is likely to see an increase in more support/advice having to be provided to even more tenants.
  • The Homelessness Team continue to work remotely.

Key Achievements / Areas of Focus

  • 8 new cases of antisocial behaviour
  • 2 abandonment notices served – 1 not yet concluded, 1 cancelled
  • 1 decant completed and 5 still ongoing
  • 22 properties were let ( figure includes 2 new build properties)
    • 7 lets to existing tenants
    • 7 to general waiting list applicants
    • 8 to homeless households,  1 of which was a SSST’s
  • 4 allocations as a result of nominations to housing associations (2 to homeless applicants and 2 to general waiting list applicants)
  • 1 Mutual exchange was completed 
  • 6 Hardship Fund awards administered
  • Taking Part newsletter Issued to all EDC tenants
  • The number of enquiries from households who have received a notice to quit from the private landlord has increased since the end of March, this is a direct result of relaxation of COVID19 restrictions/legislation that were in place to prevent homelessness in the private sector.
  • Year 4 of the Council's Rapid Rehousing Transition Plan; focus will be upon provision/standard of temporary accommodation
  • No homelessness applicants have been awaiting offer of settled accommodation longer than 3 years
  • Draft Policy developed for Short-Term Licences (to be in place by 1 October 2022)
  • No households placed in unsuitable accommodation

Land Planning and Development

Overview of Progress

Land Planning & Development have progressed a number of significant work streams during April 2022 in line with the Business Improvement Plan commitments. 

Land Planning Policy

  • Work towards the production of a draft Circular Economy Strategy for East Dunbartonshire is ongoing. An early analysis of potential actions and objectives has been carried out this month, in collaboration with key partners.
  • The Land Planning Policy team is continuing to support the Examination of LDP2 by liaising with the Planning and Environmental Appeals Division (DPEA) on procedural matters and responding to Further Information Requests from the Reporter. It is expected that the examination will be concluded by the end of June 2022, at which point the Policy team will commence adoption procedures.
  • Following a public consultation exercise on planning guidance to accompany the Local Development Plan which concluded in January 2022, a series of updates to six guidance documents has been completed. These updates, together with a report on the outcomes of the public consultation, will be reported to the next available PNCA Committee.  
  • The Active Travel Discussion closed on 28 September 2021. The engagement gathered 2,997 responses. Work continues through April to analyse the results and develop the report of engagement.
  • Following consultation on the Draft Parking Management Plan in 2021, a number of amendments have been made to the Plan. These changes, alongside a Report of Consultation, will be reported to the next available PNCA Committee.

Sustainability Policy

  • Work on the Climate Action Plan and Local Heat & Energy Efficiency Strategy is continuing. Work has now commenced on the identification of opportunities for emissions reduction across the Council’s own estate and operations. As agreed by Council in March, progress is also being made in the delivery of 37 early actions to address climate change which will be carried out alongside the development of the Climate Action Plan.
  • Work is continuing towards the launch of the Re-Heat Project with Scottish Power Energy Networks and E.On which will provide an opportunity for low-carbon electrified heat and smart control to be introduced to 50 homes in East Dunbartonshire. 
  • Work is underway to identify priority projects for inclusion in the Council’s new Greenspace Strategy, which will replace the Green Network Strategy and Open Space Strategy. Discussions were held during the month with colleagues in Clyde Climate Forest and the Glasgow & Clyde Valley Green Network Partnership to identify early opportunities to expand the urban tree canopy cover and restore peatland in East Dunbartonshire, and on potential wetland creation and restoration opportunities.

GIS & IDOX Development Team

  • Working with internal partners in ICT and external partners at IDOX delivered the recent upgrade of the Council’s Public Access, Document Management System and Uniform application.   
  • Further roll out of ArcGIS Online web applications and mobile applications to aid officer’s workflows. Key areas that were enhanced were the Glazert River Tree Survey, with tree conditions, locations and work required recorded on the mobile CollectorApp. Training was also given to Corporate Communications on the StoryMap application which will be the corporate solution and utilised for future strategies and promotions. Finally, analytical work on over 800 school placement requests took place.

