Issue - meetings

To provide an overview of the work that has taken place to address the recommendations in the LGA Peer Challenge Action Plan.

The Chief Executive introduced the report and provided a brief timeline of events. She drew Members attention to the following key points:

·         The Pace of Activity recommendation was to help the Council slow down and consider what they needed to prioritise and deliver, they had worked hard to ensure this was carried out.

·         A Member Development Working Group had been set up and had now met and were making progress.

·         Lots of work had been carried out on recommendation 6 to help give consistency across the Council, training was being carried out for Values and Behaviours and a whole series of standards were being adopted.

·         A charter to help improve the relationship with Town and Parish Councils was being drafted and work was ongoing on other initiatives including a Parish and Town Council Hub.

·         The Action Plan for improvements to Housing Services hadn’t made as much progress due to delays in recruitment however they had now appointed a Strategic Head of Housing.

Councillor Turner asked what measures would be used to measure progress on the service standards. The Chief Executive advised that as they had only been implemented in July it was too early to judge progress, but they had measures in place to check how the Council was performing. She confirmed that they hoped to improve on the standards in due course and that the digital platform would help to reduce turnaround times.

In response to Councillor Pearcy the Strategic Director of Resources advised that they had produced a mapping flowchart to identify how Fit for the Future linked with the MTFP and savings targets, and confirmed that he would be happy to share it with Members.

Proposed by Councillor Cornell and seconded by Councillor Turner.

Councillor Hurst identified ways in which links with Parish and Town Councils could be improved including sharing resources to allow economies of scale.

Councillor Pearson advised that there needed to be a greater degree of involvement between Parish and Town Councils and the District Council. He identified an example of Upton St Leonards receiving no support in campaigning to reduce the noise from the motorway. The Chair advised that although they were not the transport authority, she would be happy to speak with Councillor Pearson outside the meeting to see whether any further support could be provided.

Councillor Cornell stated that acknowledging the council’s strengths and where improvements could be made had been invaluable.

On being put to the vote, the Motion was carried unanimously.

RESOLVED    To note the progress made with addressing the recommendations in the LGA Peer Challenge Action Plan prior to the Peer Challenge Team’s revisit in January 2023.