Agenda item

To consider the Local Plan Quarter 3 Project Management Report

The Local Plan Project Manager explained the report.  The Risk Register document had highlighted changes of risk (shown on page 18).  These were as follows:

• Two members of staff had handed in their notice, a Transport Planner and Urban Designer.
• The National Planning White Paper had reduced in risk; the Government received 44,000 representations nationally and were committed to review and consider responses. 
• The risk of inconsistencies between the Local Plan and Neighbourhood Plans was reduced due to Officers examining and reviewing the emerging Neighbourhood Plans.

Four new risks were identified by the Local Plan Project Manager, he drew particular attention to:-

• The effectiveness of the Community Stakeholder Forum
• The risk of Government intervention was not a high risk if the timetable was adhered to. 

The Local Plan Project Manager said the dashboard was showing 126 live tasks, none of these were identified as red (currently no significant risk of the project timetable being compromised).

The overall status of the Local Plan in the report was shown as amber, however the Local Plan Project Manager stated that progress in the last few days had led to his assessment changing to green. This was due to two changes:

• Budget approved by Full Council.
• Recruitment process started and interim cover by skilled staff arranged.

The Councillors were in agreement that the report was well written and a good working document.

Further to questions from Councillors, the two vacancies were discussed and the following points made by Officers:-

• The posts represented 2 out of approximately 10 full time equivalent members of staff. 
• Both members of staff would be leaving in December
• Temporary replacements of the same calibre had been found.
• Officers were confident that excellent replacements would be found.
• There was a bigger pool of potential recruits, as working from home was now standard.
• A Job share would be considered.

In response to a question from Councillor Driscoll, the Local Plan Project Manager explained that the documents from page 24 to page 39 were taken from Microsoft Project; the percentages shown were the overall progress through each topic.  For example, theme 1 was 39% but, once the other tasks set out below had been progressed, the percentage total would be increased.

CouncillorCriscione commented that the project management system was clearly working.  He asked if the Community Stakeholder Forum had been successful, and if it had remained focused on the named topic. He thought for the discussion to be effective it would need to be clearly steered and the Forum well briefed to avoid moving away from the theme.  The Local Plan and New Communities Manager said the meetings had been focused and the discussion afterwards had stuck to the topic.

There was a discussion about notice periods, Councillor LeCount said it was a risk to the project and thought one month’s notice was not acceptable.  He was concerned that if senior staff left in the future this posed a high risk.  He asked for grades and notice periods to be circulated.