Issue - meetings

To receive a report by the Corporate Team Manager and Head of Resources on progress against the Key Activities and Corporate Indicators listed in the Council’s Corporate Plan for 2015/16 for the period 1st July 2015 to 30th September 2015.

 i.  Notes the progress made against Key Activities and Corporate Indicators in the Corporate Plan and current projects, as summarised in Appendix A and detailed in Appendices B and C of the Officer’s report.

ii.  Notes the Council’s financial performance to the end of September, as detailed in the Financial Performance Monitoring Suite in Appendix D of the Officer’s report.

iii.  Approves the inclusion of a supplementary capital bid to the 2015/16 capital programme for an upgrade to the Capita payments system, as described in Appendix E of the Officer’s report.

The Cabinet received a report by the Corporate Team Manager and Accountancy Manager (a copy of which is appended in the Minute Book) regarding progress against the Key Activities and Corporate Indicators listed in the Council’s Corporate Plan 2015/16 for the period 1st July to 30th September 2015 and updates on current projects.

Progress against the Corporate Plan objectives was reported quarterly and performance data was provided in the form of a narrative of achievement accompanied with a Red/Amber/Green status against each Key Action in the Corporate Plan.

To enable the Capita software system to be upgraded, the Cabinet approved the inclusion of a supplementary capital bid to the 2015/16 capital programme, as detailed in Appendix E of the Officer’s Report. It was explained to the Cabinet that the system enabled the processing of payments received by the Council via credit and debit cards using on-line payments on the Council’s website, automated phone payments and payments at the Call Centre.  The system would be upgraded to a cloud based system with an additional interface to the Leisure Centres as currently these were inputted manually.

The Cabinet expressed appreciation to Officers and Members at the progress the Council continued to make.  It was noted that capital spend was being well controlled and there was consideration about project costs and how projects were financed.  There was now better governance of projects and discipline of the information being input into the system on progress with projects.

As a result of planning permissions not being implemented, the Cabinet were frustrated that the New Home Bonus was not achieving as forecast.  It was noted that the Council had granted ample planning permissions.  However, developers were choosing to ‘land bank’ and not progress planning permissions which was a national issue that Government needed to address.  The New Homes Bonus was calculated on the annual average completion rate over 25 years and work was underway to provide a more accurate forecast in light of the current situation.

Having considered the comments of the Overview and Scrutiny Panel the Cabinet,

RESOLVED

to:

 i.  note the progress made against Key Activities and Corporate Indicators in the Corporate Plan and current projects, as summarised in Appendix A and detailed in Appendices B and C of the Officer’s report.

ii.  note the Council’s financial performance to the end of September, as detailed in the Financial Performance Monitoring Suite in Appendix D of the Officer’s report.

iii.  approve the inclusion of a supplementary capital bid to the 2015/16 capital programme for an upgrade to the Capita payments system, as described in Appendix E of the Officer’s report.

To receive the Integrated Performance Report for Quarter 2.

(Councillors J D Ablewhite, D B Dew, J A Gray and R B Howe were in attendance for the discussion on this item).

Consideration was given to a joint report by the Corporate Team Manager and the Head of Resources (a copy of which is appended in the Minute Book) on progress against the Council’s Key Indicators for 2015/16 in the period 1st July to 30th September 2015, the status of current projects and financial performance on revenue and capital spend as at 30th September 2015. Members were informed that 83% of the key actions were on target and of the reasons why some measures had not been achieved.

This was the first time the complete set of integrated performance information had been submitted to the Panel. At the suggestion of the Chairman, it was decided that key areas would be allocated to Members of the Panel who would then focus on them. This task would be completed at the next meeting. The Panel proceeded to examine in detail the information presented.

With regard to the Strategic Theme – A Strong Local Economy, a comment was made that the Council appeared not to be achieving some Development Management targets but, at the same time, it had made savings by holding open a number of posts in that section. In response, Councillor D Dew, Executive Councillor for Strategic Planning and Housing, accepted that the service had experienced problems but he stated that the vacant posts had not necessarily caused them. The Development Management section was subject to review and practices had been changed, which had resulted in more effective recruitment. The appointment of a Planning Services Manager (Development Management) was the first step and he had been given a number of key additional roles. Improvements in performance had already been achieved.

With particular reference to fast track pre-application advice, Councillor Dew stated that although the target had been missed, he was most disappointed that only one such enquiry had been received. An Officer recently had been appointed who would be solely responsible for this service.

Members commented generally on the need to improve communications between Development Management and other sections within the Council and with developers. Having been advised that measures had been taken in these areas and that ambitious targets had been adopted, which were achievable, assurances were received that it was highly unlikely the Council would be put into special measures as it did not have a history of failing to meet its targets. It was suggested that future performance monitoring might include the length of time it took to issue decisions once planning permission had been approved.

In response to a question by Councillor J M Palmer, Members were informed that the Building Control shared service would achieve the expected savings because the budget allocated was net of the savings. Following a further question by Councillor T D Alban, it was reported that there was not a correlation between the collection of business rates and the collection of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 51