Issue - meetings

To consider the Corporate Plan Review 2021-2025

The Chair said there was one significant amendment to the Corporate Plan and that the Corporate Plan Delivery Plan would be presented at the next Scrutiny meeting.

Councillor Dean said he thought this plan was the same as last year and had not changed for 13 months.  He had sent a number of comments but these had not been taken up and the plan remained the same.

Councillor Reeve said the administration had considered whether to make substantial changes or to execute the plan with only minor changes to provide stability.  He highlighted the two major issues of the Covid-19 pandemic and the Local Plan process.  It had been agreed that the content still met the aims that were being worked towards and it was important to get this document approved by Council.  He said the major changes would come from the Corporate Plan Delivery Plan. 

Councillor Sell said he understood the decision but asked if there was evidence of the plan being delivered.  He said residents had not been consulted about the budget, and the document stated that residents deserve high standards of governance. He said he was unsure whether this was currently being delivered.

Councillor Reeve reiterated that the Corporate Plan set out the main themes; the execution of said themes would be covered by the Delivery Plan and discussed at the next meeting.

Councillor Hargreaves said the issue of consultation had been raised a number of times; most Councils did not consult on the detail of the budget, apart from those in dire circumstances when hard choices had to be made. 

Councillor Criscione thanked Councillor Reeve for pushing this to the agenda and said he would reserve the right to speak at the next meeting when the Delivery Plan was presented.  He said there needed to be a general awareness of the use of language, what was committed to and what decisions needed to be made.  He gave the example of page 20, 1a and thought the wording ‘Use locally led Development Corporations to deliver sustainable new settlements’ would annoy residents and questioned the decision to leave it in the document as it did not back up the administrations line that nothing was on or off the table. 

Councillor Reeve said no decisions had been made and the direction for the Local Plan had not been decided. 

The Chair agreed and said there were other examples throughout the document but was sure that the delivery plan would give more specifics when it would be considered at the next meeting.