Council and Democracy

Agenda item

Deputy Leader - Council Plan Progress Update

5:40pm to 6:10pm

 

Minutes:

The Deputy Leader and Service Director - Corporate attended to present a report updating the Forum about the progress of the Chesterfield Borough Council Plan.

 

The Council Plan 2019 – 2023 was agreed by Council in February 2019. The plan identified the Council’s key priorities, objectives and commitments over a four year period. Annual delivery plans are developed to track and challenge progress across the four years.

 

The current position was outlined in the officer’s report. The Covid-19 pandemic had brought fast moving and unprecedented challenges to communities and organisations. Chesterfield Borough Council (CBC) had to quickly reprioritise to ensure core services could be delivered, while supporting additional emergency planning, community response and economic measures.

 

Staff across the Council were re-deployed to support key Covid-19 response activities which included ensuring that key services, such as the crematorium, could be maintained but also supporting new areas of work. New areas of work included processing business grant applications, food and medicine deliveries, supporting testing facilities, town centre ambassadors and supporting the community and voluntary sector volunteering programmes. This had a significant impact on the Council’s ability to deliver on elements of the delivery plan for 2020/21. This impact had been assessed alongside the performance progress and some recommendations had been made regarding re-prioritisation and deferral of elements.

 

Appendix 1 of the officer’s report demonstrated the progress which had been made on the 41 milestones which were being tracked during 2020/21 as well as the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic:

 

·      63% of milestones within the delivery plan for 2020/21 had been impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic to a medium or high extent.

·      54% of the milestones remained on target for delivery by the end of March 2021.

·      A further 22% of milestones were currently rated as amber for delivery, actions had been put into place to improve where possible.

·      24% of milestones are rated red as it was certain that delivery would not be possible during 2020/21.

 

In the “making Chesterfield a thriving borough” section 58% of the milestones remained on target for delivery in 2020/21. Excellent progress had been achieved on key projects including:

-       Commencement of construction on the Northern Gateway Enterprise Centre.

-       First phase of commercial development at Waterside.

-       Seeking to maximise Staveley Town Deal potential - £500k of funding had been secured so far.

-       Successfully bidding for £2.4 million in external funding to help secure maximum benefits from HS2 for Chesterfield communities and businesses.

-       Progressing ambitious plans for the Heart of Chesterfield project including securing a further £650k in external funding to support market improvements.

-       Refreshing the skills action plan and activities to ensure it would respond to the significant employment and skills challenges emerging from the pandemic, particularly for young people.

 

There were instances where the milestone would be delivered in terms of Council activity but would not be as successful in terms of outcomes due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

 

There are a number of milestones which due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic would not be achievable during 2020/21:

-       The HS2 and you programme was paused from March 2020 due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on school provision. Conversations with schools have indicated that they would require a significant amount of recovery and catch up time for students and that they may not be able to re-join the programme until 2021.

-       Progress on the preparation of the Visitor Economy Action Plan had been delayed as other projects have been prioritised, most notably in relation to the Council’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic. The Covid-19 pandemic has had a major impact on the visitor economy. The delay in preparing the Action Plan would provide an opportunity to better understand the potential longer-term impacts of Covid-19 on the visitor economy and appropriately respond to these within the Action Plan.

-       The events programme had been critically impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. Major events for 2020/21 had been cancelled due to social distancing requirements. Teams across the Council worked hard to provide alternative digital provision with a range of activities for residents of all ages to try. Social media, print and web campaigns had also been launched to support the key aim of economic recovery of our High streets as part of our economic recovery plan.

-       Expanding the visitor offer at the Pomegranate and Winding Wheel Theatres would not be possible during 2020/21 due to the social distancing guidance and recovery period required for core provision.

-       Progress in the development of the business units at Calow Lane had been impacted by Covid-19 pandemic reprioritisation. Economic Development resources had been focused on economic recovery planning and ensuring key live projects could operate safely within the new health and safety and social distancing guidelines.

 

In the “improving quality of life for local people” section 73% of the milestones remained on target for delivery in 2020/21. Strong progress had been achieved on key milestones including:

-       The Covid-19 pandemic placed a focus on rough sleeping and the Rough Sleeping Strategy. The Getting Everyone In and Keeping Everyone In requirements improved access to support and accommodation.

