Agenda and minutes

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 19 March 2019 as an accurate record.

The minutes of the meeting held on 19 March 2019 were agreed as an accurate record subject to the following amendment:

Minute 21/19 Para 3, If the notice was invalid, it would be inadmissible in court and the Council would be able to mediate between the landlord and tenant.

In accordance with the Council’s Code of Conduct and the statutory provisions of the Localism Act, Members and co-opted Members of the Council are reminded that it is a requirement to register disclosable pecuniary interests (DPIs) and gifts and hospitality to the value of which exceeds £50 or multiple gifts and/or instances of hospitality with a cumulative value of £50 or more when received from a single donor within a rolling twelve month period. In addition, Members and co-opted Members are reminded that unless their disclosable pecuniary interest is registered on the register of interests or is the subject of a pending notification to the Monitoring Officer, they are required to disclose those disclosable pecuniary interests at the meeting. This should be done by completing the Disclosure of Interest form and handing it to the Democratic Services representative at the start of the meeting. The Chair will then invite Members to make their disclosure orally at the commencement of Agenda item 3. Completed disclosure forms will be provided to the Monitoring Officer for inclusion on the Register of Members’ Interests.

There were none.

To receive notice of any business not on the agenda which in the opinion of the Chair, by reason of special circumstances, be considered as a matter of urgency.

There were no items of urgent business.

To receive an update from relevant representatives and engage in discussion on key aspects of their operations.

a)    Govia Thameslink Railway

Ø  Update on performance indicators

Ø  Response to recommendations from the meeting on 26 June 2018

Ø  Latest timetable

Ø  Passenger Benefit Fund

b)    Transport for London

Ø  Update on performance including timetable

Ø  Accessibility

c)    Network Rail

Ø  Brighton Mainline Upgrade

Ø  Croydon area remodelling scheme

Ø  Stakeholder Engagement

The Chair welcomed Members and invited guests to the meeting to receive an update from the Rail service providers in attendance on actions taken and responses to recommendations since the meeting of the sub-committee on 20 June 2018.

An Officer from Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) was in attendance and gave a presentation on actions taken to date and an update which included the following:

·       The implementation programme of the rail timetable had not gone as planned and resulted in major disruption and delays experienced across the network

·       A refund of fares in addition to the usual delay repay compensation was put in place following the disruptions caused by the introduction of the May timetable and passengers were paid over £17m in additional industry compensation.

·       There had been a year on year improvement experienced and evidenced through the Public Performance Measure (PPM) and over the last three month over 90% of trains had arrived to  timescale

·       A Passenger Benefit Fund with a £15million pot to be spread across the network for GTR stations was in place. Rail user groups, Council, and the community had been invited to submit suggestions as to how the money should be spent.

·       A recent National Rail Satisfaction Survey showed that trust was being rebuilt with passengers with satisfaction figures on 81% for Southern and 83% for Thameslink.

·       Worked closely with Network rail on improvement plans and created action plans to address areas of further exploration.

Questions were raised on the contributing factors to failings in the implementation of the timetable and what lessons had been learnt.

Members’ were informed that a comprehensive report had been published by the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) which detailed the background, issues experienced with timescales as well as over optimisation which contributed to the failings experienced. A key recommendation from the report was for the programme officer to assess risks and this was done in time for the roll out of the December 2018 timetable.

The sub-committee further learned that there had been two timetable introductions since the initial May 2018 roll out with a strategic timetable team in place constantly gathering data and reviewing the timetable.

A question was raised on how well promoted the passenger refund scheme had been, the percentage of take up and the ability of all rail users to claim as not all transport users use oyster which seemed to be a factor in the claims process. Members were informed that the scheme was promoted via the rail website, on social media platforms such as twitter and also by customer services at stations. It was difficult to measure take up as refunds were based on eligibility.

A Member questioned how prepared the service was during peaks periods such as Summer holidays and Christmas, whether there was a full complement of drivers recruited into position and if there was a reliance on drivers putting in to work overtime to cover a shortfall in staff. The Officer responded that a major recruitment and training programme had  ...  view the full minutes text for item 26/19

The following motion is to be moved and seconded where it is proposed to exclude the press and public from the remainder of a meeting:

“That, under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act, 1972, the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information falling within those paragraphs indicated in Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972, as amended.”

This was not required.