To receive and respond to the findings of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee’s review of the quarter two performance management information.  

That the findings of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee’s review of the quarter two performance management information be NOTED.

75.1           The report of the Chair of Overview and Scrutiny Committee, circulated at Pages No. 17-79, provided the observations of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee on the 2022/23 quarter two performance information and the Executive Committee was asked to respond to that review.

75.2           The Head of Corporate Services advised that the report considered by the Overview and Scrutiny Committee was attached to the report as an appendix. Paragraph 2.3 of that report set out the key actions to note which included ongoing success of the Council’s commercial property portfolio; the development of the new Economic Development and Tourism Strategy; the recently approved Empty Homes Strategy; the successful build and promotion of the solar canopy; the recently approved Electric Charging Point Strategy; and the deployment of cameras to deter fly-tipping. The report contained a plethora of actions and it was inevitable that some would not meet the intended timescales – those were detailed at Paragraph 2.4 of the appendix and included: several Joint Strategic Plan actions, with this in mind, the timetable was currently under further review and could be subject to change which, in turn, could result in the target dates being amended - further details would be available in the next performance tracker update; the review of the corporate website had been delayed due to issues with recruiting a new Web Developer – an offer had now been made to recruit to the post so it was hoped the project would be back on track soon, especially as the website was the gateway to a lot of the Council’s services and transactions; and the Garden Town design manual had been put on hold while governance was established – however, when questions were asked by the Overview and Scrutiny Committee, Members were reassured that the target date of March 2023 remained feasible.

75.3           The Key Performance Indicators where the direction of travel was down were highlighted at Paragraph 3.3 but there were also several successful Key Performance Indicators that were set out at Paragraph 3.4 of the appendix. Members were particularly pleased that 100% of planning enforcement cases had been investigated within timescale. At the Overview and Scrutiny Committee, there had been a detailed discussion on the Section 106 Agreement framework with underlying concern about the money being spent, the accuracy of information, the triggers missed, and the lack of Member engagement when constructing the framework. The Head of Corporate Services advised that he had flagged that discussion to the Chief Executive who had confirmed there would be a review of the framework to make it more robust. The Head of Development Services offered reassurance that a key piece of work was to get all of the Section 106 information onto a database and this would be a priority when the new postholder took up their position – once that was complete, it would be possible to look at integrating the public facing module so that everyone could access the information. Ideally, this would be achieved in the next three months but this would be dependant on the new postholder getting up to speed. In addition, a Section 106 Officer Group was being set up to look at the various elements and ensure an overview was gained, particularly on large strategic sites.

75.4           The Head of Corporate Services advised that, overall, the discussion by Overview and Scrutiny Committee Members had been very positive, particularly with the work which had been done on the licensing service and the carbon literacy and green agenda.

75.5           Accordingly, it was