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Agenda item

COUNCIL DELIVERY PLAN 2025-26 (Q3 UPDATE)

REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR – RESOURCES

 

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

Decision:

RESOLVED: That the Overview and Scrutiny Committee provided comment on the Council Delivery Plan Quarter 2 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 report provides 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.

Minutes:

Audio recording – 4 minutes 6 seconds

 

N.B. Councillor Ralph Muncer left the Council Chamber at 19:36.

 

Councillor Val Bryant, as Leader of the Council, presented the report entitled ‘Council Delivery Plan 2025-26 (Quarter 3 Update) and advised that:

 

·                The report provided the usual, regular updates on the Council Delivery Plan and its projects, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and risks.

·                Three projects had been completed, including the recently completed project entitled ‘Engaging the Community on our Finances’.

·                The Museum Collection Facility had been added to the plan as detailed at paragraph 8.2 of the report.

·                Projects with an amber delivery status were outlined at paragraph 8.3.

·                Actions to address KPIs with a red status had been set out at paragraph 8.5.

·                Waste collection performance data was shown at paragraph 8.6, and officers were working with Veolia with to obtain the data for North Herts on this.

·                Implementation of new KPIs into the Council Delivery Plan both in 2025-26 and 2026-27 had been described at paragraph 8.9.

·                The Committee could specify areas that they would like to see more information on in the next monitoring report, as per recommendation 2.2 in the report.

 

The following Members asked questions:

 

·                Councillor Jon Clayden

·                Councillor Elizabeth Dennis

·                Councillor Paul Ward

·                Councillor Dominic Griffiths

·                Councillor David Chalmers

·                Councillor Claire Winchester

 

In response to questions, Councillor Val Bryant advised that:

 

·                Data for North Herts on the KPI entitled ‘Missed collections per 100,000 lifts (per month)’ had been received and would be forwarded onto Members for information. 

·                The Customer Service Team communicated with other departments to identify where call demand spikes would occur ahead of time, and as a Council, they were trying to spread the delivery of projects and events to prevent peaks. 

·                Increased calls to the customer service centre were also caused by residents experiencing anxious events or to verify if communications from the Council were genuine.

·                Three Member Workshops on the Churchgate project had been scheduled.

·                A unitary authority would be able to pick up the new Local Plan as it was anticipated that it would be ready by March 2028.

·                Big projects such as Churchgate and the Museum Collection Facility had precise timelines, which gave them confidence to deliver those, even with Local Government Reorganisation (LGR) taking place.

 

In response to questions, the Director – Resources advised that the error relating to Milestone 12 on page 38 of the report would be corrected to read ‘Finalisation and adoption of the Local Plan’.

 

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

 

·                The next report on Churchgate would be presented to Cabinet in June, but not Full Council. However, future reports on Churchgate would be considered at Full Council once delivery plans had been finalised and the project needed a budget approving.

·                Feedback provided by Members at the Churchgate workshops would be taken forward.

·                Churchgate was progressing well and professionals had been appointed to assist with the design stage.

·                Churchgate was in its early stages and as they continued to carry out work, it was hoped that the risk would decrease as factors became more certain.

·                The project plan for Churchgate would be shared with Members.

·                Dates relating to the easements of land for the Leisure Centre Decarbonisation project would be clarified to Members at a later stage.

 

In response to questions, the Chair advised that the report on Churchgate would be presented to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting in June before going to Cabinet.

 

Councillor David Chalmers highlighted that the Council had several large projects underway, and that they would need to continue monitoring how these were being delivered alongside LGR and before the Council ceased to exist. 

 

In response to Councillor David Chalmers, Councillor Val Bryant advised that they had a Council Plan in place, and they would continue working towards the targets within this.

 

In response to Councillor David Chalmers, Councillor Vijaiya Poopalasingham advised that they had robust processes in place to manage risks through this Committee and the Finance, Audit and Risk Committee, and the approved budget had committed to delivering projects on their respective timelines.

 

The Chair summarised discussions and outlined the importance of monitoring complex projects to ensure that they could all be achieved, and they would continue to do this going forward.

 

Councillor Jon Clayden proposed and Councillor Dominic Griffiths seconded and, following a vote, it was:

 

RESOLVED: That the Overview & Scrutiny Committee provided comment on the Council Delivery Plan Quarter 2 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.

Supporting documents: