Agenda item

Report of the Chief Executive

Presented by the Leader

The Leader invited Members of the Cabinet to talk to their portfolio areas.

Councillor T Gillard informed Members that the Enterprising Town Centres business support and funding programme had been launched with the first workshop having been held at Coalville Market in July, and it was very well attended. He advised that five further workshop would be held across the district over the following months. He highlighted to Members that the Business Focus team was working in partnership with JCP and Stephenson College to hold a Jobs & Skills Fair in October which was aimed at both those who were looking to change their job and those seeking a job. The times had been considered to cater for all.

Councillor R D Bayliss informed Members that Housing Management continued with promoting events over the summer which had been well attended. In relation to the service performance indicators he advised that the rent arrears of current tenants were being looked at and with insight it was hoped that Quarter 2 would be better, the average re-let times were still slightly higher, but compared to the previous year the figures were a great improvement and that the number of new affordable homes delivered was below target for the quarter, but the number of gifted units that were due to be handed over during the year would balance out the target.

Councillor T J Pendleton informed Members that the planning performance was remained well above the national targets, that the Design Guide Supplementary Planning document had been adopted by Council in May and would ensure that the design standards would remain high, and that the recent planning inquiry that considered the refusal of planning permission for homes on the Whitwick Green Wedge had dismissed the appeal.

Councillor A V Smith informed Members that in relation to the Leisure Service, Hood Park had retained its ‘Good’ grade by Quest following a maintenance assessment, that the service continued to deliver a range of physical activity interventions and that the income for leisure was down, but the centre usage was up. She highlighted that the authority had been successful in its bid to procure the treatment and disposal of the district’s dry recyclables which was predicted to generate an additional income of £500k, and that Environmental Health had brought a successful prosecution against Champneys Springs Ltd for health and safety failings following an accident on site.

Councillor Blunt stated that he was proud of the Design Guide Supplementary Planning document that had been adopted by the Council as it set out good design practice and felt that it may be due to the document that the Council was receiving less complaints in relation to new developments. He advised that both the General Fund and Special Expenses budgets were forecasting a underspend of £1.06 million, the HRA was forecast to have a favourable variance of £142k and the Housing Capital Programmes were expected to be on budget at the yearend.

In relation to the management of absence he informed Members that the sickness figure for quarter 1 was 2.10 days lost per fte and that the yearend was currently forecast to be 8.4 days which was on target and well below the previous year’s figure. He added that the HR team was working closely with managers on the issue if long term sickness as the figure for the current year was significantly higher than the previous year.

It was moved by Councillor R Blunt, seconded by Councillor A V Smith and

RESOLVED THAT:

The Quarter 1 Performance Report (April – June 2017) be received and noted.

Reason for decision: The report is provided for members to effectively monitor the organisation’s performance.