Agenda item

REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR – RESOURCES

This report presents progress on delivering the Council Delivery Plan for 2025-26.

RESOLVED: That the Overview & Scrutiny Committee:

(1)         Provided comment on the Council Delivery Plan Quarter 2 monitoring report.

(2)         Determined any project they want to receive more detail on, as part of the next monitoring report.

RECOMMENDED TO CABINET: That Cabinet notes progress against Council projects and performance indicators, as set out in the Council Delivery Plan (Appendix A) and approves new milestones and changes to milestones.

REASON FOR RECOMMENDATION: The Council Delivery Plan (CDP) monitoring reports provide the Overview and Scrutiny Committee, and Cabinet, with an opportunity to monitor progress against the key Council projects, and understand any new issues, risks, or opportunities.

Audio recording – 1 hour 52 minutes 6 seconds

Councillor Ian Albert, as Executive Member for Resources presented the report entitled ‘Council Delivery Plan 2025-26 (Quarter 2 Update) and advised that:

·                The report outlined the most recent update for the Council Delivery Plan (CDP) including Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and the associated risks.

·                Members could access more detail on the CDP through Ideagen as detailed in paragraph 8.10 of the report.

·                Two projects had been completed which were the King George V Skate Park in Hitchin and the implementation of the Waste and Street Cleansing Contract.

·                Data on the KPI relating to missed bin collections per 100,000 lifts had been explained in paragraph 8.5.

·                The five projects with an amber status were outlined in paragraph 8.2.

·                Actions to address the KPIs with a red status had been set out in paragraph 8.4, although, the KPI relating to Careline Installations had seen a recent improvement.

·                Proposed KPIs that would link more closely to the Council Plan in response to the recommendations from the Corporate Peer Challenge report were detailed in paragraph 8.7.

·                There was an error in Appendix A to the report as there had not yet been a further report on Churchgate to Full Council, which had been scheduled to happen on 4 December 2025.

·                A full-time Project Manager had been appointed to the Churchgate project and several meetings had taken place before Christmas to explore development options.

·                Work would continue to look at the project for housing options and the market, and the Churchgate Project Board had expressed desire to improve parking signage in Hitchin.

·                A Member Briefing on Churchgate would take place in late January or early February to ensure transparency and to allow questions to be asked.

·                Decisions on the future of Charnwood House would be made in due course once the documents from the Estates Team on an Expression of Interest exercise had been reviewed.

The following Members asked questions:

·                Councillor Ralph Muncer

·                Councillor Paul Ward

·                Councillor Jon Clayden

·                Councillor Claire Winchester

In response to questions, Councillor Ian Albert advised that:

·                It was expected that the Churchgate update report, delayed from Full Council in December, would be presented to Full Council on 26 February 2026.

·                A Churchgate Project Board meeting would take place on 20 January to finalise the position of the project before the Member Briefing and Full Council meeting.

·                Investigation would take place into how Members received information about events in their area, specifically larger events that were supported by the Safety Advisory Group.

·                Cabinet were responsible for the risks and mitigations within the Council Delivery Plan, and ultimately, its delivery. 

In response to questions, Councillor Tamsin Thomas advised that extra time had been spent on Churchgate to ensure that a robust update would be provided at the Member Briefing and Full Council meeting.

In response to questions, the Director – Resources advised that:

·                The CDP was not used to performance manage the Senior Leadership Team as some of the KPIs and project deadlines were set to be ambitious rather than easy to achieve. Instead, focus was given to why they were not met and the actions to address these.

·                Missed bin collection data was recorded and verified by Veolia, however, this would be checked with the Waste Team to obtain further updates.

·                CO₂ figures were produced annually and there was lots of data processing involved to produce these, however, this would be checked with the Climate Change and Sustainability Project Manager when the next set of data was due.

·                The Customer Service Centre (CSC) provided a good training ground for new starters, particularly apprentices who were promoted to other internal roles which contributed to staff retention issues, but was positive for the Council.

·                Results from the implementation of AI to phone lines to handle basic CSC enquiries had been positive and reduced the need for human intervention.

·                An update on staff retention issues and the use of AI for phone lines would be obtained from the Customer and Digital Services Manager in due course.

Councillor Jon Clayden proposed and Councillor David Chalmers seconded and, following a vote, it was:

RESOLVED: That the Overview & Scrutiny Committee:

(1)       Provided comment on the Council Delivery Plan Quarter 2 monitoring report.

(2)       Determined any project they want to receive more detail on, as part of the next monitoring report.

RECOMMENDED TO CABINET: That Cabinet notes progress against Council projects and performance indicators, as set out in the Council Delivery Plan (Appendix A) and approves new milestones and changes to milestones.

REASON FOR RECOMMENDATION: The Council Delivery Plan (CDP) monitoring reports provide the Overview and Scrutiny Committee, and Cabinet, with an opportunity to monitor progress against the key Council projects, and understand any new issues, risks, or opportunities.