Issue - meetings

The Executive Member for Corporate Services submitted a report inviting Overview and Scrutiny Committee to review progress against various elements of the East Herts Corporate Plan and the four “SEED” priorities.

The Overview and Scrutiny Committee Members asked some pre submitted and supplementary questions. The Executive Member for Corporate Services and the Head of Communications, Strategy and Policy responded to these questions.

Councillor Snowdon asked if email sign up could be used to encourage a wider circulation of the Network newsletter. He asked if the existing account set ups for business rates and council tax could include a sign-up option for Network. The Executive Member for Corporate Services said that good progress was being made with signing people up to the weekly newsletter. He undertook to mention this suggestion to officers.

Councillor Drake referred to paragraph 2.11 of the report and the increasing popularity of the call back option. She asked what could be done to further promote this facility and asked if there could be an option whereby people could leave a name, number and brief message for the council. The Head of Communications, Strategy and Policy said that the call back option was working well. He said that some extra comms work could be done to raise awareness and the new telephony system would allow messages to be left for the council.

Councillor Symonds said that not all people were able use digital services. She said that she was pleased to read that the council would support individuals who were not comfortable with or were unable to use digital services. She also commented on the problem of getting paperwork between Wallfields and Charringtons House via scanner or mobile phones.

The Executive Member for Corporate Services said that he would speak to officers in a review meeting next week and he would seek to get some answers to this ongoing issue. Councillor Goldspink expressed her concern over the target of answering 75 percent of calls within 10 minutes, which was a long time to wait. The Executive Member referred to plans for a new telephony system from 2023 and he mentioned that a new starter was about to start work with customer services.

The Head of Communications, Strategy and Policy and the Communications and Digital Media Manager provided some figures in respect of call volumes, Facebook followers and website hits following comments and a question from Councillor Kemp.

Councillor Snowdon proposed and Councillor Kemp seconded, a motion that the comments and suggestions be referred to the Executive.

After being put to the meeting and a vote taken, the motion was declared CARRIED.

RESOLVED – that Overview and Scrutiny Committee refer the comments and suggestions to the Executive.