Decision details

The committee considered the report attached to the agenda.

Mrs Dignum, the Chairman of the Corporate Plan Task and Finish Group, gave an oral report on the deliberations of the group. Members requested to have sight of the minutes of the Corporate Plan Task and Finish Group and the updates provided by Ms Bushby, Community Safety Manager and Ms Thomas, Health & Wellbeing Manager. (Post meeting note: These documents are provided in an attachment to these minutes)

The committee made the following comments and received answers to questions as follows:

·       Concern when discussing crime rate increases to provide the figures behind the percentage to give the context.

·       Concern at the red indicator relating to nine conservation area appraisals to be completed by 2018 – As the district had a number of areas of outstanding natural beauty, a national park and a number of historical areas of interest, carrying out conservation appraisals had a direct impact on how the council went about planning and delivering new housing in the district and queried whether this was due to a resourcing issue. Due to a recent restructure the team has been combined within Planning Policy and a new Conservation and Design lead officer was currently being recruited.

·       Concern at the formula for calculation of the Covalent traffic light system in the reports and in particular the indicator relating to time taken to process Housing Benefit Claims and its status showing green when in fact it should be showing red. An update would be provided. (Post meeting note: an update is provided in an attachment to these minutes)

·       Concerned at the apparent increase in rural crime to 24.4% (an increase from 1567 to 1949 incidents) – This was possibly due to a prolific offender however it should be kept under review. The Communities Intervention Manager had requested an analysis of crime data from Sussex Police. There was a multi-agency cross border working group in the north of the district and a proposal to form a rural group.

·       Concern at the sickness and absence figures - The Senior Leadership Team considered these figures (including long term sickness) in detail. This had been static over the last few years; it had been below other benchmarked authorities’ figures the previous year. The sickness figures were skewed by long term sickness resulting from accidents at the depot. It was suggested that benchmarking should be undertaken more widely and not just against other local authority’s outturn. An update was requested. (Post meeting note: an update is provided in an attachment to these minutes)

RESOLVED

1)          That the written and oral report from the Corporate Plan Task and Finish Group be noted.

2)          That the committee is satisfied that the council is achieving satisfactory levels of performance against the targets and activities in the 2017-18 Corporate Plan mid-year progress report.