Agenda item

Councillor S J Conboy, Executive Leader and Chair of the Cabinet to present the Corporate Plan 2023-28 for approval by the Council.

(The Plan was considered at the meeting of the Cabinet on 21st March 2023 and the Executive Leader will provide an update on the Cabinet’s deliberations).

The Executive Leader, Councillor S J Conboy, introduced a report by the Business Intelligence and Performance Manager (a copy of which is appended in the Minute Book) to which was attached the proposed Corporate Plan for the period 2023-2028, which sets out the Council’s proposed priorities, outcomes, actions and operational performance indicators for approval.

With the assistance of a PowerPoint presentation (a copy of which is appended in the Minute Book), the Executive Leader presented the Council’s proposed Plan for 2023-28 – ‘Do, Enable and Influence’ which had been prepared to reflect feedback from councillors, businesses and other stakeholders and align with the newly co-developed Huntingdonshire Futures Place Strategy.

Attention was then drawn to the three key priorities set out within the Plan and the Executive Leader spoke in detail about the activities which incorporated each priority. These included –

1.  Improving quality of life for local people

2.  Creating a better Huntingdonshire for future generations

3.  Delivering good quality, high value-for-money-services with good control and compliance with statutory obligations.

With specific reference to the first of the two priorities and the Council’s budgetary limitations, the Executive Leader reiterated that the District Council did not have an infinite budget and that some of the projects would be undertaken by enabling and influencing other organisations to take these forwards, following the direction which the Council has set.

The Council were reminded that much of the Council’s ‘Business as Usual’ activities sat within Priority Three and it was in this area where 80% of the Council’s resources continued to be aligned. The Executive Leader explained that this third priority focused on continuing to deliver good quality services and to set an excellent example to our communities. She explained that although ‘Business as Usual’ may not always grab the headlines, given the scale of these activities, it was important to seek to provide exceptional service in these areas - a reason it had been made a standalone priority in own right.

In concluding, Members were advised that there would be a new approach to performance reporting including plans to monitor and report on a range of contextual outcome measures which would show how outcomes for the District and its residents are changing.

Councillor Conboy then moved the recommendation and was duly seconded by Councillor T D Sanderson.

In addressing the meeting, Councillor B Pitt outlined his support for the preparation of this Corporate Plan. In doing so, he drew attention to the specific statement ‘the desire to focus on the efforts of the Council and the priorities that matter to out residents’ which was an important message to be carried out through in all councillor’s work.

In response to the Executive Leader’s presentation and on behalf of the Conservative Group, Councillor J A Gray indicated his support for the priorities contained within the Plan, although in doing so, suggested that there was some resemblance to those adopted by the previous administration. However, Councillor Gray expressed his concerns with regards to the absence of appropriate operational performance measures within the Plan – an issue which he had raised during the scrutiny process and one which would prevent him from supporting the approval of the Plan at this time. 

In responding to Councillor Gray’s comments, the Executive Leader explained that the development of these measures would form the next stage of the process and it was intended to undertake this in partnership with Overview and Scrutiny. She reiterated the importance of the Council having confidence in such measures, which would be iterative to ensure that the Council delivered the right services for Huntingdonshire. She also concurred that the document was probably not vastly different to that which had gone before and formed stage one of a 20-to-30-year vision for Huntingdonshire which had been set by residents and businesses as part of the Huntingdonshire Futures Strategy.

Councillor L Davenport-Ray then took the opportunity to indicate her support for the Corporate Plan and drew attention to performance metrics which had been incorporated into from page 18 onwards of the document which would form the basis of a skeleton upon which the Council could continue to develop.

Councillor J Neish and Councillor P Hodgson-Jones went on to express further concerns with regards to the proposed measures within the document. Councillor Neish indicated that many were lacking in detail, which made it difficult to challenge. This was supported by Councillor P Hodgson Jones who reiterated that whilst many of the targets were laudable, there were no specific measures attached and that the document was lacking in detail a mechanism for performance monitoring and the indicators and measurements system that this would involve. They reiterated that it was difficult to approve the document without this information.

In response to which the Executive Leader explained that this performance management information did exist, but it had been considered too substantial to include within Council Members documentation. She had followed the precedent in terms of presentation which had been set by the previous administration – the presentation of a relatively accessible Corporate Plan behind which there is significant detail. The Executive Leader explained that the Administration had significantly enhanced the measures that they had inherited and was willing to meet with Councillors outside of the meeting to understand if there were any further areas they considered to be lacking and which had not been picked up as part of the Scrutiny process. She looked forward to discussing the development of Key Performance Indicators with them in due course.

Councillor S Ferguson, Executive Councillor for Customer Services outlined his support for the setting of robust achievable targets to drive Council performance and indicated that he was happy to work together with all Members to identify appropriate measures to ensure we are serving the residents of Huntingdonshire.

Finally, Councillor S Wakeford, Executive Councillor for Jobs, Economy and Housing indicated his support for the structure of the documentation that had been presented to the Council for approval and supported the future development of a performance measurement framework as outlined by his colleagues.

Whereupon and having previously been proposed and seconded, the Council

RESOLVED

that the Corporate Plan for 2023-28 be adopted (as attached at Appendix A of the report now submitted).