Agenda item

Report of the Chief Executive and Corporate Strategy and Performance Manager

Summary

This report covers the Council’s performance for the period 01 July to 30 September 2010 as measured through the Performance Management Framework.

Recommendations

The Executive is recommended:

(1)               To note the many achievements referred to in paragraph 1.4.

(2)               To request that officers report in the third quarter on the items identified in paragraph 1.5 where performance was below target or there are emerging issues.

(3)               To agree the responses identified to issues raised in the quarter one performance report in paragraph 2.1 or to request additional action or information.

Recommendations Approved

The Chief Executive and Corporate Strategy and Performance Manager submitted a report outlining the Council’s performance for the period1 July to 30 September 2010 as measured through the Performance Management Framework. In the course of discussion Members requested that they be advised of the new performance management reporting as it becomes clear and that a meeting be arranged with officers and Councillors Atack and Wood to consider the Performance Management Framework in detail.

Resolved

(1)               That the many achievements as set out below be noted:

Cherwell: A District of Opportunity

·        Urban Regeneration: the Council has launched a consultation on proposals to pedestrianise areas of Kidlington.

·        Economic Development: the Council’s job clubs remain examples of national good practice with video footage used at this years Conservative Party Conference. The team continue to work with community groups to improve accessibility.

·        Affordable Housing: housing continues to provide support to local residents in challenging economic times with a good level of affordable housing scheme delivery.  This includes the first affordable housing completion under the Armed Forces personnel Home Ownership Scheme. This is tailored to forces personnel often required to re-locate at short notice. The housing team have also worked to secure 5 mortgage rescue completions. This scheme allows families struggling with mortgage repayments to remain in their home as tenants of a registered social landlord.

·        Eco Bicester: significant progress is being made on plans for the first “exemplar” phase of the eco town.  This has been subject of extensive consultation in the local community.

·        Urban Regeneration: the Old Town Party in Banbury had over 3,000 attendees, 300 participants in the community art wall and was supported by 5 local community groups and 26 local traders. This contributes to both the Council’s community cohesion and development objectives and also to increasing the vibrancy of our town centres.

A Cleaner Greener Cherwell

·        Street Cleansing: satisfaction with street and environmental cleanliness has increased to 72% for 2010 in comparison to 67% in 2009.

·        Rural Development: a successful countryside forum was held with over 50 attendees to discuss actions and progress with regards to conservation target areas and biodiversity across the district.

·        In Bloom Awards: Bicester achieved a Silver Gilt award in the national competition awards and Gold in the regional round. Banbury and Kidlington secured Silver Gilt awards. 

A Safe and Healthy Cherwell 

·        Activities for Young People: a successful summer programme of activities has been delivered with 1473 recorded attendances. Activities included a holiday sports road show and coaching clinics. 

·        Reducing Crime: working with partners to reduce crime and anti-social behaviour: Thames Valley Police are showing a 30% reduction in crime for this year.

An Accessible Value for Money Council

·        Reducing the Council’s costs by £800,000 in 2010/11: as of the 30 September £532,000 (66%) of the target has been achieved.

·        Providing More Services Online: there are currently 65 transactional services available on the Council’s website. The council’s consultation portal has also seen increasing availability of Council consultation activities including widening access to the annual satisfaction survey.

·        Delivering Savings Through Improved Procurement: a new contract procured in partnership with the Oxfordshire district councils will deliver significant savings for cleaning the district’s public conveniences.

·        Improving Customer Satisfaction: the results of the Council’s annual customer survey show that overall satisfaction with the Council and the services it delivers has increased. General satisfaction has improved from 67% in 2009 to 73% in 2010. Full details are included in the table presented in paragraph 2.9. A

(2)               To request that officers report in the third quarter on the items identified below where performance was below target or there are emerging issues:

Cherwell: A District of Opportunity

·        Contribute to the creation of 200 jobs in the district. Vodaphone have just announced the closure of its Banbury Office with significant redundancies expected. A post redundancy support package is being prepared.

·        Local Development Framework (core strategy) – the changes in national planning policy resulting in the abolition of Regional Spatial Strategies raises questions as to our ability to publish the LDF to our original timetable (this issue is ongoing and will remain under review).

·         The percentage of planning appeals allowed against a refusal decision: this is an indicator that can be easily affected by adverse outcomes measured against a low number of cases (there have been fewer appeal cases in the period concerned).  The corporate management team are due to review the factors that may have influenced performance and will report in the next quarter report if any issues emerge that need to be addressed. 

Working in Partnership

·        The cancellation of the Local Area Agreement (LAA) and changes in national policy and funding arrangements mean that there is some uncertainty with regards to future partnerships. Emerging issues include whether the LAA will continue for the rest of 2010/11, the role of the new local economic partnership and the impact of changes in community safety funding on the county wide community safety partnership. As such it is recommended that this issue is revisited

(3)               To agree the responses identified to issues raised in the quarter one performance report as set out below:

Cherwell: A District of Opportunity

·        Achieve 300 new homes:

Following a slow first quarter (38 completions) the second quarter has seen 152 net completions making the total for the year 190. Progress has improved; however there are still some risks with regards to meeting this objective at the end of the year given the challenging economic circumstances.

·        Local Development Framework (core strategy) – the changes in national planning policy resulting in the abolition of Regional Spatial Strategies raises questions as to our ability to publish the LDF to our original timetable.

Work is being undertaken to establish what evidence we need to support a new position on growth levels within the district.

An Accessible, Value for Money Council

·        Cherwell Link (the residents newsletter)

The corporate plan for 2010/11 set an objective to increase the editions of Cherwell Link produced. Given the financial impact of another edition at the current time, no increase is planned for the current year. As such this objective will not to be met at year end. However, results form the customer satisfaction survey suggests that there are increased levels of awareness with regards to the Council’s services and high levels of readership of the existing editions of the newsletter.

Reasons

The Council’s performance in the second quarter of 2010/11 is measured through the Performance Management Framework.  Central to this is the Corporate Scorecard, which is made up of the Council’s priority performance targets.  The Corporate Scorecard covers seven areas of performance.  These are: performance against the Local Area Agreement; the Community Strategy (Our District, Our Future); the Corporate pledges; Priority Service Indicators; Financial Performance; Human Resources; and Customer Feedback.