Business Support

  • 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.
  • Working on the development of new business support products designed to help businesses having difficulties in recovery, sustainability or diversification. These interventions will include loans and small grant support through residual ERDF and remaining discretionary funds.

City Deal Team

  • The team continues with a range of work to ensure the delivery of the Council’s City Deal project, including the preparation of the different stages of business cases (in-line with City Deal & HM Greenbook requirements) which are required to unlock the funding from the region.
  • Expert technical services have been procured to support transport modelling, and work to procure relevant expertise to design the BRR5 and undertake the Westerhill Masterplan has been well progressed in this period.
  • The public realm plan consultation has completed for Bishopbriggs Town Centre, which will help inform design options going forward for the area and business case development. 

Regeneration & Town Centres Team

  • The Regent Gardens project is being progressed, working closely with the local community council, designs have been completed following extensive public consultation and preparation to go out to tender for main works contractor is underway. On the Campsie Memorial Hall in Lennoxtown - Work continues with the Trust for the hall to develop proposals to improve the hall and examine external funding opportunities.
  • The team, Land Planning Policy and landowners continue working together to has finalised a masterplan for the Kirkintilloch Business Gateway site in step with the LDP2 process, which will be presented to PNCA Committee in Quarter 2.
  • Work ongoing to prepare UK Levelling Up Fund bid to support regeneration activity in Lennoxtown. Work to prepare for the Shared Prosperity Fund is underway, working with various services, local partners and the Glasgow City Region to help set local priorities and possible uses for the funding which will be allocated later in 2022.

Traffic & Transport Team

  • Work is continuing to finalise designs for the Canniesburn Toll Improvement Project including carrying out a detailed survey to take the location of existing utilities infrastructure in to account. Work will commence on procuring contractors for the construction period once designs are completed.
  • Preparations are being made for upgrading the Strathkelvin Railway Path between Kirkintilloch and Lennoxtown. Construction will take place in summer 2022. Feasibility and design works are progressing on a range of active travel infrastructure projects included in the Local Transport and Active Travel Strategies.
  • The team has successfully attracted external funding to help deliver a number of projects over 2022/23. Work is ongoing to recruit additional staff to support project delivery.
  • Work is progressing on key functions of the team including: working on a range 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.

Development Management:

  • During the reporting period the planning side of the team has determined 58 applications and validated 63 applications. The Building Standards team have received 114 building warrants and approved 69 applications. The Enforcement Team opened 9 new cases and closed 9. 
  • The Building Standards team have had to manage a high workload whilst carrying 3 vacancies over this reporting period. In addition the Validation Team have 1 vacancy and the Planning Team have 1 and a half vacancies. Managing customer expectations has been critical, as unfortunately the team have not been able to respond as quickly as we normally strive to do. 
  • It is hoped ongoing recruitment processes will be successful however it is recognised that there is national recruitment challenge. This is being discussed at a national level with the Scottish Government, HOPS, LABBS and universities.

Key Achievements / Areas of Focus

  • A focus on recruitment for Development Management in the next few months
  • Working on the development of new business support products designed to help businesses having difficulties in recovery, sustainability or diversification. 
  • It is expected that the examination will be concluded by the end of June 2022, at which point the Policy team will commence adoption procedures.

Legal and Democratic Services

legal and democratic

Overview of Progress

In April 2022, the Service was focussed on the work necessary to conclude the business of the outgoing Council, including supporting those Members who were stepping down. This was running in tandem with the arrangements for the local government elections which are the most complex and demanding of the elections managed by the Service due to the multi member wards and voting system

Performance against each indicator for April is 100%

Key Achievements / Areas of Focus

  • During April, the Teams processed 7 Contract awards, 27 taxi licences, and 7 grants. As stated above, there were no new instructions for housing improvement and repair grants. In light of the 100% performance, it is not proposed to take any steps at this time other than to continue to monitor progress against the set PIs
  • The Teams progressed negotiations of various construction contracts in connection with the design and building of a new Lenzie Academy and the refurbishment of both Bearsden and Milngavie Primary Schools.
  • The Teams were heavily involved in the work leading to the award of A803 Project design contract.
  • The Teams supported the City Deal in the negotiation of WDR Contract 2 (specimen design) terms.
  • The ongoing logistical challenge of the local government elections including the training of all staff, building in additional contingencies to address any COVID concerns and potential risks

Neighbourhood Services

neighbourhood services

Overview of Progress

The Waste Team has continued the front line service operations for the collection of over 400,000 assorted household bins over the month of April, 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 500 of our local commercial premises.

