Issue - meetings

The Director of Finance and Support Services submitted a report on the performance of key indicators for the period April to June 2015.  The Performance Monitoring Officer provided a breakdown of the information by each corporate priority.  Overall, 9 of the 15 Environment Scrutiny Performance Indicators (PIs) were either on target or exceeding their targets for Quarter 1.  One indicator did not have any performance data available to analyse and five PIs showed their position as a “trend”.  An update of the table in paragraph 2.3 was tabled at the meeting which included the missing performance of EHPI 2.23 (Planning decisions delegated to Officers).

In response to a query from Councillor T Page regarding a potential future move of some PIs to “Amber” or “Red”, the Performance Monitoring Officer explained the criteria applied in the assessment and confirmed that it was not indicating an issue regarding a lack of resources.  The Head of Business Development confirmed that it was shown as an early warning “flag” to alert Members and Officers to keep an eye on.

Councillor K Crofton queried the EHPI 157c (Processing of Planning applications, other applications), and the fact that the 90% target was barely reached and whether the 8 week determination period should be reduced.  The Acting Chief Executive and Director of Neighbourhood Services explained that the 8 week determination figure was a statutory government guidance figure which the Council observed.  He stated that the achievement of a 90% target was one of the highest being achieved by local authorities.  The Acting Chief Executive and Director confirmed that the 8 week consultation period needed to remain as it stood, as a reduction of this figure would not allow the statutory consultation processes to be fitted in. 

The Acting Chief Executive and Director confirmed that the Council regularly reviewed its resources and validation processes, adding that there had also been a recent change in software which staff had to learn.

The Committee received the report.

RESOLVED – that the Executive be advised that Environment Scrutiny Committee had considered the reported performance for the period April to June 2015 and supported its approval