Agenda item

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

The Portfolio Holder for Finance, Town Centres and Growth stated that the budget was £3000 underspent at the present time and it was projected to be £4000 underspent at the end of the current financial year.

The Portfolio Holder stated that it had been previously commented that there was not enough information in these reports and therefore a lot more information had now been added.

The Leader invited portfolio holders to comment on performance indicators.

Priority 1 – One Council delivering for Local People

The Leader stated that the average number of days lost to sickness rose during December, most likely due to a widespread virus that had emerged on the run up to Christmas.

Councillor Sweeney pointed out the time taken to process Housing Benefit, percentage of Council Tax collected and percentage of National Non-Domestic Rates collected were all on or above target.

The Leader referred to digital online transactions which was below target.  The Council now had ‘citizens access’ for transactions which meant that there were fewer clicks to get to the required pages on the website.  This indicator would be looked at when they were next refreshed.

Priority 2 – A Successful and Sustainable Growing Borough

The Leader stated that planning enforcement performance had improved – reaching 88% in the last quarter.  Appeals relating to major applications was off target but a low number of major applications had been received.

Priority 3: Healthy, Active and Safe Communities

Cllr Hutchison reported that there had been a slight dip in the percentage of recycling materials collected.  The amount of garden waste had fallen due to a very dry summer.  However, dry recycling had gone up by 1.5% and food waste by 7%.

Household collections for food waste and residual waste were above target  and successful collections was 99.98%.

All targets relating to Streetscene were at 100%.

The Leader, on behalf of the Cabinet passed thanks to the staff that had worked through the recent bad weather and the catch up that had been required.

Councillor Skelding that there was continued growth in people accessing the Museum with 52,129 visitors.  School bookings were on the increase which had led to taking on more temporary staff.

Customer satisfaction at J2 had hit an above target mark of 79.25%.  There were currently extensive repairs and maintenance going on but disruption was at a minimum to members.  There was also a follow up project, through Salex funding, to replace the gas boilers with air sourced heat pumps and back-up boilers to help to future proof the site against rising energy costs.

Councillor Heesom referred to the Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) cases stating that the Council continued to work with partners to reduce ASB and ensure that complaints were dealt with effectively and open cases were reducing.

The Vulnerability Hub continued to have a high number of complex cases and it was encouraging to see the number of referrals made.

Referring to the Disabled Facilities Grants, Councillor Heesom state that they were being dealt with in a timely fashion with 19 out of 26 grants dealt with within 120 days.

Priority 4: Town Centres for All

The Leader commented on the car park usage, town centre footfall and occupancy of market stalls stating that they were all encouraging figures.

Councillor Sweeney stated that the markets were going well and in the summer months the new television screen would be an asset to the town centre  

The Leader stated that overall, the indicators gave a good picture with 82% of them being on target.

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

and that the Council’s service and financial performance for this period continue to be monitored and challenged.

Watch the debate here