Agenda item - QUARTERLY UPDATE ON THE COUNCIL DELIVERY PLAN

REPORT OF THE SERVICE DIRECTOR – RESOURCES

An update on progress against the Council Delivery Plan.

RESOLVED:

(1) That Overview and Scrutiny Committee commented on the Council Delivery Plan Quarter 2 monitoring report.

(2) That Overview and Scrutiny Committee determined any project that they want to receive more detail on as part of the next monitoring report.

RECOMMENDED TO CABINET:

(1) That Cabinet notes the progress against Council projects as set out in the Council Delivery Plan (Appendix A) including changes to milestone dates and risks.

(2) That Cabinet notes the completion of the Local Plan milestones for this year.

REASONS FOR DECISIONS AND REFERALS: The Council Delivery Plan (CDP) monitoring reports provide Cabinet with an opportunity to monitor progress against the key Council projects, and understand any new issues, risks or opportunities.

Audio recording – 56 minutes 04 seconds

The Controls, Risk and Performance Manager presented the report entitled ‘Quarterly Update on the Council Delivery Plan’ and advised of the following:

· This remained a live document with different projects included throughout the year and risks would change as projects progressed. It was to a high-level overview of projects, but further details could be provided on any particular project, if requested by Members.

· There were 30 projects included on Appendix A, with three as a red indicator and one amber, and also some proposed changes to milestone dates on projects.

· The Museum Hitchin Town Hall Recovery project was currently red, but it was expected that visitor numbers over the Christmas period would bring this back on track.

· The Cycling Network project currently had some missed milestones on this project, but this is reliant on Herts County Council (HCC) timelines and it was proposed to change the milestones in line with HCC.

· The EV Charging for Council Vehicles project had been delivered, but the PI was currently red as the target was based on a full year usage and the charging stations were only installed in August 2022. It was also noted that the full range of vehicles had not yet been upgraded to EV.

· The project to help residents make payments at convenient locations was mostly delivered, with some ongoing communications to residents, but the PI was red due mainly to late payment of one particular customer. This debt has now been cleared. It was expected to take a while for the effect of the project to filter through to the PI for electronic payments.

· The Local Plan had been adopted and the milestones for 2022/23 had been completed, with further milestones to be included for 2023/24. The risk level remains high on this as it is still within the 6-week period for judicial review, following this period the risk level will be reviewed and dropped.

· The project on the Shared Waste Contract was on track, but there was an amber indicator for recycling rates, this was due to the impact on the amount of garden waste collected during the dry period over summer.

· All details are available for Members to access on Pentana, with details on how to access the available on the Intranet.

The following Members asked questions:

· Councillor David Levett

· Councillor Claire Strong

In response to questions, the Controls, Risk and Performance Manager noted:

· Once the 6-week judicial review period for the Local Plan was completed the Service Area would review the item and remove risks which were no longer valid. Different risks would evolve as implementation of the plan progresses and will be presented in the report.

· They were unaware of where the Shared Prosperity Fund submission was located but could provide this for Members following the meeting.

Councillor Levett noted that the report was now achieving the aims set out by the Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

Councillor Alistair Willoughby proposed and Councillor Nigel Mason seconded and, following a vote, it was: