Issue - meetings

This report sets out the Annual Plan 2021- 2022 outlining the key objectives and performance indicators to support the delivery of the Council’s Four Year Plan 2020- 2024.

The Committee received a report setting out the Annual Plan 2021- 2022 outlining the key objectives and performance indicators to support the delivery of the Council’s Four Year Plan 2020- 2024.

The Committee received a verbal introduction from the Head of Policy, Performance & Governance.

The following matters were raised by the Committee:

a)            Appendix 1, page 20: Members suggested that the words ‘reports of’ be removed from the following sentence of column 3: ‘Reduction in reports of fly tipping’ as to not discourage any future reporting. 

b)            Appendix 1, page 22: Members suggested that some encouragement is given to residents to obtain responses to the consultation regarding transport and infrastructure.

c)            Appendix 1, page 23: Members noted the promotion of the Borough’s history and heritage, and requested that this section makes note of any non-buildings including Horton Cemetery. The officer confirmed that the Four Year Plan in appendix 1 could not be amended without Full Council agreement but would note the comments of the committee.

d)            Annual Plan Reporting: Members were generally supportive of the methodology and approach in setting the Annual Plan for 2022/23 but requested that the Officer pick up some wording regarding collecting reported data to go into the Annual Plan in Appendix 2. The Officer agreed to look into this.

e)            CO2 Omissions: A member raised a concern as to the robustness of the methodology for capturing CO2 omissions data  which is a new target and it was agreed that this could be considered when the targets were being set for 2022/23.

f)             Balanced budget: Following a question from a Member, the Officer confirmed that a balance budget is a budget which is fully-financed, with or without the use of reserves.

g)            Finance Peer Review: A member questioned whether this should be a target for 2021/22 and the Chief Finance Officer confirmed that was already being reported and monitored by the Strategy & Resources Committee .

h)            Trees: Members raised concerns regarding the number of trees proposed to be planted. The Officer explained that this number is just a starting figure, and will be built on as a priority once the Tree Planting Policy has been published.

i)             Major Planning Applications: A query was raised over the target of 60% for deciding major planning applications in time and it was agreed to leave this but review for 2022/23.

j)             Complaints data; A query was also raised on the data for complaints received and whether it should be a set target. It was confirmed this is data only as the number of complaints can vary from year to year but this could be reviewed at a later stage.

Following consideration, it was resolved unanimously that the Committee:

(1)      Did comment  on the key objectives and performance indicators identified within the Annual Plan for 2021 – 2022

(2)      Agreed to provide feedback to the Strategy & Resources Committee