-       The private sector stock condition survey had been completed and work was being undertaken to determine investment priorities.

-       The improvement works at Grangewood had been completed as part of the work to deliver year 2 of the five-year housing environmental schemes programme. Phase 1 at Barrow Hill had also been completed and phase 2 was progressing on time and within budget.

-       Significant progress against key areas of delivering year 1 of the climate change plan.

-       Following successful virtual meetings of the Equality and Diversity Forum virtual events were being planned for late autumn and winter 2020/21.

-       Core elements of the Care Leaver Offer had been put in place including council tax support, housing policy changes and key worker activity plus enhanced leisure provision.

-       Core elements of the Armed Forces Covenant action plan had been put in place.

 

There were two milestones that due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic would not be achievable during 2020/21:

-       Develop and deliver schemes and trials to increase recycling rates - Maintaining core services has been key during the Covid-19 pandemic. Despite the challenges waste and recycling services have continued to perform well but there had not been capacity to develop new schemes and trials during this period.

-       Plan and deliver the 2020/21 local democracy programme - Conversations with schools has indicated that they will require a significant amount of recovery and catch up time for students and that they may not be able to re-join the programme until 2021.

 

In the “provide value for money services” section 27% of the milestones remained on target for delivery in 2020/21. One of which, the ICT improvement programme, had been fundamental to enabling services to continue during the Covid-19 pandemic.

 

48% of the milestones in this priority area had been rated as amber, mainly due to delays caused by the reprioritisation required for Covid-19 or the fluid situation emerging around impact and recovery. These areas were being prioritised in the second half of the year.

 

There were three milestones that due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic would not be achievable during 2020/21:

-       Review the Council’s commercial approach, services and investment portfolios and deliver actions resulting from the review - Covid-19 has had a major impact on the Council’s commercial activity and as the short, medium and longer terms impacts emerge they would inform the review and help to develop our future approach.

-       Develop our future ICT Strategy for 2022/2023 onwards - Maintaining the progress on the current ICT programme had been the priority. This had enabled rapid transformation to allow services to keep running during the pandemic. The medium and long-term impacts of the pandemic would have a major influence on the future ICT programme.

-       Complete the Investor in People Assessment improving silver scores in key areas - The Investors in People assessment was due to take place in January 2021, however due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic this has been delayed until 2022.

 

There continued to be ongoing uncertainty around future Covid-19 restrictions. On 5 November 2020 the second national lockdown was announced which would last until 2 December 2020. The pandemic continued to have a significant impact on community and economic response, core service delivery and Council Plan delivery.

 

Members enquired whether CBC was still paying compensation to Jomast. The Service Director explained that CBC were paying Jomast for the marketing work they were carrying out to attract tenants. There was a clause in contract regarding rent liability and the Service Director believed that CBC were still liable to pay the rent.

 

Members asked about the new appointment referred to in the officer’s report and the Service Director explained that CBC had successfully applied for Government funding to support High Street recovery and part of this funding was for a new fixed term contract for a full time post within the Town Centre team.

 

Members noted that the target for recycling had not been achieved but thanked staff for continuing the service during the first national lockdown when many other councils did not.

 

Members asked about the Economic Recovery Plan and the Service Director explained that CBC had been able to obtain funding for Town Centre work which had been used to make the area Covid-19 secure, marketing and business support.

 

Members noted that there had been significant impact on the visitor economy because of the cancellation of major events. The Service Director was asked about the inclusion of the Motor Fest and Chesterfield Pride events because CBC did not organise these events. The Service Director explained that a large amount of work had taken place to include all events which take place in the borough.

 

Members thanked the Service Director for the work which had been carried out relating to rough sleepers but noted that sofa surfers had not been included. It was explained that it was very challenging to break the figures down into categories because it was hard to identify people.

 

The Service Director was asked for an explanation about the ICT Improvement Programme project being rated red and members were advised that a stop check piece of work needed to be carried out because there had been so much change in response to Covid-19.

 

Members asked if there was a risk of losing funding if the HS2 Eastern Leg did not go ahead and the Service Director explained that there were clauses to secure funding so if CBC complied with the clauses then the funding would not be lost.

 

RESOLVED –

 

That the Council Plan Progress Update report be noted

 

Councillor Fordham left the meeting at this point.

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