Waste Services have managed the disposal and processing of over 800 tonnes of recycling and general waste materials through our Household Waste Recycling Centre at the Mavis Valley over this period. This site has seen a significant rise in both materials and number of visitors in the past two years.  In order to keep our visitors and staff safe, an online booking system was introduced in August 2021 which has received positive feedback. April is traditionally a very busy period for the site however the overall customer experience for this year has proved to be very positive and allowed for the safe use of the site with no disruption to traffic on approach to the Facility.

The Waste service have continued to work with our Clyde Valley partners through the period on the new treatment and disposal contract for all residual household waste. The Council processed around 2000 tonnes of waste through this contract in April, 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.

The service has continued to experience major challenges throughout the period due to the requirements for social distancing within vehicles and premises. The team are currently reviewing working arrangements and shift patterns for the fleet workshop and front line service support, in order to return to normal operations.

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 Lease contracts terminating for the new financial year.

In addition to the this work 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 in the delivery of meals and PPE in support of the wider council efforts in dealing with the pandemic within schools and the community.

Key Achievements / Areas of Focus

  • Successful delivery of the Clyde Valley Residual Waste contract, diverting 2000 tonnes of general waste for ongoing treatment within the period.
  • Continued delivery of statutory front line Waste services throughout the challenges encountered as a result of the pandemic.
  • Ongoing partnership work with Zero Waste Scotland and Waste Managers Network for the review of the Waste Charter and implementation of the imminent Deposit return Scheme in Scotland.
  • Continue Improvements in our overall coverage of recycling at our flatted properties to 90%.
  • Reviewed the recycling availability at our educational premises to ensure compliance and improve our recycling availability.
  • Provided assisted waste and recycling collection to over 4,000 of our elderly and infirm residents on a weekly basis.
  • Procured a new recycling contractor to process and manage over 5000 tonnes of our dry mixed recycling of cans, glass and plastics.
  • Undertake an Advertising campaign for the increased recycling participation for food & additional polymers (Plastics).
  • Delivery of Statutory Fleet Maintenance and Management services throughout the period.
  • Five yearly review and renewal of the Councils Goods Vehicle Operators Licence with the Scottish Traffic Commissioner.
  • Support Council services in the delivery of ASN Transport including the distribution of essential supplies for vulnerable individuals throughout the period.
  • Continued work on the management of Capital programme for the replacement of fleet assets through the financial year.   
  • Continued support to front line service operations through the provision of in house fleet maintenance function including horticultural and construction plant repairs.
  • Management of Fleet Operations in compliance with Operator Licencing legislation with a DVSA Operator Compliance Risk Score of Green 03 for both Traffic and Compliance and a 100% first time pass rate for annual tests.
  • Introduction of new fleet vehicles and associated items of plant to include a new footway gritting Fleet, in addition to a range of cars for Social work.

Place and Community Planning

place and community planning

Overview of Progress

Community Protection

  • Environmental Health
  • Trading Standards
  • Community Safety

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 the course of April the service has continued to actively engage in the local Co-Production arrangement with Police Scotland. This resulted in a significant amount of joint work and coordinated activity to protect communities across the East Dunbartonshire area, with a number of targeted initiatives being delivered (e.g. in relation to antisocial behaviour, youth disorder, bogus callers, licensing enforcement and parking issues).

