Agenda item

To consider the Council Plan and make a recommendation to Council.

That it be RECOMMENDED TO COUNCIL that the Council Plan be ADOPTED, subject to the following amendments:

·         ‘Our priorities and objectives 2016-20’ – second bullet point entitled ‘Promoting and supporting economic growth’ amend fifth point to read ‘Promoting Promote the borough as a visiting visitor attraction”;

·         ‘Our priorities and objectives 2016-20’ – third bullet point entitled ‘Growing and supporting communities’ amend second point to read ‘Achieve Maintain a five year supply of land’; 

·         ‘Why this is a priority – Finance and resources’ – first bullet point entitled ‘Seek to be financially independent of the government’s core grants’ amend point a) to read ‘Deliver the Council’s transformation programme to deliver a balanced budget’.;

·         ‘Why this is a priority – Growing and supporting communities’ – amend second bullet point heading to read ‘Achieve Maintain a five year supply of land’;

·         ‘Why this is a priority – Growing and supporting communities’ – amend point b) under the fourth bullet point to read ‘Achieve the council’s affordable homes target by working with local housing providers’;

·         ‘Why this is a priority – Growing and supporting communities’ – amend point d) in the fourth bullet point to read ‘Work to support the Severn Vale Housing Merger with its partners in accordance with the programme’ ‘Work with Severn Vale Housing Society, Bromford Housing Group and Merlin Housing Society in respect of their merger’;

·         ‘Why this is a priority – Customer focussed services’ – amend first bullet point to add ‘To continue to proactively enforce against enviro-crimes including flytipping and dog fouling in accordance with the action plan’;

·         ‘Why this is a priority – Customer focussed services’ – amend point d) under the third bullet point – to read ‘Look at Investigate digital methods to improve customer engagement’.

114.1         The report of the Head of Corporate Services, circulated at Pages No. 58-75, attached the revised Council Plan for 2016/20. The report asked Members to recommend the Plan to Council for adoption, subject to any amendments the Committee felt necessary.

114.2         The Head of Corporate Services explained that Members were well versed on the process of refreshing the Council Plan to ensure the document remained relevant. The Council Plan was a key strategic document which established an overarching vision for the Borough and set out, in broad terms, the priorities, objectives and actions required to work towards that vision. The Plan was attached to the report at Appendix 1 and Members were advised that it reaffirmed the four priority themes but two had been slightly reworded to reflect a broader remit and relevance, the themes were: Finances and Resources; Promoting and Supporting Economic Growth (this had replaced Economic Development); Growing and Supporting Communities (this had replaced Housing); and Customer-Focussed Services. The priorities were supported by key objectives and actions and a small number of those objectives had also been reworded so they adequately supported the wider remit of the renamed themes; the Plan also reflected feedback from Lead Members at a recent Corporate Leadership Team/Executive Committee away day that the Council needed to retain its ambition to be an authority that ‘punches above its weight’ and is the economic engine for Gloucestershire’s growth

114.3         The Chief Executive indicated that, unfortunately, there had not been time to circulate the draft Plan to Members prior to it being published with the Agenda for the meeting so he had agreed with the Leader and Deputy Leader of the Council that the Committee would use this opportunity to go through the document thoroughly and make any amendments prior to it being considered by the Council.  During the discussion which ensued, a Member drew attention to Page No. 67 and questioned why ‘Develop our customer service ethos to ensure that we deliver to the needs of residents’ was no longer included under the heading “Customer-Focused Services”. The Head of Corporate Services explained that it was felt this was covered within the priority itself; the ethos would always remain embedded in the culture of the organisation so it was not felt it would be detrimental to remove it. Referring to the same page, another Member asked that the last bullet point under the second heading be amended to read ‘Promote the Borough as a visitor attraction’ to make it consistent with the way the other bullet points on the page were written. She also felt it was not accurate to say the Council would ‘Achieve a five year supply of land’ and that it should be changed to ‘Maintain a five year supply of land’ – this would also need to be changed on Page No. 70 of the Plan.

