Agenda item

To consider the Committee’s Forward Plan.  

5.1            Attention was drawn to the Executive Committee Forward Plan, circulated at Pages No. 11-18, which Members were asked to consider.

5.2            A Member raised concern that the Forward Plan made no reference to the Garden Town; he was surprised it was not included, given its importance, and he asked what the timeframe would be in terms of bringing an update to Members.  In response, the Chief Executive explained that the Garden Town programme had been paused whilst a review was undertaken.  The review had been commissioned and a draft report was expected later this week.  Depending on its findings, he anticipated that he would share this with the Leader and Deputy Leader before bringing it to Executive Committee and the wider Council.  It was noted that a Garden Communities Development Briefing was being held the following evening as part of the Member Induction Programme to bring Members up to speed.

5.3            A Member noted that the Forward Plan was a standing item on every Agenda and suggested it might be more appropriate to move it to the end of the Agenda so that any issues arising from the meeting could be discussed.  In terms of the Taxi and Private Hire Licensing Policy, due to be considered at the meeting on 29 November 2023, he noted this was being taken to the Licensing Committee meeting on 15 June 2023 so he asked why it could not be brought to the Executive Committee sooner.  He went on to question whether something should have been included on the Forward Plan to deal with the issues that had been raised at the last meeting in relation to the potential large scale changes to waste and recycling.  The Member also pointed out that the Forward Plan made no reference to the climate change motion which had been approved at the annual Council meeting.  As a new Member, he was still getting to grips with work in progress and understanding the position of Lead Members as individuals and as Members of the Committee so he felt it would be beneficial to discuss this further in order to identify opportunities to influence the direction of the authority.  With regard to the Taxi and Private Hire Licensing Policy, the Director: Communities explained that the Licensing Committee was being asked to approve the draft revised policy for public consultation and it would need to go back to the Licensing Committee following consultation before being brought to the Executive Committee for ratification.  He advised that the Lead Member for Clean and Green Environment had been briefed in relation to the government proposals regarding waste but he would be happy to bring something to a future meeting to explore the impacts of that.  The Chief Executive confirmed the Forward Plan would be reviewed in light of the Council motion and updated accordingly in terms of the work of the Executive Committee; he explained that the Forward Plan was a living document and policy was being developed in areas aligned to what the new Council wanted to achieve which would become evident in due course.

5.4            A Member questioned whether it would be appropriate to apply a RAG (Red, Amber, Green) rating to the Forward Plan in order to show how certain sections were performing to flag areas for improvement, for the benefit of both the Executive and Overview and Scrutiny Committees.  Another Member pointed out that the First Floor Refurbishment Project had been moved from January 2023 to September 2023 and asked if is was possible to include a link to where the decision had been made in order for new Members to gauge the importance of the project and whether slippage was cause for concern.  In terms of the first floor refurbishment project specifically, Members were advised that the delay was due to a resourcing issue as a key Officer had been on long term sick leave.  The Director: Corporate Resources recognised that new Members would have different ideas about how corporate documents could be improved and he would take away the suggestions Members had made in order to consider how they could be practically adopted.

5.5            Having considered the Executive Committee Forward Plan, it was