The service has also continued to develop intelligence led approaches, with intelligence gathered from a range of different sources being used to target local public health, community safety and consumer protection activity towards the areas of greatest need, risk and priority. The Environmental Health Team has been engaged in the delivery of essential public health services throughout the reporting period in order to protect the community from hazards in the environment and to regulate and facilitate the growth of responsible businesses. The team has been assisting in the resettlement of Ukrainian refugees fleeing war through provision of housing visits and assessments. Work has also commenced to prepare the latest Annual Progress Report on standards of Air Quality within East Dunbartonshire. In a similar vein, the Trading Standards Team has been engaged in the delivery of essential consumer protection and licensing services to local consumers and businesses in order to maintain and protect a fair trading environment in East Dunbartonshire. Priority activity in April has included continuing work to develop a new Trading Standards Trusted Trader Scheme for the local authority area in advance of a summer 2022 launch.

The Community Safety Team has continued to undertake a broad range of front-line work for the benefit of local communities during the reporting period. Officers from this team have therefore been very much engaged in the delivery of services in relation to antisocial behaviour, youth disorder, neighbour disputes, environmental incivilities, dog control, decriminalised parking enforcement, fly-tipping, mediation and pest control. Officers have continued to work closely with a range of colleagues and key partners to successfully deliver appropriate interventions and to make our local communities safer.

Community Planning and Partnerships

The overall purpose of the team is to support long lasting projects that make a difference to the lives of those in East Dunbartonshire. The team work in partnership with communities and organisations focussing on a range of outcomes within the East Dunbartonshire Local Outcome Improvement Plan (LOIP). The team provides the overall management, development and delivery of Community Planning in East Dunbartonshire.

In April, support was provided to community groups across our most deprived communities, (Place Areas) to help develop strong and sustainable local community led impact. This work is adaptable to local need and includes advice, signposting and support with funding, training, confidence building, engagement and review and refresh of locality plans (Place Plans). 

Supporting the delivery and quality assurance of community learning and development activity through the CLD Plan 2021-24, coordinating the monitoring, and planning of Year 5 Child Poverty Report. The team continue to support meeting the council’s public sector equality duty and have progressed with communities of interest priority actions within the British Sign Language Plan, Equalities Mainstreaming Outcomes and Gaelic Plan. They have continued coordination and delivery of resettlement for VPRS (Vulnerable Person Resettlement Scheme) and developing processes and procedures to deliver support for displaced Ukrainians under the Homes for Ukraine Scheme.

Community Testing

This team was created in response to request from Scottish Government to support the COVID response and duties placed on local authorities, working closely with Greater Glasgow & Clyde NHS Board and also with ED HSCP.

Through the past year this has evolved and location for Asymptomatic was moved to War Memorial Hall, Bishopbriggs, and a Community Testing bus set up that could take this facility to our town centres and to our communities in order to be accessible by all.

Mobile Testing Units were also available located at Huntershill and a further set up by Scottish Government at Milngavie Train Station car park.

Distribution of lateral flow kits was also provided across the authority from public building and town centres by the Community Testing Team. During this timeframe then the requirement to test both symptomatic and asymptomatic individuals was embedded in the detailed COVID response requirements for managing the pandemic and so the local authority stepped up with an all encompassing response to these requirements. April saw the stepping down of the community testing regime and closure of the asymptomatic and symptomatic testing provision.

A key part of pandemic public health response and recovery is vaccination, which has allowed the degree of ‘normality’ that we enjoy today and local authorities have played an important role in this through setting up of  Mass Vaccination Centres.

Vaccination clinics are established in Kirkintilloch and Milngavie town halls where the clinics continue today.  Currently this involves Covid vaccinations, and also boosters for the different demographics, most recently young persons and children. The annual flu boosters are also in planning for the winter months of 2022 as well as regular adult community vaccine programmes.

The Community Testing Team continues to support national public health work and respond to the requests of Scottish Government and also of NHS Board in relation to testing programme and requirements and vaccination roll out.

