Issue - meetings

RESOLVED: That Cabinet noted the content of the appendix covering the annual review of WNCs 1st year (2021-22).

REASONS RESOLVED:

·         This report was for information purposes and discussion only, there were no direct decisions to be made following the report

·         The council was required as part of Local Government Act 1972 to report performance of the council to members.

ALTERNATIVE OPTIONS:

None

At the Chair’s invitation Councillors made the following comments on the report, which had been previously circulated.

• Officers were thanked for all their hard work.
• It was important to deliver services quickly and to listen to residents when they voice a query.
• How WNC engaged with the needs of residents was queried.
• It was agreed that having good leadership and accountability was important.
• It was felt that the report did not really identify the challenges faced by WNC.
• Could there be a clear definition of affordable housing?
• It was noted that litter and fly-tipping had not been mentioned in the report.
• The clean and green initiative should also include safe as there had been an increase in the number of serious crimes that had been reported.
• It was queried why the budget for adults was significantly larger than the one for Children, could zero based budgeting be used for these services?
• It was noted that some of the buses within the county were not environmentally clean.
• It was queried why Brexit had not been included in the report as it was something that also impacted communities.
• There should be more focus on connecting communities.
• The Billing Road project had been put aside, what would now happen to the fund set aside for this?
• Could there be more comparative figures presented in future reports?
• It was felt that the Children’s Trust was not scrutinised enough.

The Chair advised that it was important to be careful with regards zero based budgets and that it was imperative to question what had been spent in the past. It was agreed that it was important to establish partnerships between the council and communities. Members were advised that there had been 10 sets of accounts from the previous councils and that there were now 2. The Finance department had promoted staff within the department into senior roles. Social value and sustainability were now part of procurement and there were and would be various local supplier events. It was noted that there had been a catch up of the number of invoices paid within 30 days, this was now at 94%.

Cabinet members then highlighted the salient points of the report that related to their portfolios

RESOLVED: Cabinet note the content of the appendix covering the annual review of WNCs 1st year (2021-22)