Agenda item

Scrutiny committee is provided with the Corporate Plan performance report for 2023-2024, for review and comments.

The committee considered the Corporate Plan Performance Report 2023-2024 (the Plan) as attached to the agenda.

Councillor Casey-Rerhaye, Cabinet member for corporate services, introduced the item. She noted that most of the projects had been delivered which was a great reflection on the focus of the council over the last four years to ensure the council’s policies had been seen through to implementation. The focus was now on preparing the Plan for the next four years, the format of the report and how progress is reported to all members via timely and useful reports whilst balancing the need for officers’ time to be spent on the delivery of the projects.

Members welcomed the delivery, indicated by a green rating, and progress in delivery, shown by an amber rating, of the majority of actions included in the Plan.

The committee noted that the document before the committee was the annual performance review for 2023/24 which provided a high-level evaluation of the actions during the preceding 12 months (April 2023 – March 2024) and progress made towards the objectives specified in the Plan. Detail of the specific actions and their delivery was included in the quarterly reports.

Councillor Casey-Rerhaye, Cabinet member for corporate services, and Councillor Rouane, Leader of the council, responded to questions and observations from members of the committee:

·       They noted the welcome for the delivery of the Wheatley Flood Alleviation Scheme. Future measures to assist other communities with flood alleviation measures would be delivered in partnership with other bodies, recognising that Oxfordshire County Council was the responsible local authority for flood alleviation work, and via Local Plan policies.

·       The success of the ‘Let it Bee’ and ‘No Mow May’ campaigns required the co-operation of local communities and the parishes to identify suitable locations for rewilding. They acknowledged community confusion in respect of the above campaigns and unmanaged verges which could reduce support for the projects.

·       Working at the grass roots with parish/town councils and small businesses was important in the delivery of actions in Theme 4: Improved economic and community well-being, particularly engaging volunteers.

·       In noting that there were delays in the delivery of some actions this was partly due to prioritising work on the Joint Local Plan.

·       Scrutiny Committee members would have the opportunity to review the draft Corporate Plan and have an input on what actions could be included. This could include ideas for the inclusion of specific actions and targets. They advised that individual service teams had action plans for their projects that fed into the Corporate Plan.

·       Agreed that reference to the existence of the Council Charter could be included in the forthcoming Plan.    

In welcoming the progress, committee members discussed how the council could better communicate the successes to residents. Members noted the work undertaken by the Communications Team and acknowledged that all ward members had a role to play via their parish councils and constituents. Views were expressed specifically welcoming the receipt of external funds to deliver actions, the emphasis on addressing climate change in the themes and support for the homeless.