To receive any apologies for absence.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Quick.

To appoint a Vice-Chairman for the remainder of the municipal year 2017/18.

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: That Councillor Quick be appointed as Vice-Chairman.

The Chairman proposed Councillor Quick to be Vice-Chairman, Councillor Shelim seconded the proposal.

To receive any Declarations of Interest.

The Chairman declared a personal interest as he was a full time employee of First Group as a bus driver. He confirmed that he attended Panel with an open mind.

To confirm the Part I Minutes of the previous meeting.

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: That the minutes of the meeting held on 16 November 2017 be approved.

To receive the above presentation from Reading Buses.

The Chairman stated he had been involved with transport for many years. Local Authorities were set targets to meet for clean air and good bus services were an integral part of the solution. Cities were grinding to a halt and challenging how people travelled was the way forward. He added there was a need to tackle UK air quality as currently, the UK’s clean air zones were breaking European standards.

The Chairman explained that diesel cars accounted for 41% of air pollution and testing of Euro 6 buses and retro fitting equipment to standard buses meant the emissions produced were 95% cleaner than current buses which meant ultra clean solutions. Buses could provide the solution for tomorrow.

The Chairman stated companies needed to make a profit so collaborative working with the Council was the way forward; passengers wanted lower fares, convenience and comfort but, currently, train fares were cheaper than buses and patronage of buses had decreased as buses were not competitive. This meant that buses would continue to lose passengers.

Martin Gilbert, Reading Buses gave the Panel a presentation on a possible Click and Demand Service that Reading Buses could provide to the Borough. The main points of his presentation were as follows:

Ø  Martin Gilbert, Reading Buses wanted to introduce a new local bus operating partnership with the Borough.

Ø  Reading Buses was a council owned company but, it was not run by Reading Borough Council. The bus company was apolitical.

Ø  Reading Buses provided a comprehensive bus network

Ø  Reading buses provided a service which supported economic growth of the region.

Ø  They provided services which aligned to congestion busting initiatives

Ø  Reading Buses had a long history and award winning service

Ø  Lots of investment and growth as an organisation with 600 employees, 200 vehicles in their fleet and they also provided apprenticeships

Ø  They ran a colour coded network and used corporate colours for their contract with Vodafone

Ø  In November 2017, First Group left the 702 Greenline route and Reading Buses felt there was potential to run the service

Ø  Reading Buses took on the Greenline Service which serves commuters and tourists

Ø  1 December 2017 The Royal Borough officers asked if Reading were interested in taking on other opportunities

Ø  Reading Buses were active in Slough and Bracknell and wanted to work with RBWM

Ø  Reading Buses had a micro-depot in Slough

Ø  They wanted more people on buses and were actively trying to get more people on board

Ø  They offered vibrantly coloured buses with bright coloured timetables

Ø  They looked at taking on the No. 2 route and ran it at a slightly less than a half hourly service

Ø  Reading Buses were the first operator to offer contactless payment for customer outside of London

Ø  They were a large enough company to deliver a large service and small enough to still take on smaller routes

Ø  Their mission was to connect people with places and people were a very important  ...  view the full minutes text for item 99.

To receive the above verbal update.

Ben Smith, Head of Commissioning/Communities explained to Members that the item had been added to the agenda as Councillor Da costa had raised some questions regarding the Borough’s street lighting. He continued to provide Members with an update on the Borough’s street lighting replacement programme which included the following main points:

Ø  14,000 streetlights in the Borough were being replaced as part of the scheme.

Ø  AA Lighting were carrying out the installation and the maintenance of the lights

Ø  The contract was awarded in July 2017 and 12,000 streetlights had already been replaced.

Ø  The programme was due to be completed in February 2018

Ø  A new management system allowed real-time notifications of broken lights

Ø  There was a two day turn around to repair or replace broken lights

Ø  SSE was not contracted by the Borough to repair cables or the electricity supply to the lights

Ø  The management system picked up the repeat faults and a suite of indicators were in place to help manage those

Ø  The contract with AA Lighting was managed by the commissioning team who held weekly meetings and monthly key indicator meetings to check performance

Ø  Replacement of lights was light for light – remove one light and replace it with a new one.

