Agenda item

The Leader of the Council presented the East Herts Corporate Plan and said the plan had been developed alongside the budget for 2024/25 and set out the priorities that the joint administration wanted to focus on for the next three years. He said the administration had used LEAF as an acronym to organise these priorities into: Listening, open and transparent, Environmentally focussed, Acting with the community and Fair and inclusive. He said that there would be quarterly progress reports on these priorities and use feedback from consultations to refresh this plan annually.

Councillor Crystall proposed that the recommendation in the report be supported. Councillor Wilson seconded the proposal.

Councillor McAndrew said he welcomed the continuity from the previous administration. He referred to the corporate plan encouraging digital communication channels.

Councillor Crystall said that it was moving that way and had been started under the previous administration and this was continuing.

Councillor E Buckmaster said he felt that there needed to be a common branding of initiatives across local authorities, for example East Herts Council and Hertfordshire County Council had different tag lines for air quality.

Councillor Woollcombe expressed his support for the plan. He questioned the commitment to explore replacing the Leader and Executive system of governance to a committee system. He asked the Leader to explain what that meant and when the council would receive a proposal on the subject.

Councillor Crystall said the administration would start to investigate the possible impacts of a change in governance system and would involve a cross party working group. He said the initial thinking would be that this would start before the end of the year.

Councillor Hart asked about the commitment to investigating ways of providing affordable housing.

Councillor Goldspink said the priorities in the corporate plan referred to policies over and above what happened in the planning application process. She said a few options were going to be explored and she would report back to Council when these were definite.

Councillor Devonshire asked how the committee system would work.

Councillor Crystall said that decisions would be made within politically balanced committee groups.

Councillor Deering said he thought the plan was good and was pleased to see a continuation of themes from the previous administration. He also referred to the committee system and said that reorganisation could cost money. He asked Councillor Goldspink if she could share some of the proposed plans for affordable housing.

Councillor Crystall said that the administration was exploring the committee system and said there were benefits in its decision making by involving more councillors from all parties. He said he would update the Council when he knew more.

Councillor Goldspink said there could be ways for the council to build its own affordable housing but land needed to be identified for this.

Councillor Wilson said the corporate plan was partly about improving ways of reaching different people to engage in the activities of the council.

The motion to support the recommendation having been proposed and seconded was put to the meeting and upon a vote being taken, was declared CARRIED.

          RESOLVED – That the new Corporate Plan be adopted.