Agenda item

To consider the progress being made in implementing the Council’s Corporate Plan 2023-27.

The Leader of the Council, Councillor Tim Adams presented a Quarter 3 report that detailed the progress that had been made in implementing the Council’s Corporate Plan 2023-27 Action Plan 2023.

The Leader stated that he was confident and comfortable in the status and delivery of the actions in the delivery plan.

Councillor Adams in response to Councillor Holliday’s question on whether those projects haven’t started yet should be rated Amber stated that he would review the grading of those projects.

In respect of Councillor Holliday’s further question on what progress the Council had made on nutrient neutrality that there was going to be an all members briefing, and it would be good to reconsider that grading after that briefing.

Councillor Adams in response to Councillor Housden’s question about it taking 24 minutes to answer his phone call through the Council’s customer service centre, commented that there will be peaks and troughs in the customer services centre after council tax demands went out, but the average response time was around 17 minutes and the recent survey on the service produced some very good feedback. The service compared well to the private sector especially the banks or phone companies and the council needed to take a view of what an acceptable response time was as that would have resource implications.

The Chief Executive (CEX) stated that the service Councillor Housden received would not meet his expectations but would require further details on what had exactly happened so that he could investigate the situation fully.

Councilllor Liz Withington, Portfolio Holder for Community, Leisure and Outreach advised that work had been undertaken across departments to ensure that peaks in potential calls to customer services were reduced to better manage workload and the release of Council tax letters had been seen as a success. Improvements was very much on the radar.

Councillor Adams in response to Councillor Cushing’s question on whether the assessments were correct based on the data shown and with a lack of deadlines commented that it was up to the committee which performance metrics the Committee wanted to look at. Those projects which were not shown as having a grade associated with them in the report were not at risk.

The CEX reminded the committee that the Council had agreed its new Corporate Plan at full council in July 2023, there had been some member workshops in September to develop the plan and this was the first quarterly report on the progress being made up to 31 December 2023.

The CEX added that the committee had made a number of requests for further work earlier in the meeting that were outside of the Corporate Plan, and these would need additional staffing resources and the expectation was that the council had to do more with less particularly where that involved non statutory work.

Councillor Adams stated that the big-ticket variances were the Fakenham Leisure Centre, North Walsham Solar array, a failure in a public convenience in Sheringham and nutrient neutrality would affect service delivery.

The CEX in response to Councillor Holliday’s question that not getting the second homes premium was a big risk as it reduced the ability to build affordable homes, advised that the progress the council could make on using the second homes council tax levy to build affordable homes was being constrained by the national legislative context and marking that action as red would not cover the work the council has been doing in preparation for this including conversations with Norfolk County Council.

Councillor Adams in response to Councillor Penfold’s question about how the council monitored where things were going well and then shared that as good practise commented that the building of the Sheringham Leisure Centre has been a real success with a higher-than-expected footfall and learning from that project could be applied to the building of the Fakenham Leisure Centre.

Resolved – that the report is noted.