Ø  Moving forward, the AA Lighting contract was a long term co-terminus with warranty of equipment.

The Chairman stated he had received 25-30 complaints regarding lighting, he had found that the most complaints related to lights being too bright or too blue. He explained that the lights could be adjusted by a management system and all complaints were resolved. He felt the contract was working well and he had received no complaints from farmers; AA Lighting provided an excellent service.

Councillor Da Costa said he had heard concerns from residents about the failure of lighting in certain areas and also, about the poor level of response from the call centre. There were lights that were said to have been repaired but, they had not been. He asked the Head of Commissioning/Communities once onto the new regime of lighting, had a safety audit been carried out and had the response from the call centre improved at all. The Head of Commissioning/Communities responded there was a strategy for where the lighting was placed. The contract was to change light for light which was done to British Safety Standard. He added there might need to be a revisit of where lighting columns were placed, once the light swap was finished. Then the Borough could move on to finding out where lighting could be improved.

Regarding the responsiveness of the call centre, the head of Commissioning/Communities stated there was a reporting function on the Council’s website which sent request direct to AA Lighting for repair. There was no direct interaction with the call centre. If a resident called into Customer Services, they would log the incident in the same way as if a resident used the website. The contract management meetings took  ...  view the full minutes text for item 100.

To receive the above report.

Mark Lampard, Finance Partner - Corporate Services & Operations gave the Panel a presentation on the 2018/19 Budget. The main points of the presentation were as follows:

Ø  Key messages:

o   Lowest council tax outside of London

o   Resident parking remain free in contrast to neighbouring authorities

o   Keeping all 14 libraries open, some with increased opening hours

o   86% of schools in the Borough were good or outstanding

o   Maintained £330k grant funding to community organisations and increased support for the Citizens Advice Bureau

o   Inflation of RPI 3.9%

o   Indicative fees and charges increased by up to 3.9% or more where justified market benchmarks were higher

o   Increase in core council tax of 1.95%

o   Adult social care precept of 3% applied for the final year

o   Major Capital investment of £65m – due to the regeneration in Maidenhead

o   Ongoing programme of £5.4m savings and additional income

Ø  Indicative fees and charges

o   Parking charges:        

§  Benchmarking to relevant towns and cities showed the Royal Borough to be low

§  Intention to reach benchmark over a period of years

§  No change to all discounted rates for resident Advantage Card holders

§  General parking charge increases towards the benchmarks

§  Season ticket increases depending on the location

§  Resulting in savings of £1.5m

§  Advantage Card holders won’t be impacted by price increases

Ø  Efficiencies and income: £5.4m

o   Outcome based care commissioning efficiency £220k

o   Project management of homecare £200k

o   ICT optimization £320k

o   Bringing revenues and benefits enforcement in-house £300k

o   Parking income growth £325k

o   CCTV upgrade and optimization £202k

Ø  Annual Capital programme £7m net

o   Replacement parking card equipment £775k

o   Commercial and operational estate repairs and maintenance £1.045m

o   Replacement equipment at Windsor Leisure Centre £540k

o   Dedworth Road £350k

o   New London Road roundabout £250k

o   Voluntary organisations grants maintained £200k

Ø  Capital investment net £65m net

o   Braywick Leisure Centre £15.8m

o   Temporary parking facilities £10m

o   Schools expansions £4.9m

The Chairman stated borrow to invest was a good thing. He asked about the fair funding review and if there was any information on that. The Finance Partner - Corporate Services & Operations said he would get back to him with the answer to the fair funding review.

Councillor Da Costa stated the Highways budget made savings, he wanted more in depth detail on that and also the capital budget for projects in the next couple of weeks. The Finance Partner - Corporate Services & Operations confirmed all the information was in the full report in the agenda pack.

The Head of Commissioning/Communities stated the resurfacing budget was £1.65m worth of investment. The specific roads that were to be resurfaced would be announced later. He added with the money has been saved in the highways budget, it was because a lot of the functions had been outsourced so that meant there was a reduction in the rate. Councillor Da Costa asked if he could sit with officers and go through the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 101.