Agenda item

The Leader of Chichester District Council is invited to present his priorities and areas of focus over the next year.

Mr Dignum introduced the item explaining that he was requested to present the Cabinet’s priorities and areas of focus. Mr Dignum explained that by nature Council’s work has many plans and projects ongoing every year. The Business Routing Panel (of which Mr Dignum and Mrs Apel are members) had recently examined 30 A3 pages of projects based on the five corporate plan objectives:

·       Improvethe provisionofandaccesstosuitablehousing

·       Support our communities, especially the disadvantaged

·       Manage and protect our built and natural environments

·       Improveandsupport thelocal economy

·       Ensure value for money for our council taxpayers

Mr Dignum explained the eight major challenges for the Council in 2016-17 including the top challenge facing each Cabinet Portfolio Holder as follows:

1.     Recycling - Mr Barrow will be leading the Waste Panel to address the challenge of 50% recycling

2.     Local Plan Review – Mrs Taylor will lead identifying potential areas towards the end of the year

3.     Grants - Mrs Lintill will be leading on the determination of grants to PHG and CFT

4.     Museum - Mrs Keegan will lead and a consultant will address the options shortly, with proposals being developed later in the year

5.     Support Services - Mr Finch will be taking forward the shared services project with Arun and Horsham for areas such as IT, Customer service and Revenues and Benefits

6.     Four Year Financial Plan - Mrs Hardwick will be agreeing the framework with DCLG to provide clarity of Government funding until 2019-20

7.     Devolution - A seminar three weeks ago made little progress and all is on hold until after the referendum

8.     Chichester Vision and Southern Gateway – Mr Dignum will lead on these two major projects for the City

a.     The Vision focuses on the future of the City as a whole

b.     The Southern Gateway project represents a redevelopment opportunity in one part of the City

In approaching the challenges Mr Dignum explained he has applied the following principles:

·       Maintaining services – public conveniences, CCTV installations and council tax support are among the areas that would be protected

·       Ensuring that services are provided efficiently - the two big targets for cost reduction while maintaining the services to the public were the leisure centres and the Novium museum

o   The leisure centres cost around £1 million per annum excluding support and capital replacement costs

o   The Novium museum costs over £600,000 per year

·       Examining how costs could be cut by sharing services with neighbouring councils such as support services and building control

·       Using assets more effectively:

o   £3 million has been invested in commercial property in the City

o   £6 million will be invested in the Enterprise Gateway

o   £5 million will be invested in the Local Authority Property Fund with a further £5 million to follow

o   Further investments are planned

o   Rents yield far more than having the capital on deposit

·       Regularly reviewing charges to ensure they are set at competitive levels

o   The car parks yield £6 million of our £16 million from fees and charges

All these steps aim to minimise any increase in council tax while maintaining services. The current five year projection indicates there will be a gap to fill after 2018/19.

The Committee asked the following questions:

·       Could the strategy outlined briefly and succinctly in the introduction be incorporated into the strategy document and made available on the website? The introduction will be made available as part of the minutes. The strategy document in the agenda is by portfolio for the benefit of this committee.

·       What is the level of usage of the electrical vehicle charging points and is the Portfolio Holder considering the commercial satisfaction? Cabinet agreed to purchase seven electric vans which are on order as part of the Government scheme where 75% of costs are paid for CDC.

·       Will the Portfolio Holder be addressing the issue that increased brake and tyre wear dust from the heavier electric cars and whether there is more pollution than fossil fuel vehicles? Levels are being monitored.

·       Can CDC set its own planning performance standards as the national standards are not considered to be a useful measure? This will be considered.

·       Can the Planning and Housing Services Portfolio Holder add an additional bullet point to the key priorities in the Housing Strategy to read 'Provide development which has a positive impact on the area in which it is built and in the wider district'? This will be considered.

·       Can greater investment be made in property? This will be considered.

·       Will the Southern Gateway Project involve the railway station? The station concourse will be included.

·       What is the current position on the potential loss of the squash courts at the Westgate Leisure Centre? It is important to account for the needs of the majority of residents who will make greater use of class studios. Similarly priced squash courts are available at Chichester Racquets Club.

·       What quality standards provision is being made for the market which will remain in the Cattle Market car park? All stallholders will be required to use the same reasonably sized gazebo stalls. The market will run one day a week.

·       Could pay on foot be introduced to more car parks? This will be considered.

·       What percentage of funds does the Council get from on street parking? On street parking cannot make a profit; funds can only be used for the Civil Enforcement Officers.

·       Could CDC have been quicker at securing income generation from the Automated Testing Facility? There were complications. The Waste Panel is now discussing the possibility of recycling food waste.

RECOMMENDED TO THE LEADER:

1.     Request the Planning & Housing Services portfolio holder to develop the Council's own local planning performance standards (as the national standards are not considered to be a useful measure on their own any longer)

2.     Request the Planning & Housing Services portfolio holder to add an additional bullet point to the key priorities in the Housing Strategy to read 'Provide development which has a positive impact on the area in which it is built and in the wider district'

3.     Dependent upon the workload of this committee to request the portfolio holders to each attend a future meeting of this committee to be questioned by the committee on their own areas of focus in the strategy (The Commercial Services portfolio holder is due to attend in January 2017 to talk about the Parking Strategy)