114.4         In relation to Page No. 68, a Member noted that the old Plan set out that the Council would ‘Produce a balanced budget in light of elimination of the revenue support grant’ and she queried why there was no mention of delivering a balanced budget in the amended version. In response, the Chief Executive explained that the Council had to produce a balanced budget by law which was why it had been omitted; however, he undertook to add some wording to point a) under the heading “Seek to be financially independent of the government’s core grants” to read ‘Deliver the Council’s transformation programme to deliver a balanced budget’. Drawing attention to Page No. 70, the Member expressed the view that the title should read ‘Growing and supporting homes and communities’ rather than just communities. In response, the Chief Executive explained that ‘growing communities’ was intended to reflect housing too. In addition, the Chair indicated that Members had discussed the point at a previous meeting and had agreed not to include housing in the title because it was referenced throughout the text on the page. Referring to the same page, the Member also suggested that a target for the provision of affordable homes ought to be included. In response, the Head of Corporate Services indicated that there were KPIs that supported the Plan and those were monitored so it was felt that was where the target should be referenced. In addition, the target may change in-year so it was sensible not to include it in the actual Council Plan. Other Members agreed that they would not like to see a target for affordable homes specified within the Council Plan as they felt the Council should aim to build as many affordable homes as possible. Referring to the same page, another Member expressed concern about point d) under the heading “Deliver affordable homes to meet local need”. She felt it implied the Council preferred to work with Severn Vale Housing Society over other housing providers. In response, the Chief Executive indicated that the point had been included as it was a fact that Severn Vale Housing Society was looking to merge with Bromford and Merlin and this was significant to the Borough Council as it would result in quite a lot of work for Officers in terms of legal agreements etc. It was also anticipated that the new organisation would have the ability to deliver significantly more affordable homes in the Borough than Severn Vale Housing Society would have – the Council had already agreed to support the merger so it had been felt appropriate to include it in the Plan. The Council did work with other social housing providers but this was a specific piece of work regarding Severn Vale Housing Society. The Member felt the point only provided half of the story regarding the merger as there was no mention of the other two housing providers involved. The Chief Executive indicated that this was because the Council had a contractual agreement with Severn Vale; however, it could be amended to refer to Bromford and Merlin specifically. He also suggested the wording could be changed from ‘work to support the merger’ to ‘work to facilitate the merger’. Another Member indicated that the Plan was structured such that there were four priorities, underneath those there were specific objectives and then the actions to meet those objectives. He felt, therefore, that to remove a significant piece of work would defeat the purpose of having the actions and would make it harder to hold Officers to account. The Chief Executive explained that the action aimed to increase and improve the number of affordable homes that could be delivered in the Borough. The action was dependent upon the decision of the Severn Vale Housing Society Board but it was a Council action to take; he suggested that the bullet point could be amended to ‘work with Severn Vale Housing Society, Bromford Housing Group and Merlin Housing Society in respect of their merger in accordance with the programme’ and that point b) could be amended to ‘Achieve the Council’s affordable homes target by working with local housing providers’.

114.5         Attention was drawn to Page No. 71, and a Member noted that the previous Council Plan had included a statement that the Council would ‘Deliver the enviro-crimes action plan, with a particular focus on fly-tipping and dog fouling’ and she questioned why this important issue was not included in the current version. In response, the Head of Corporate Services understood this was a subject which Members felt exceptionally strongly about but the Overview and Scrutiny Committee had undertaken a lot of work on the subject and received six-monthly updates on the enviro-crimes action plan so the Council was now very proactive in that regard; as such, it was considered to be an operational priority but not necessarily something to be included in the Council’s overall priorities as part of the Council Plan. A number of Members felt it was important that this was included in the Plan as it was one of the main issues raised by residents in their communities and it was suggested the point read ‘To continue to proactively enforce against enviro-crimes, including fly-tipping and dog fouling, in accordance with the action plan. The Head of Corporate Services confirmed that, when the document was published on the website, links would be provided to the various action plans and other documents referred to throughout. Referring to the same page, it was agreed that the final point would be changed to ‘Investigate digital methods to improve customer engagement’ rather than ‘Look at digital methods to improve customer engagement’.

114.6         Accordingly, it was