The Council will receive the annual State of the Tendring District Statement from the Leader of the Council.
Minutes:
The Council received the Annual State of the Tendring District Statement from the Leader of the Council (Councillor Stock OBE) as follows:-
“I realise that the annual State of Tendring statement is not necessarily the highlight of the municipal year so this I am going to do it a little differently. Instead of hearing my take on how things are I am going to give you an entirely independent view.
As all Members will be aware we recently had an Local Government Association Peer Review.
The Peer Review Team visited Tendring during the 6th to 9th March. The team consisted of a senior Councillor, Chief Executive and senior managers from other Councils. A number of sessions and discussions were held with our Councillors, officers and external partners. They spoke to in excess of 90 people and had more than 30 meetings. Even though the team was only with us for a short period of time, I was impressed by how quickly and how well they got to know us. It did not take them very long at all to understand who we are, what we are and what we are aiming to achieve.
At the end of the visit the Team gave an overview of their feedback, key messages and recommendations. A copy of the full feedback report has been circulated to every Member this evening.
So allow me to quote directly from that report.
“Tendring District Council (TDC) is having a significant and positive impact right across its district. The Leader, Deputy Leader and Chief Executive are passionate and well informed about the area, its local context and challenges. Managers and staff are also committed to TDC. They are well engaged and recognise that the Council has been on a cultural journey which is now leading to improvements.
TDC as a council has made huge strides since 2010. It has become more outwardly focused and is now an effective community leader. It is a member of the key decision making bodies in its area. It is acting as a catalyst for more effective and joined up public services and it is holding other service providers to account. One of the key messages to emerge from this peer challenge is that TDC is even better than the story it is telling about itself. It is understating its achievements to residents and other stakeholders. Being clearer from the outset about desired outcomes will help it to tell the story of its achievements and successes in the district.
Political leadership within TDC is strong. The Leader has made a conscious effort to involve all Members. Cabinet and individual portfolio holders take a proactive approach to leading on the major strands of the policy agenda. Member and officer relationships are good. Members are engaged and well briefed on issues. They value the informal “all member briefings” that take place each month as well as the other opportunities to be involved. Members have taken a political decision to support a boundary review which has reduced their numbers from 60 to 48, which reflects the reduction of 130 staff posts due to efficiency savings in recent years.
The priorities for the Council are clear and reflect the needs of the district.
TDC’s community leadership role is widely recognised and respected. Key partners such as the leaders at Essex County Council (ECC), the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner (PFCC) and the local Member of Parliament for Clacton all praised the Council’s leadership role in the community and beyond. It is very clear that the council is using its community leadership approach to tackle some of its key issues such as education, skills, public health and community safety with its partners.
Despite the challenges faced by the district the Council is ambitious and has a record of delivering significant projects. These have often been delivered in partnership and the Council has been very successful in leveraging significant funds from partners. The £36m coastal sea defence scheme is just one example – where with an initial £3m investment from TDC, it persuaded partners to invest a further £33m. The scheme has protected 3000 homes from the sea, regenerated the beaches along the coast from Clacton to Holland on Sea and led to significant private investment along the seafront.
TDC’s finances are robust. It has already made £13m of savings in recent years without any significant loss of services. It has adequate reserves, and its council tax is low. TDC has a future savings plan that aims to deliver £300k savings each year over the next ten years.”
What this report makes extremely clear is that Tendring is a council that is working hard and delivering well for its residents. It is extremely gratifying to hear that from an independent third party and I want to say thank you and pay tribute to all our hard-working officers and staff at every level who are contributing to that success. And also to all members of this authority who have played their part to make this a better council.
However, in the face of such positivity we should not forget that Tendring still has severe challenges and areas of significant deprivation.
The Public Health England Tendring profile 2017 highlights a number of challenges with all areas of the Index of Multiple Deprivation significantly worse than the England average, including life expectancy, disease and poor health, adult and children’s health and community safety. Only three out of the 30 factors remain better than the England average, this includes childhood obesity and incidents of tuberculosis.
The Health and Wellbeing report for Essex 2016 identified for Tendring high prevalence of children in low income families, excess weight in children, number of NEETs, safeguarding needs and hip fractures in the over 65s.
We continue to tackle these issues. At Council in January I set out the Cabinet priorities for the coming year and we are reviewing the working of our Overview and Scrutiny Committees to allow them to focus on more in-depth pieces of work.
The Peer Review Team made the following recommendations:-
· Improve how we tell the story of what we are achieving;
· Devise an approach to programme management and project delivery;
· Bring the four strands of transformation – customers, property, digital and people – together;
· Review how we deal with underspends, savings and financial risk and look at the phasing of our capital programme;
· Add housing as a strand to our community leadership focus alongside education, health and community safety;
· Be confident in our plans for Jaywick.
These are sound recommendations and I am confident that they will strengthen and enhance our approach.
Traditionally the State of Tendring speech can be quite a lengthy affair but tonight I am sure everyone will be delighted that I am not going to say any more. I am confident that when you read the full report you will see that it needs no more from me. The report speaks for itself and I look forward to working with officers, Cabinet colleagues, and Members generally to implement the recommendations and to take this Council forward into a positive and exciting future.”
Members expressed their appreciation of Councillor Stock’s speech with a round of applause.
Councillor I J Henderson addressed the Council during the debate on the Leader’s Statement.