Key Achievements / Areas of Focus

  • Delivery of effective services on a flexible basis in order to meet all statutory requirements and duties in relation to public health, community safety, consumer protection and licensing 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 in order 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 in the route out of the pandemic.
  • Provision of a resilient Environmental Health Service with ability to adapt to any new Covid-19 situations from a public health point of view – service also retains a covid-19 resilience for the purposes of any further variants appearing that require a public health response.
  • Assisting in the resettlement of Ukrainian refugees fleeing war through provision of housing visits and assessments.
  • Continuation of work to implement the Official Food Controls Recovery Plan with normal programmes of food safety inspection activity now fully resumed.
  • Preparation of the latest Annual Progress Report on standards of Air Quality within East Dunbartonshire.
  • Delivery of field responses in relation to all community safety matters (e.g. pest control, fly-tipping, antisocial behaviour and youth disorder, control of dogs and CCTV deployment).
  • Continued development of effective and efficient service delivery in relation to all Decriminalised Parking Enforcement with delivery of targeted enforcement activity in priority areas.
  • Effective deployment of mobile CCTV cameras to prevent crimes and aid detection, with particular emphasis on jointly agreed deployment between East Dunbartonshire Council and Police Scotland.
  • Delivery of essential patrols in relation to environmental incivility breaches as well as antisocial behaviour and youth disorder patrols in and around identified issue areas. 
  • On-going delivery of a service in terms of neighbour complaints/disputes, with advice to residents and others by the most appropriate means available and with regular liaison with colleagues in other services including Housing, Social Work and Police Scotland.
  • Delivery of effective field responses in relation to all trading standards and licensing matters (e.g. doorstep crime, animal health and welfare, petroleum and fireworks).
  • Recommencement of Trading Standards and Licensing routine inspection and project work.
  • Development and introduction of a Trusted Trader Scheme for East Dunbartonshire by Trading Standards with an anticipated launch in summer 2022.
  • Joint enforcement work by Trading Standards and Police Scotland on scam and doorstep crime issues via Operation Skipjack, with focus on the protection of our vulnerable and elderly populations from financial harm in order to improve consumer protection.
  • Continues to provide community capacity support using a Community Learning and Development approach across our Place areas and communities of interest.
  • Collaboratively produced CLD Plan 2021-24 and progressing actions to deliver on priorities.
  • Led on the review and refresh of Locality Plans (Place Plans)
  • Delivered resettlement support under both VPRS and Homes for Ukraine agenda’s
  • Development of collaborative partnership support to hosts under the Homes for Ukraine agenda.
  • Management and monitoring of our Strategic Partnership Agreements
  • On-going support to our deaf community to enable community led local solutions to national shortage of BSL interpreters.
  • Work to Scottish Government and Greater Glasgow & Clyde NHS Board agenda in delivery of a public health response in both testing and vaccination provision across East Dunbartonshire
  • Coordinate and deliver community testing – symptomatic and asymptomatic- as required across local authority including implementing the transitional testing step down plan as required in line with government requirements
  • Oversee the Care for People support, engaging with third sector and partners, including community response and support
  • Coordinate the delivery of vaccination clinics including organising operational arrangements of buildings, facilities and stewards for customer interactions and queue management

Organisational Transformation

Overview of Progress

The services within Organisational Transformation continued to support other services and employees within the Council. Each part of the Organisational Transformation Services supported to the ongoing business as usual support to the wider organisation. In addition, OT services supported colleagues in Legal & Democratic Services with arrangements for the local government elections, providing both hands on and professional support. 

The Service was also heavily involved in ongoing procurement work, particularly in relation to the major assets and City Deal. The ongoing pressures within the external social work markets arising as a consequence of the COVID pandemic continued to generate demands on the Strategic Commissioning Team.  Each service area commenced work against priorities identified in new BIPS and will continue this work throughout the performance year.

The Business & Digital Change Team continue to focus on key areas of Transformation and Business Systems maintenance and development. All delivery is aligned to the Council’s organisational principles and both the local and national digital strategies.

The Health and Safety team continues to carry out its corporate advisory role supporting services throughout the council concerning the planning of safe works and training, its supervisory role while works are being undertaken and leading on incident investigation and recording.

