Agenda item

So the Committee can review the report of the Leader of the Council to Cabinet in relation to inviting 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.

The Committee heard how the Council had previously approved a Corporate Plan for 2020/24 and that it had established Council’s 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 Corporate Plan had been adopted unanimously at the Council meeting held on 21 January 2020 (Minute 78 referred). 

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

Members were informed that Cabinet established each year its priority actions to deliver against the Corporate Plan and thereby ensured that the ambition of that Plan remained 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 also heard that 2020 had been an exceptional year not only nationally but globally. The Council’s Community Leadership role had never been more important.  The Council had taken on additional responsibilities and supported its residents and businesses through the COVID-19 pandemic.  Whilst Tendring District Council had not formally reported on its performance against its 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 focused on recovery for the future.

·         Allocation of monies from the Tendring Community Fund to Ward Councillors that provided grants to local organisations that enabled them to respond to the pandemic locally.

·         Business continuity arrangements had immediately been 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 were 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 had ensured democratic decision making continued throughout.

·         Council had adopted a Corporate Housing Strategy in order 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 homelessness 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 those had provided a strong foundation on which the Council would continue to deliver its priorities during the remaining years of the Corporate Plan.  The 2021/22 actions would, of themselves, underpin further actions in 2022/23.  As such, it was appropriate to invest time and energy to delivering them.

A provisional list had been prepared following consultation with individual Portfolio Holders and the Leader of the Council and that was set out at Appendix A to the report before the Committee.

After discussion it was moved by Councillor Steady, seconded by Councillor Davis and unanimously RESOLVED that this Committee RECOMMENDS to CABINET that:

·         Any specific schemes that Members wish to be considered be submitted to the appropriate Portfolio Holder for an initial evaluation and then submitted to Cabinet for its formal decision.

It was then moved by Councillor Miles, seconded by Councillor Davis and unanimously RESOLVED that this Committee furtherRECOMMENDS to CABINET that:

·         Cabinet re-examines its position with the view to establishing a wider focus in relation to the expenditure of monies.