Issue - meetings

Report of the Leader

Resolved that the draft corporate strategy action plan for 2011-12 in  Appendix A as amended be endorsed and recommended to Council for final approval.

The Leader introduced the report. The Council had agreed the corporate strategy 2010-2015 in March 2010 which set out the council’s 5 objectives and 11 outcomes and what the council was aiming to achieve by 2015. The 2011-12 action plan was being prepared and will go Council for approval in March 2011. The objective and outcomes framework had been retained, though as the council’s budget had reduced by nearly £3m from last year, the scale of activity had reduced with 14 less improvement actions.

He explained that Government had lifted the national indicator set which had been welcomed as it presented an opportunity to reflect on indicators used to measure corporate performance and choose new indicators which could be more meaningful to the council and the community which it served.  He stressed that the report set out the actions for 2011/12 where the council was doing something different from the normal day job. The action plan now made a distinction between community indicators and measurements specific to the council’s own performance where the council was directly responsible for delivering an outcome.

The Cabinet Member Built Environment referred to page 13 of the action plan and proposed that two further indicators should be added namely;

• Number of long-term, vacant properties brought back into use
• Proportion of planning decisions upheld when taken to appeal
  
  

The Cabinet Member Sport and Culture indicated that he intended to add an additional target for footfall at the Town Hall before the strategy was submitted to Council.

The Cabinet Member Sustainability advised that the council would be signing up to achieve a 30% reduction in carbon emissions by 2015.  He stressed that this was an internal target and at this stage the council did not feel able to sign up to the 40% reduction across the town, which had been asked for, given this was an outcome which was largely outside of the council’s control.

Resolved that the draft corporate strategy action plan for 2011-12 in  Appendix A, as amended, be endorsed and recommended to Council for final approval.

Report of the Policy and Performance Manager (15 mins)

The Policy and Partnerships Manager introduced the report as circulated with the agenda.

The objective and outcomes framework had been retained, though as the council’s budget had reduced by nearly £3m from last year,the scale of activity had reduced with 14 less improvement actions.

Members would not be surprised by the improvement actions as 11 had been retained from the previous year.  Item 3.1 of the report set out the outcomes that were directly applicable to the work of the committee.

Government had lifted the requirement to report against the national indicator set which had been welcomed as it presented an opportunity to reflect on indicators used to measure corporate performance and choose new indicators which could be more meaningful. 

To ensure that the formal views of the members were captured the draft strategy would be considered by all three overview and scrutiny committees before going to Cabinet on the 15 March and then to Council on the 28 March for final approval. 

Feedback from the O&S committees would be included in the final report or in a verbal update from the Leader.

The chair noted the improvements in the report but felt the introduction was still too long and there was a repetition of outcomes.  The most useful part of the report was contained in the detailed outcome sections and these should be preceded by a much shorter introduction.

In response to a question from a member regarding some actions which appeared to be missing from the outcomes summary, the Leader highlighted that the report set out the actions for 2011/12 where the council was doing something different from the normal day job.

Other suggestions from members were that the strategy should include more innovative ways of income generation. It should also be supportive of other initiatives in the town, for example could the council be doing more to support the new Parabola Arts Centre at the LadiesCollege which was now putting on public performances.

In response to a question regarding the lack of any financial targets, the Policy and Partnerships Manager advised that earlier drafts of the strategy had included some target figures for income but these had been removed following discussions with the Chief Finance Officer.  He had been concerned that the strategy would be over complicated by inclusion of the figures and these were monitored closely as part of the Bridging the Programme.

Resolved that the draft corporate strategy be noted and a shorter introduction be incorporated removing some of the repetition.