Key Achievements / Areas of Focus

HROD, Procurement and Commissioning

  • Supported Major Assets in work connected with various construction contracts in connection with the design and building of a new Lenzie Academy and the refurbishment of both Bearsden and Milngavie Primary Schools.
  • Supported the City Deal Team in the work leading to the award of A803 Project design contract.
  • Supported the City Deal in the negotiation of WDR Contract 2 (specimen design) terms.
  • Published Annual Procurement Strategy in line with Scottish Government publication dates
  • In response to the on-going pandemic and wider system pressures, the SCT implemented enhanced oversight and support arrangements across the commissioned market to help manage and mitigate service disruption and potential sustainability & viability risks
  • Continued to support and co-ordinate C-19 testing requirements across the commissioned market
  • Supported providers to review / update business continuity plans and align with HSCP recently revised plan – and manage RAG implementation where required 
  • Implementation of Teachers pay award
  • Supported remedial work to the Council’s existing HR system
  • Support for the implementation/rollout of M356 including consideration of training and development needs

Business & Digital Change

  • Implementation of the Integrated Housing Management System (IHMS) is progressing and the team are working on the development of the design and build for the new system.  
  • Commenced a proof of concept project for the Internet of Things (IOT) to monitor water quality in Council buildings. Pilot progressing at Twechar Primary School.
  • Work continues on the Digital Telecare cloud platform working with 28 Local Authorities and the Digital Office to procure a contract for a single supplier.
  • The team is leading on the implementation of Microsoft 365 and are involved in preparatory work for the deployment of Microsoft Outlook and Office. 
  • The team continue to support the Council's Business Systems, resolving incidents and service requests, minimising operational service impact and maintaining availability of systems underpinning services delivered by the Council.

Health and Safety

  • The Health & Safety Team team continues to support the COVID-19 effort of the council in a number of ways including carrying out assurance visits to educational establishments, and providing ventilation reports.
  • Preparation, updating and reviewing of individual COVID-19 risk assessments, including pregnancy risk assessments, in line with changing legislation and guidance
  •  The team continues to manage the Health Surveillance program which includes
  • HAVS management and administration and Noise Dosimetry.
  • Logging, review and investigation of incoming incident reports and subsequent reporting of RIDDOR submissions where required
  • Supporting services in preparation for Local Elections including the Polling Stations and Count Venue risk assessments and health and safety set up
  • Developing Fire and Health and Safety services for new corporate Health and Safety Management System

Roads and Environment

roads and environment

Overview of Progress

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

This Service area is divided into five 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. Mugdock Country Park

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

As the new financial year commences the various sections within the portfolio groups are working with colleagues in Procurement and Finance to close any remaining invoices from the previous year. This is a vitally important task in order to balance and close off budget lines as well and informing the starting position for the year to come.

In addition, the various teams work with colleagues across the Council to ensure they are in a position to deliver services and projects for the benefit of local communities.

Roads Network Operations Team

The team have commenced the year with a number of vacancies with the team working through the recruitment process to ensure all positions are filled and the team is operating at maximum capacity. In addition, the team are working with colleagues within Major Assets and Property Management to improve the welfare facilities to maximise attendance and return to pre-pandemic work patterns.

From an operational perspective the team have commenced the annual resurfacing programme utilising internal and external resources with 7500 square meters (around 1.2 Kilometres) completed in April. In addition, the team continue to respond to fault reporting and reactive repairs for the adopted roads, footways and street lighting across East Dunbartonshire.

Roads Technical & Engineering

Again, the team have two vacancies for a Structure Engineer and Senior Traffic Officer which are essential posts within the team. The recruitment process is ongoing and the team hope to backfill the vacancies as soon as possible, but due to the specialist nature on the positions this is proving difficult. The team are seeking advice from the Society of Chief Officers of Transportation in Scotland (SCOTS) who have advised that this is a national issue.

In addition, Traffic Surveys are underway at various locations across East Dunbartonshire and the information collected will be analysed and used to inform and support future actions on various projects including traffic calming and pedestrian crossings.

Streetscene Operations

The team have commenced seasonal grounds maintenance tasks including grass cutting and herbicide treatments within open spaces, schools grounds, sports grounds and community facilities.  The teams are also responsible for street cleansing of all adopted council roads and pavements including litter collection, mechanical sweeping and servicing of street litter bins. In addition, the team also continues to manage the Councils tree stock carrying out surveys and arranging remedial works as required. The team also manage and perform burials in the eight operational cemeteries

The team are also in the process of finalising the recruitment of seasonal staff to undertake the 2022 Care of Garden Scheme – Care of Gardens Service | East Dunbartonshire Council. As a reminder this task was ceased during the pandemic as the teams were concentrating on essential maintenance only.

