Agenda item

To invite Cabinet to determine its provisional key priority actions for 2021/22 and the means by which performance against the priorities will be monitored and reported on in that year.

Cabinet is further invited to approve that consultation on these key priority actions and the performance monitoring proposals be undertaken with the Overview and Scrutiny Committees. The outcome of the consultation would then be reported to Cabinet on 19 March 2021.

RESOLVED that –

(a)    the provisional key priority actions for 2021/22, as set out at Appendix A to item A.6 of the Report of the Leader of the Council, be adopted;

(b)    the means by which performance against the priorities will be monitored and reported on in 2021/22 be determined on the basis set out in Appendix B to the aforementioned report;

(c)    consultation on the adopted provisional key priority actions referred to in (a) above and the performance monitoring proposals referred to in (b) above be undertaken with the Council’s two Overview and Scrutiny Committees during February 2020;

(d)    the outcome of the consultation with the Overview and Scrutiny Committees referred to in (c) above be reported to Cabinet at its meeting due to be held on 19 March 2021 in order that Cabinet can formally adopt its finalised key priority actions for 2021/22.

The Cabinet gave consideration to a report of the Leader of the Council (A.6) which invited it to determine its provisional key priority actions for 2021/22 and the means by which performance against those priorities would be monitored and reported on in that year. Cabinet was further invited to approve that consultation on those key priority actions and the performance monitoring proposals be undertaken with the Council’s two overview and scrutiny committees.  The outcome of such consultation would then be reported to Cabinet at its meeting due to be held on 19 March 2021.

Members were aware that the Council, at its meeting held on 21 January 2020 (Minute 78 referred), had approved a Corporate Plan for 2020/24 and that this had established its strategic direction for those four years.  That strategic direction itself sought to reflect the issues that mattered most to local people, the national requirements from Government and the challenges that faced the District over that time period. 

The themes of the 2020/24 Corporate Plan were:

·         Delivering High Quality Services

·         Building Sustainable Communities for the Future

·         Strong Finance and Governance

·         Community Leadership through Partnerships

·         A Growing and Inclusive Economy

Cabinet was aware that it established each year its priority actions to deliver against the Corporate Plan and thereby ensured that the ambition of that Plan was central to its work. The priority actions did not cover every separate element of the ambition of the four year Corporate Plan; nor were they intended to indicate that other projects, schemes or activities were not being pursued.  They were though intended to reflect imperatives across the Council and for the District and actions that it was right to focus on in that year.

Members were aware that 2020 had been an exceptional year not only nationally but globally.  In Tendring the Council’s Community Leadership role had never been more important as the Council had taken on additional responsibilities in supporting its residents and businesses through the COVID-19 pandemic.  Whilst Tendring District Council had not formally reported on its performance against priorities during 2020, much had been achieved including but not limited to:

·           The roll out of numerous grants in excess of £38million to businesses;

·           The adoption of a local Back to Business Agenda which not only supported businesses to survive but prepared to help them flourish;

·           An Economic Growth Strategy focusing on recovery for the future;

·           Allocation of monies from the Tendring Community Fund to Ward Councillors to provide grants to local organisations to enable them to respond to the pandemic locally;

·           Business continuity arrangements immediately being invoked to ensure Council services remained in place where they were able to do so and for those services impacted by the various lockdowns, staff had been redeployed to work with different teams in response to the pandemic, such as the Community Hub;

·           Adoption of a Climate Change Action Plan to meet the Council’s aspirations towards the Climate Emergency;

·           Section 1 of the Local Plan had been found sound by the Planning Inspectorate thereby establishing the 5 year housing supply of 550 dwellings per annum, a North Essex vision and the Garden Community at Tendring Colchester Borders;

·           A balanced budget and revised governance arrangements to ensure democratic decision making continued throughout;

·           Getting ready to build or acquire new council homes. A Corporate Housing Strategy had been adopted to deliver homes to meet the needs of local people, making the best use of and improving existing housing and supporting people in their homes and communities.  Separate strategies and polices had been introduced to assist in reducing homeless and rough sleeping in the District, providing financial assistance polices for private sector housing and acquiring land and buildings to increase council housing stock.

All of the above would provide a great foundation on which the Council would continue to deliver its priorities in the remaining years of the Corporate Plan.  The 2021/22 actions would, of themselves, underpin further actions in 2022/23.  As such, it was considered appropriate to invest time and energy to delivering them.

It was reported that a provisional list had been prepared by Officers following consultation with individual Portfolio Holders and the Leader of the Council and this was set out at Appendix A to the Leader’s report.

Having considered the contents of the report and its appendix:

It was moved by Councillor Stock OBE, moved by Councillor G V Guglielmi and:

RESOLVED that –

(a)    the provisional key priority actions for 2021/22, as set out at Appendix A to item A.6 of the Report of the Leader of the Council, be adopted;

(b)    the means by which performance against the priorities will be monitored and reported on in 2021/22 be determined on the basis set out in Appendix B to the aforementioned report.

(c)    consultation on the adopted provisional key priority actions referred to in (a) above and the performance monitoring proposals referred to in (b) above be undertaken with the Council’s two Overview and Scrutiny Committees during February 2020;

(d)    the outcome of the consultation with the Overview and Scrutiny Committees referred to in (c) above be reported to Cabinet at its meeting due to be held on 19 March 2021 in order that Cabinet can formally adopt its finalised key priority actions for 2021/22.