Agenda item

Report of the Chief Executive

Andy Barton, Strategic Director, presented the report to the Committee.

He advised the Committee that the Council Delivery Plan (CDP) outlined the key tasks that would be undertaken to deliver in the priority areas during 2020/21 and also the aspirations for the priorities over a three year period.

There are a number of themes coming through this year’s CDP, the details of which were set out in the report. Due to the delays and rescheduling of meetings due to COVID19, Cabinet endorsed at its July meeting the draft CDP ‘in principle’, subject to comment from Corporate Scrutiny at this meeting. This was so that development and work plans could be commenced as the council starts to return to normal operation post the impacts created by COVID19. The CDP will then follow the normal decision making route, returning to Cabinet post scrutiny in September and on to Council in November. In future years, the CDP and MTFP processes will be aligned to avoid a potential repeat of this issue in the future.

The Chairman thanked the Director for his report and invited questions and comments from Members.

Councillor Sheahan asked for expected completion dates for Marlborough Square and Newmarket, to which he was advised that these would be made available once the dates have been firmed up. Councillor Sheahan asked if he could be emailed the ‘best guess’ dates. 

Councillor Sheahan asked what the targets were in terms of the objective to reduce the levels of obesity, and he was advised that more detail can be provided and the wording made clearer.

Turning attention to the new Leisure centre, Councillor Sheahan asked for construction timescales so members could see how it was panning out and whether the targets were being met. He was advised that the CDP does not contain this level of detail but the performance monitoring reports would have this. He then asked what was meant by dwell time and how might this be measured and he was advised that details would be provided outside the meeting.

Councillor Sheahan asked a question on behalf of Councillor Bigby in relation to the highest priority routes from the Ashby cycling strategy and asked when the objective might be available and was advised that if Councillor Bigby wanted to contact officers directly this would be provided.

Councillor Sheahan asked whether all the objectives and actions would be completed within the timescale and he was advised that the level of detail being sought would be picked up as part of the performance monitoring reports. He was also reminded that there was an Economic Recovery Plan coming off the back of the COVID crisis which will also be updated.

 Councillor Sheahan finished off his questions by stating that there should be a complete section on ‘Clean and Green’ and specifically reducing carbon emissions; and at the very least there should be an objective, as reference to the Carbon reduction plan is a bit vague.  He gave an example of switching over to electric vehicles and increasing the number of electric charging points.

It was explained the CDP linked into other longer-term strategies, as the CDP itself could not include each individual strategy and objective; and that action on these would be monitored through the performance monitoring framework.  

Councillor Wyatt referred to the free tree scheme and stated that he felt this should be included as part of the carbon reduction scheme and the number of trees given out should be highlighted, together with how much carbon this was helping to reduce. He advised that the County Council was currently acting as a stumbling block, as it was not permitting the planting of the trees on highways, so we need to work with them to overcome this in order to move forward. Councillor Wyatt stated that some housing stock still had the old lighting systems in place and these need to be sorted as soon as possible to enable energy efficient lighting.

Councillor Allman asked of there was a list of all the private empty properties and a strategy on reducing the number on the lists.

He was advised that there is a strategy on bring back into use empty properties and the number and the list will be supplied outside the meeting as this was not immediately to hand.

Councillor Johnson echoed the earlier comments of Councillor Sheahan in respect of electric vehicles and asked why this Council was falling behind in this regard.

It was reported that this had been looked at, taking into account the distance the service vehicles need to travel and the current lack of charging points but this will be looked at again as we move forward.

Councillor Wyatt did not support the CDP as he considered it not be to detailed or complete enough.

The recommendation as set out on page 41 of the agenda was moved by Councillor Allman,  seconded by Councillor Smith and by affirmation of the meeting, with the exception of Councillor Wyatt as referred to above:-

RESOLVED THAT:

The report be duly noted and the comments made at this meeting be reported to Cabinet.