Agenda item

Report of the Chief Executive (enclosed)

The Chief Executive submitted a report that provided an update on the performance of the Organisational Plan that included the 20 key projects set out in the Council’s Corporate Strategy. It was reported that overall good progress was being made with 84% of projects rated green or complete.

The report also provided an update on all the corporate strategy and local performance indicators which can be reported at this time. Performance was good with 70% of the 40 indicators which can be measured achieving or exceeding their target and a further 17.5% performing within the 5% threshold.

The Organisational Improvement Plan for 2014/15 contained a series of projects and objectives that set out the main improvement actions to be undertaken during the year by the organisation. This included the key projects as set out in the 2013/14 Corporate Strategy. The Plan also set out a number of business improvement, budget growth and neighbourhood priority projects that had been agreed in April 2014 and were due to run until the end of the financial year and in some cases for larger projects into 2015/16 and beyond.

The Corporate Strategy 2014/15 included 20 key projects. At the end of December 2014 overall performance of the key projects was excellent with the majority of projects either completed or on track. At the end of the third quarter, 16 projects were rate green; three projects were complete, with only one project being rated as amber. As part of the Corporate Strategy two projects, the Friday Street Health Centre and the Chorley Youth Zone had been carried over into the 2014/15 – 2016/17 Corporate Strategy.

A further two projects, the development of Astley Park and the Play and Open Spaces Strategy, are two much larger programmes of work with delivery scheduled over a number of years. These two projects would continue to be delivered and monitored through the delivery of the 2015/16 Organisational Plan and beyond. The remaining 13 projects were expected to be completed by the end of March 2015.

A breakdown of organisational plan projects by Corporate Priority was provided for the Panel. Where projects had been rated amber or red and explanation about the issue(s) and action(s) that are being taken to address them was provided.

Delivery of 22 of the 24 neighbourhood priorities would be completed by 31 March 2015. The project to provide additional off-street parking in Croston is undeliverable due to lack of sites available and completion of the project to deliver improvement works at the Eaves Green centre was dependent on third party owners of land and property.

The construction of the Buttermere Community Centre had commenced building works in January 2015, but would continue into 2015/16, along with the marketing of the Civic Pride campaign.

The reduction of long term empty properties to 195 was slightly off target at 206, however, an Empty Properties Officer had recently been recruited and it was expected that this figure would improve.

The Town Centre and Steeley Lane Pilot Action Plans were rated as Red. This was a two year project that was due to be completed, however issues with Lancashire County Council and Network Rail had forced the suspension of the project.

Councillor Berry reported however that the residents of Steeley Lane had been happy with the works that had been completed to date. There had been a more co-ordinated approach and works had been undertaken in response to consultation.

The delivery of the Year 1 actions of the ICT strategy had been rated amber, as seven of the 26 objectives which were due to be completed by the end of March 2015, have had their original timescales revised. Each of the objectives would now be incorporated into the delivery of the Year 2 actions and monitored as part of the 2015/16 organisational plan.

Performance of the Council’s indicators is good with 70% of the 40 corporate and local performance indicators either achieving or exceeding their target and a further 17.5% performing within the 5% threshold.

The seven indicators that were outside the target but within the 5% threshold included the overall employment rate, average days per employee (FTE) per year lost through sickness absence, percentage of minutes circulated with 10 days and percentage of occupancy at the Council’s community centres.

However the following five indicators were currently off target and were performing outside the 5% threshold, Members discussed the actions being taken by the Council to address this.

·         Number of long term empty properties in the borough

·         Percentage of customers dissatisfied with the service they received from the Council

·         The level of avoidable contact

·         Average time taken to process new claims and change events for Housing and Council Tax

·         Number of older people (65+) visiting Council leisure centres.

The 2015/16 organisational plan is currently being developed, services should have by now held business planning sessions to discuss project delivery over the 2014/15 and also identify any new projects beyond business as usual for 2015/16.

RESOLVED – That the report be noted.