Streetscene Technical Support Team

The team are preparing the required documents to progress the procurement exercise associated with the river restoration projects. Liaise and advise various community groups regarding Environmental Improvement Projects including path improvement, play area renovations, cemetery and allotment development.

Mugdock Country Park

The team continue to work on the development of the 2022-27 Mugdock Strategy as well as progressing several quotes for various improvements across the Country Park. Year on year the April visitor numbers have increased and the team will endeavour to continue with the improvements and ensure that the Country Park remains a popular visitor attraction.

Key Achievements / Areas of Focus

Roads Network Operations Team

  • Carriageway surface defects and service level agreements (SLA) - between 01/04/2022 and 31/04/2022, we have identified 239 defects in East Dunbartonshire Council carriageways. We have managed to complete 202 repairs on time. This means that 84% of these repairs comply with council service level agreement and road maintenance policy.
  • Footway surface defects and service level agreements (SLA) - between 01/04/2022 and 31/04/2022, we have identified 71 defects in East Dunbartonshire Council Footways. We have managed to complete 43 repairs on time. This means that 60% of these repairs comply with council service level agreement and road maintenance policy.
  • Gully cleaning and maintenance - the local residents requested to provide maintenance of gullies in 21 locations in additional to our routine gully-cleaning programme. We have managed to attend to 7 of these locations.
  • Permits - 29 road activities permits such as Skip, road occupations, temporary traffic lights, road opening, etc issued in April 2022 from road maintenance departments.
  • Kerbs - We had 12 locations which local residents reported damaged kerbs. We have managed to attend and respond to all these requests.
  • Customer communications - road non- management staff responded to 71 customer communications and enquiries via phone call, face to face or written during April 22.

Roads Technical & Engineering

  • The coring contract has yet to commence, but sites for testing have been identified so as soon as the contract gets underway the process of testing road reinstatements by public utility companies can begin.
  • Recruitment exercises have not identified a suitable replacement for the Structures Engineer. Advice from the SCOTS group is that this is a national problem. Officers are working with Procurement and HR for how to proceed and comply with statutory requirements pertaining to statutory inspections
  • General and Principal reports for structures due in 2021/22 completed ahead of end of March target.
  • The Structures framework contract tenders has been awarded and officers have met with the winning contractor on upcoming projects.
  • Officers are working with Procurement colleagues regarding the demolition of the Westergartshore Footbridge
  • 2022 Traffic surveys are under way. These will provide evidence for traffic calming and routes to school.
  • Officers have liaised with the Police Scotland over the tragic fatal traffic incident at Bardowie and responded to customer correspondence.
  • The framework for CCTV and civil engineering is in place and projects are being planned for the year ahead.
  • A Planning Application has been submitted for the River Glazert restoration project.

Streetscene Operations

  • Street cleansing and associated tasks such as removal of fly posting and uplifting of fly tipping, mechanical street sweeping and installing replacement or additional bins.
  • Uplifting of waste material following litter collection by various Community Groups
  • Graffiti removal.
  • Ongoing cemetery operations, digging and carrying out interments, cemetery grass cutting, installing headstone foundations, benches etc.
  • Cyclic grass cutting of open spaces, Housing estates, sports pitches, school grounds, etc.
  • COG first cut completed in April.  Continuing to measure gardens of new applicants.
  • Housing one off grass cuts
  • Marking of Leisure Trust and schools pitches and athletic tracks.
  • Checking & clearing of culvert grills.
  • Inspecting and carrying out minor repairs to play park equipment.
  • Responding to customer service requests / complaints / enquiries.
  • Review of cemetery Risk Assessments with H&S.

