Issue - meetings

That the contents of the attached report and appendices and continue to monitor and challenge the Council’s service and financial performance for this period be noted.

The Deputy Leader introduced the Financial Performance report. At this point in time the Council was £69,000 underspent and was budgeted to be at around £19,000 at the end of the year. 

The Leader then went through the corporate performance indicators, asking portfolio holders to comment as required.  It was pleasing to see that 82% of the Council’s indicators were achieving their target.

Priority 1: One Council delivering for Local People

There were a number of good targets in this section.

The total number of digital transactions had come in below target but was not necessarily a bad thing. The Council’s new website  had online forms for which a drop in usage was expected at this time of year.  In addition, fewer clicks were required to get to the required areas.

Priority 2: A Successful and Sustainable Growing Borough

These targets had all been met.

Priority 3: Healthy, Active and Safe Communities

On items collected that went to recycling and composting, the target was met and the dip was attributed to garden waste having gone down over a very dry summer.

On the percentage of fly tipping incidents, where sufficient evidence gathered to formal enforcement -there had been 582 incidents in the Borough over the last six months.  The target was 1.5%  but it was slightly below at 1.37.   At an incident, every effort was made to go through the rubbish to gather evidence.  Eight fly tipping Fixed Penalty Notices had been issued.

Regarding the Museum, visitor access continued to increase  and was receiving a steady stream of awards.

J2 had steady and sustainable growth with membership now at 4,184.

There had been fewer cases of anti-social behaviour than the same period in the previous financial year – possibly due to targeted training being delivered.  Work with Staffordshire Police continued to be built upon. 

The last rough sleeper count on 14 November had reduced to twelve from the previous count. Three had a Stoke connection, one with Staffordshire Moorlands and one unknown – six rough sleepers had a Newcastle connection.  The Homeless Outreach Team were picking the people up and working with them to get them into accommodation.

Priority 4: Town Centres for All

Car parking was going on an upward trend.  Around 30,000 tickets per month were needed to hit the targets and the last four months had achieved that.

On town centre footfall, there had been some big events in the town centre bringing people into the town.

Market stall occupancy was doing well with speciality markets doing very well.

Resolved:    That the contents of the attached report and appendices and

continue to monitor and challenge the Council’s service and financial performance for this period be noted.

Watch the debate here