Agenda and draft minutes

Members are reminded of their responsibility to declare any pecuniary interest in respect of matters contained in this agenda.

If you have a pecuniary interest you must withdraw from the meeting. Normally you should leave the room before the business starts to be discussed. You do, however, have the same right to speak as a member of the public and may remain in the room to enable you to exercise that right and then leave immediately. In either case you must not seek to improperly influence a decision on the matter.

There were none.

Minutes of the last meeting held on Thursday, 7 March 2024 attached for approval.

Resolved – That the minutes of the meeting held on Thursday, 7 March 2024 be approved as a correct record.

Report attached.

Councillor Peter Wilson, Executive Member for Resources presented a monitoring report setting out the performance against the delivery of the Corporate Strategy during the fourth quarter of 2023/24, covering 1 January 2024 to 31 March 2024.  He also referred to a correction note to the report, which provided performance information regarding major planning applications decided within the agreed timeframe. The updated information indicated that the original report had included performance within quarter rather than year to date. The year to date provided performance information within the context of the financial year (April – March) and showed that both indicators were performing above target.

 He highlighted the following indicators which were under performing:

-       Delivery of the Local Plan – making progress

-       No. Bus Shelters – the report shows the position as at quarter 4. The updated position was that the performance was now above target (54 shelters have now been installed against a target of 45.

-       16 – 17 year old NEETs – the Council is working closely with partners to address this e.g. via youth zones.

-       Transformation Programme – overall employment rate – under ongoing investigation – lack of correlation between employment rate and benefit claimants.  It would be useful going forward e.g. when we look at the Corporate Strategy, to look at unemployment rate and where the gaps are (e.g. number of people who are retired).  

-       Major applications – there were 3 major planning applications, of which one had not met the target in that quarter (see reference to correction note above).

-       Residents survey – satisfaction down from the previous year.

Councillor Pauline McGovern referred to the fact that the performance information provided for the residents survey was presented in percentages. She suggested that it would be useful to have the actual total figures to provide context, as well as the methodology i.e. sampling frame and questionnaire, in the appendix to the report. Councillor Wilson agreed with suggestion about the presentation of data in performance reports generally, where it assists to provide context.

Cllr Singh reiterated this point about further detail and also requested feedback on the findings of the residents’ survey in terms of how we are going to address the results and make improvements.

Councillor Lees suggested the residents survey be split up into demographics of respondents e.g. men and women, areas of the borough may also provide context and inform how the council proposes to address the priorities put forward by residents. Cllr Wilson responded that the Executive Cabinet had a good record of responding to residents priorities e.g. crime and disorder in the town centre, investment in businesses in rural areas.

Cllr Brown requested that more detail be provided as regards the weighting referenced at paragraph 62 of the report.

Street cleaning was highlighted as a key priority to residents. Cllr Wilson stressed we are performing above target - but can always continually improve to meet resident expectations.

The Chair related the following information provided by Asim Khan, Director  ...  view the full minutes text for item 24.OSP.23

There was no urgent business to consider.