Agenda, decisions and minutes


Venue: Bodicote House, Bodicote, Banbury, OX15 4AA

Contact: Emma Faulkner / Lesley Farrell, Democratic and Elections  Email: democracy@cherwellandsouthnorthants.gov.uk, 01295 221953 / 01295 221591

Items
No. Item

44.

Declarations of Interest

Members are asked to declare any interest and the nature of that interest which they may have in any of the items under consideration at this meeting. 

 

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest.

45.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 71 KB

To confirm as a correct record the minutes of the meeting held on 3 December 2019.

 

Minutes:

The Minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 3 December 2019 were confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

46.

Chairman's Announcements

To receive communications from the Chairman.

 

Minutes:

The Chairman made the following announcements:

 

1.       Further to discussions and Member requested, visits to the Casepak Materials Recovery Facility and Castle Quay had been arranged.  Members should contact the Democratic and Elections Team if they wanted to attend.

 

2.       The Chairman updated the Committee on the responses she had received to her scrutiny survey which had been sent to all Cherwell District Council Members.  Whilst the number of responses to date had been relatively low, a number of possible scrutiny review topics had been suggested:

 

Council Tax

Co2 emissions

Sports provision

Governance of council owned buildings

Decriminalisation of parking

 

The survey would be re-sent to encourage more responses.

 

47.

Business Plan 2020/21 pdf icon PDF 189 KB

The Acting Assistant Director: Performance and Transformation will give a presentation about the draft business plan and the process that supports the creation of the overarching plan.

 

A successful approach to performance management enables us to demonstrate that we are delivering services effectively, and succeeding in achieving our goals illustrated in the Business Plan(draft attached for information).

 

As part of our annual business planning process we follow a clear cycle. We consult with businesses and residents to understand local priorities, we work with our partners to agree priorities and objectives and set a budget to deliver them. Finally our services develop service plans to ensure we meet our commitments and we report upon our progress to Overview & Scrutiny on a quarterly basis.

 

The Committee is requested to note the draft business plan, any feedback on the plan will be reported to Executive at their meeting on 3 February 2020.

 

Decision:

Resolved

 

(1)       That the draft Business Plan for 2020-21 be noted.

Minutes:

The Acting Assistant Director Performance and Transformation gave a presentation on the Business Plan 2020/21 explaining that each year the Council reviewed and updated its annual business plan, which set out the priorities and high-level objectives for the year ahead.

 

The Committee was advised that there had been a thorough review of the business plan, resulting in four new priorities: Housing that meets your needs; Leading on environmental sustainability; An enterprising economy with strong and vibrant local centres; and, Healthy, resilient and engaged communities. The four priorities were supported by four new themes that would shape and influence the work of every service across the council: Customers; Healthy Places; Partnerships; and, Continuous Improvement.

 

The Acting Assistant Director Performance and Transformation explained that the priorities built on the council’s track record in the areas and reflected the view of residents through the Annual Satisfaction Survey.

 

In response to questions from the Committee, the Acting Assistant Director Performance and Transformation explained that as this was the draft business plan, she would feed back comments from the committee to senior manager and lead officers for consideration and review when developing service plans. The service plans were currently in development and would shape the performance management framework for 2020-21 and inform a review of the Council’s Leadership Risk Register. Individual objectives for employees were set to ensure service plans were met and every member of staff could see how their work contributes to the delivery of that plan.

 

Resolved

 

(1)        That the draft Business Plan for 2020-21 be noted.

 

(2)        That, having given due consideration to the draft business plan, no areas for further consideration by Executive be identified.

48.

Work Programme 2019/2020 pdf icon PDF 79 KB

Democratic and Elections Officers will give an update on progress regarding subjects raised at previous Committee meetings (appendix 1, attached).

 

The Committee to consider the work programme (appendix 2, attached).

Additional documents:

Decision:

Resolved

 

(1)       That, subject to the possible inclusion of a Cherwell Industrial Strategy update at the March 2020 meeting, the work programme be noted.

 

(2)       That a working group consisting of Councillors Phil Chapman and Bryn Williams be set up to investigate and research mobile phone blackspots and the 5G network and report back to the March meeting.

Minutes:

The Democratic and Elections Officers gave an update on the status of topics suggested for Scrutiny, and the indicative Committee work programme.

 

Telephony Blackspots had previously been raised as a potential topic to pursue for scrutiny. The particular aspects a review could cover were discussed and the Committee agreed to set up a working group to research mobile phone coverage and what was being done to improve coverage in the Cherwell district.  The working group would also examine the rollout of   5G and coverage across the Cherwell district. The Working Group would report back to the next meeting of the Committee.

 

The Democratic and Elections Officers confirmed that there would be a visit to Casepak Materials on 24 February and, as advised the Chairman under the announcements, any Committee Member wishing to attend should contact the Democratic and Elections team to book a place.

 

The Chairman reminded Members, as advised under her announcements, that a visit to Castle Quay was also being organised.  Information would be emailed to Members in due course. 

 

Resolved

 

(1)        That, subject to the possible inclusion of a Cherwell Industrial Strategy update at the March 2020 meeting, the work programme be noted.

 

(2)        That a working group consisting of Councillors Phil Chapman and Bryn Williams be set up to investigate and research mobile phone blackspots and the rollout of 5G network in the Cherwell district and report back to the March meeting.

49.

Urgent Business

The Chairman to advise whether they have agreed to any items of urgent business being admitted to the agenda.

 

Minutes:

There were no items of urgent business.