Agenda and minutes
PDF 34 KBVenue: Ground Floor West Wing - 160 Tooley Street, London SE1 2QH
Contact: Amit Alva Email: amit.alva@southwark.gov.uk
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Apologies
To receive any apologies for absence. Minutes: Apologies for absence were received from Bassey Bassey (Co-opted member).
Apologies for lateness were received from Councillor Victoria Mills. |
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Notification of any items of business which the chair deems urgent
In special circumstances, an item of business may be added to an agenda within five clear working days of the meeting. Minutes: There were no items of business which the Chair deemed urgent. |
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Disclosure of interests and dispensations.
Members to declare any interests and dispensations in respect of any item of business to be considered at this meeting. Minutes: Councillor Jane Salmon, Councillor Esme Hicks and Ina Negoita (Co-opted member) declared that they are leaseholder in a council block.
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Minutes
To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 6 February 2024. (To follow) Supporting documents: Minutes: Minutes of the meeting held on 6 February 2024 were approved as a correct record. |
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Rouel Road estate - Heating & Hot Water Outages
To receive a report from officers Simon Holmes, Head of Engineering, Paul Gathercole, Gas and Water Contracts Manager on Rouel Road estate - Heating & Hot Water Outages; supported by Dave Hodgson Director of Asset Management and Desmond Vincent Asst. Director Major Works
To also hear from Adrian Jepps contracts manager for OCO service provider. Supporting documents: Minutes: The commission first heard from Dave Hodgson on the following points
· Resident feedback on reports, 1 to 1 technical consultations on issues and review on the estate in terms of outage complaints, resident frustration with the call centre, 6 complaints outstanding on the estate · Limitation of resources within housing, spread across repairs, building safety, fire safety etc., current officer structure (new team) have designed and delivered two new schemes in-house · Impact of current schemes to residents and communication with residents (web-links in report), intrusive analysis of heat networks when compared to individual heating · Over-riding success stories of heat networks globally, 70% heat networks in Russia, burning waste through SEL-CHIP network in Lewisham; £15m funding for heat pumps and successful examples in borough The commission then asked questions on the following themes
· Quality of service, residents feeling ignored, Call Centre issues, Data monitoring in previous report misleading (6 February 2024) data shown over the course of whole estate not block wise data, granular data needed and communication with residents · Use of data points from calls made by residents on individual properties; confirmation with residents whether issues has been fixed; Compensation for private renters through heat meters monitoring, currently payments going to leaseholders and landlords The commission heard from Tom Vosper, Strategic Project Manager that the previous report only reported on block outages and not individual properties indicating the outages for the entire block. Furthermore, these issues are reported as resolved when the plant rooms and boiler rooms are fixed and individual properties on the first floor can have airlocks, which would take longer for their heating to be restored. The council have installed heat meters at 1000 individual properties out of 17,000 properties in an effort to monitor temperatures and look at ways to provide compensation to individual properties which is currently only done on a block wise basis for 24 hours outages. Outages are also used to monitor contractors with target of having 99% availability across the borough. Improvements have been made over the last few years in heating availability, however the data being recorded has its limitations.
Tom explained to the commission that when individual properties are reported, the call centre would then contact other neighbouring residents to assess whether it’s a block outage before sending in the engineers and raising job requests. Outages are reported on the communal outage website and text messages are sent to residents to inform them to allow up to 2 hours for heating to be restored after the outage has been fixed.
The commission also noted that the current data of outages block wise does hide the underlying issues with individual properties, using customer calling data to include individual properties in the reporting would be a more efficient way of reporting outages
The commission heard from Adrian that there is constant communication with the call centre every 4-5 hours on status of outages, efforts are also made to fix issues with air-locks in and around individual properties.
Dave explained to the commission that ... view the full minutes text for item 5. |
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Interview with Cabinet Member for Community Safety
To interview Councillor Natasha Enin Cabinet Member for Community Safety giving an Overview of key strategies and projects under the portfolio supported by Stephen Douglass, Director of Stronger Neighbourhoods.
To also receive a report on Noise & Nuisance from Matt Clubb, Director of Environment and Nick Stabeler, Neighbourhood Nuisance Service Manager.
Supporting documents: Minutes: The commission first heard from Councillor Enin on the following themes
· Regulatory services- licensing, night economy; Private Rented Sector (PRS) enforcements and licensing; report on PRS by Citizen advice and Generation rent, partnership working with diverse communities, more efficient licensing for building with multiple dwellings · Food and Safety sector- delays due to the pandemic, bringing forward plans · Commitment of £2m in Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) to increase community wardens targeting hotspots and dedicated patrolling, ASB team working with other organisations for drug use and rough sleeping (Calm Mediation and MOPAC). · Working with police to address disproportionate impact on Black & Ethnic minority communities, women safety hotspots to benefit from £250m in funding to increase lighting by trimming trees and pruning bushes. CCTV operation to track harassment and Environmental Visual Audits in Peckham, Canada water, Tooley street etc. aiding the targeting of resources · Women’s safety survey to meet needs of all women, stakeholder engagement process and horizon scanning for major partners; Casey review resulted in council commitment and working on terms of reference on the police oversight board. Scrutiny to be consulted on the paper. The commission then asked questions on the following topics
· Street robberies and injury and harm to residents, performance data from police; Facial recognition and mask wearing · Women’s safety mapping of lower CCTV coverage and low footfall areas, public realm investment; One women’s safety centre to cover all the cases in the borough · Trans people especially transwomen safety; Diversity within community safety team and community wardens to reflect the diverse demographic of Southwark The commission heard from Councillor Enin that targeting resources in hotspots and live facial recognition is being used in such areas to deter and monitor street robberies which have increased according to data received by the police. Canada water has had specific problems.
Stephen explained to the commission that live facial recognition is very sophisticated works incredibly with masks as well, pictures that are not of missing or wanted people are pixelated and deleted within seconds and not stored in any way. Facial recognition on London Bridge has resulted in no robberies occurring and works well as a deterrent.
Councillor Enin explained to the commission that CCTV resources can be directed to areas where incidents have been reported, some mapping has been done and resources have been allocated in diverse communities with language barriers. Dimly lit areas and LED replacements are mapped as well. Public realm investment can be done and there are plans for it. The council are looking for a strategic partner to support all women in diverse communities and there are options for more than one women’s safety centre.
Stephen informed the commission that there are other activities in the form of Through Your Eyes campaign and women’s safety centre is one part of the strategy.
Councillor Enin explained that Southwark has a commitment towards being a Trans inclusive borough, the council is looking at service providers across without delineating any one group of women.
The commission learnt from Councillor Enin that on ... view the full minutes text for item 6. |
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Work Programme 2023-2024
To consider the work programme for the 2023-2024 year. Supporting documents: Minutes: The Chair suggested that the contact centre element of heating and hot water outages be discussed at the upcoming meeting. However the commission agreed that the contact centre element would need a more elaborate and detailed session at a later date.
The commission agreed the following elements to be added to heating and hot water outages for the upcoming meeting.
· Strategic look at district heating network focusing on future strategy, improvement plans and delivery. · Contract Management - Areas of weaknesses and planned improvements to the framework
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