Agenda item

Report of the Chief Executive (to follow)

The Committee received a report of the Chief Executive that reported progress on the delivery of the Organisational Plan 2015/16 and the performance of corporate and local indicators.

The Plan contained all priority improvement activity being undertaken by the organisation in 2015/16 and included information on:

·         corporate strategy projects

·         business improvement projects

·         budget growth items

·         neighbourhood priority projects

Overall progress was good with 86.5% of the Council’s corporate priority projects set out in the Corporate Strategy rated green or complete and with 72.2% of the 72 indicators measured achieving or exceeding their target, with a further 11.1% performing within the 5% threshold.

All projects are recorded in the MyProjects system along with detailed milestones and tasks so that progress can be monitored and managed throughout the year.

Only four projects were rated Amber and an explanation as to why along with the action being taken to address any issues was provided.

Progress of the neighbourhood priorities is monitored regularly and reported at the neighbourhood are meetings, 50% of the projects were rated green with a further 20.8% having already been completed. Some projects, 16.6% not yet started were due to seasonal delivery targets.

The Panel asked a number of questions in relation to the following:

Chorley Flower Show:

Assurances were given the show had been delivered within budget. However, this year had mainly been around establishing the show as a main contender in its field and feedback received to date was extremely positive that this would be achieved. In deed preliminary talks had already taken place and a date identified for next year.

Destination Play Area, Astley Park:

It was reported that use of the facility remained high and that antisocial behaviour incidents had reduced considerably. A recent resident satisfaction survey had shown that satisfaction with the borough’s play and open spaces had increased dramatically.

Extra Care Scheme, Fleet Street Project:

The Chief Executive and Director of Customer and Advice Services had recently met with Lancashire County Council to discuss the Council’s business case and justification for asking the County Council to contribute £1,85m to the project and were given reassurance that this was being looked at. A HCA bid of £2,868,750 to contribute to the capital costs of the construction of the scheme has been submitted. The Council has received feedback informally from the HCA that the proposal was the best schemes in the North West and had been referred to the evaluation Panel in London. An announcement on whether the Council’s bid as been successful or not is expected sometime in October. Once the funding is secured, the development will need to go before Council for approval to progress and subsequently the scheme proposals to be approved Planning Committee.

School Place Projections:

Initial meetings have been held with LCC education to enable an understanding of the processes used by the County Council. Where CIL contributions have been obtained in some areas, part of the funds available is to increase school capacity and to facilitate this, the Council needs to understand the county’s school expansion plans.

Bengal Street Depot Site:

As the decision to lease part of the site out to Recycling Lives was not now taking place, the Chair asked about the possibility of the whole of the site being used as car parking as part of the proposals for the extension of the Market Walk shopping development.

Friday Street Health Centre:

Financing of the development is extremely complex but all partners are still very committed to the project. By keeping the project on the Council’s corporate plan it ensures that the delivery of the centre is kept high up on everyone’s agenda.

Sickness absence:

Although this performance indicator was performing off target, it was noted that the target value was extremely low at an average of 2 days per employee FTE lost through sickness absence. It was explained that good performance was always challenged and attempts made to drive it down further. The target also showed that the wide range of health initiatives that the Council invested in was working in retaining such high standards.

RESOLVED – That the report be noted.