Agenda item

The Committee considered the Corporate Performance Monitoring Report (in relation to quarter 4 of 2021-22), which had been submitted as part of the Council’s evolving performance monitoring framework, together with the proposed revisions to the indicators for 2022-23. 

The Committee generally welcomed the ongoing improvements to the presentation of the report and the information therein.

During the debate, the following points were made:

·       It was noted that decline in Town Centre footfall (H&J18) mirrored the position elsewhere in the country

·       Concern over poor performance of Council Suppliers paid within 30 days (COU3).

·       In response to a question on the estimated number of new homes completed for social rent to be delivered over the next five years, the Deputy Leader of the Council and Lead Councillor for Community and Housing undertook to provide the information to the questioner.

·       Concern over the increasing number of void days under the ‘Average time to let void housing properties’ PI (H&J1) and total number of empty homes in the borough (H&J2).  In relation to H&J1, more information was requested in respect of the Action Plan to address the issues and improve overall performance.

·       Whilst the intention to provide some metrics on pollution and particularly nitrogen dioxide concentration at monitoring sites, carbon dioxide emissions from council operations, and energy use by the Council (ENV 7-9) was welcomed, it was suggested that it would be beneficial to understand levels of carbon dioxide emissions across the borough, rather than only from council operations.

·       The Committee agreed that the ‘Nitrogen Dioxide concentration at Monitoring Site(s) at risk of exceeding limits (ENV 7) be retained in the list of indicators in the Performance Monitoring Report.

·       Concern over requirement for online reporting of flytipping and statutory nuisance and the need to ensure that older or more vulnerable members of the community, who might find reporting such matters online to be arduous or complicated, were still able to do so.

·       In response to a question as to whether planning applications were dealt with in order of verification or whether major applications were prioritised over householder applications, the Lead Councillor for Development Management confirmed that applications were not dealt with sequentially and that a separate team dealt with major applications, which meant that the speed at which major applications were dealt with was necessarily different to the other applications.  By implication, the major applications were larger and significantly more complex than other applications, and often be necessary to negotiate with the developers of major applications a separate time scale over and above the statutory limit of 13 weeks for determination.

·   Reiteration of request made at the last meeting that the Executive Summary in future reports should include information regarding particular indicators that were worth highlighting in terms of performance over the quarter.

The Committee, having reviewed the report and noted that future reports would be submitted to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee,

RESOLVED: That the contents of the report along with the Performance Monitoring Report for 2021-22 quarter 4, shown in Appendix 1 thereto, together with the revisions to the indicators for 2022-23, attached as Appendix 2 to the report, be noted, subject to the corrections and the three additional indicators appended to the Supplementary Information Sheet.

Reasons:

To support our corporate performance monitoring framework and enable the Committee to monitor the Council’s performance against key indicators, as well as review key data relating to the ‘health’ of the borough.