Streetscene Technical Support Team

  • Ongoing preparation of Statement of Requirements for the Luggie, Allander and Parkburn as part of the Kelvin Tributaries river restoration works.
  • Ongoing work with consultants and SEPA (hydrological modelling) to determine finalised plans for planning for the River Glazert restoration works. Legal agreement letters have been passed over for review, and discussions regarding tree survey and landscaping design along two reaches. GIS team working on the layering for tree retention plan for Glazert flood works have to be checked off and establish a tree removal and retention plan for planning with Project Manager.  
  • Response to questions from contractors for Climate Ready Park at Woodhill & Etive Open space tender.  
  • Assisting Local Community Group with Milngavie Library Pond naturalisation works and bench installation fountain and ongoing inspections.
  • Meeting with Gavins Mill group regarding flooding and Lennox Park.
  • Investigation works at Merkland LNR, tree protection works established and ecological reports for mitigation works from Scottish Water.
  • Lenzie Moss evaluation for Board Walk completed, funding discussions have take place regarding costs and quotes for advancing project to pre start and award. 
  • Monitoring of drainage ditch and drainage at Mosshead Park, assessing of additional works required with the view to conducting basic ground investigation and profile works in the Spring of 2022.
  • KLR and BRR road verge works now in its second cycle of grass cutting, spraying and waste removal.
  • Thorn Park draining investigation with developer to establish potential new route through park grass verge.
  • RMNS polygons now completed for Bishopbriggs and Woodhill Park
  • 22 headstones have now been repaired in line with the 20/22 budget and 22 new headstones are being evaluated and identified to the awarded contractor for the 22/23 repair.  Other repairs on Beatrice Clugston are currently under way, pointing and finishing works completed.  Order raised for production and installation of plaques relation to the restoration of the Beatrice Clugston memorial, Old Aisle. 
  • Ongoing surveying and removal of dangers trees or limbs; scheduling of tree works in new financial year.  Negative tree survey commissioned for Whitehill Woods, Bearsden. Trees now removed waiting for negative tree survey.
  • Community litter picker programme has had another good monthly uptake.
  • Resurfacing of the Froggy Path, Colquhoun Park. Completed.
  • Meeting on Conon Avenue with Scottish Water, GCC and EDC flooding team regarding road flooding and upgraded parks works.
  • Craigfoot Allotment, designs near completion currently costing exercise underway, awaiting completed package from consultants; meeting with Community Council to be arranged once all documents are finalised. Due to poor soil, raised beds will require to be provided as the sole growing structure, planning permission will be sought in 2022.
  • Meeting regarding New Community group in Lennoxtown regarding food growing and allotment location. First meeting with new constitutional group was on the 5th of May next meeting Scheduled for the 12th of May
  • Merkland Pitch fence, completed, temp fencing office site.
  • Input into Additional Capital investment for drainage, active travel/access and footway surfacing.
  • Headstone stabilisation Audit, first key point now met and responded back to Management, next meeting for Audit team scheduled for the 12th May, to discuss recommendations.
  • Continuation of dialogue with City Deal Team regarding Cemetery development, Bishopbriggs.
  • The team continues to respond to high volume of open space, tree and bereavement enquires, along with planning application consultations and complaints.
  • Finalisation of specification for Ash dieback surveys across EDC; 4 quotes to be sought.
  • Cairnhill Wood Nature restoration Scotland grant fund work now completed with some planting and fencing still to be added
  • Doune Crescent Play Area Upgrade which has just started.
  • Peel Park Restoration Project has just started including renovation of the bandstand

Mugdock Country Park

  • Development of Mugdock Strategy 2022-27 with customer surveys, stakeholder workshops and draft plans being drawn up;
  • Work continuing at the Eric Tomney Memorial Observatory (ETMO) which is being sited to the north of the Park and is funded by the Astronomical Society of Glasgow;
  • Easter events programme included Forest Schools, Sensational Safaris, Wildlife Weans, Spring Trail and Woodland Beastie Hunt;
  • Theatre events are starting to take place including ‘Islets of Silence’ by TRAM Direct, Peter Rabbit 2 and Tom and Jerry The Movie;
  • Filming took place with several Production Companies hiring room and land and students from the Royal Conservatoire carrying out their project work;
  • Dawn chorus and Bluebells of Mugdock Wood events are taking place this month