Issue - meetings

To consider the Revised Corporate Plan Delivery Plan 2020/21.

Councillor Reeve, as Portfolio holder for the Economy and Investment, summarised the report. He said that the Corporate Plan 2020 – 2024 had been adopted by Full Council in February 2020. Cabinet had approved the Corporate Plan Delivery Plan (CPDP) in May 2020 and it had been acknowledged that the plan had to reflect the situation the Council found itself in, which had been constrained by the impact of Covid-19. The revised CPDP had been brought back to Scrutiny Committee but should be reviewed in the light of an overriding caveat that the public health emergency would take priority in the use of resources. He said that the elements of the Council’s Corporate Plan in the left hand columns of the document were not up for amendment. The intention was to take this Delivery Plan to Cabinet in October 2020 and then performance update would be considered by GAP Committee in February 2021. He said that the Council’s overriding priorities were the public health emergency and financial sustainability.

The Chair detailed the history of the CPDP and explained that previous meetings of this Scrutiny Committee had expected rather better of the document. He also referred to the Chief Executive’s cover report Paragraph 12 that stated “the reason for the call-in was: ‘because the Corporate Delivery Plan is insufficient insofar as it is, inter alia, not measurable, lacking in both quantified and timed outcomes. It therefore requires further development to meet these good governance standards. The plan should also demonstrate aspirational outcomes achievable in normal times and should not solely be downplayed by current uncertainties caused by the Covid- 19 pandemic.’ “

Councillor Sell said that he agreed with what the Chair had said. He said that some progress had been made but that the document lacked specifics and details of how to measure outputs. He was concerned about deliverability and understanding what was meant by success. He gave the Watford Council Delivery Plan as a good example of a vision and SMART targets.

In response to a question from Councillor Sell, Councillor Reeve explained the process of compiling the CPDP that involved input from Portfolio holders and officers working up elements of line items and then discussing them with Cabinet through the Joint Executive Team.

Councillor Dean said that he had circulated an annotated version of the document with around 60 suggested amendments that he was happy to take off-line. He highlighted the following issues:

·         Page 125 Item 2a- he said that date changes were needed,

·         Page 126 Item 2c- he had some suggestions for the member development programme,

·         Page 133 Item 5- he hoped this was realistic and not just in grand isolation,

·         Page 134 Item 5f- he said this did not reflect urgency and the need to get involved in the local economy,

·         Page 134 Item 7a- he said the wording suggested delay.

At 9.10pm the Chair asked the Committee whether they were content to continue as the meeting had passed the two hour mark. The  ...  view the full minutes text for item 10