Agenda and minutes

An apology was received from Councillor J Collop.

To approve the minutes from the Corporate Performance Panel held on 8 November 2021.

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The minutes of the meeting of the Corporate Performance Panel held on 8 November 2021 were agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

Please indicate if there are any interests which should be declared.  A declaration of an interest should indicate the nature of the interest (if not already declared on the Register of Interests) and the agenda item to which it relates.  If a disclosable pecuniary interest is declared, the Member should withdraw from the room whilst the matter is discussed.

These declarations apply to all Members present, whether the Member is part of the meeting, attending to speak as a local Member on any item or simply observing the meeting from the public seating area.

There were no declarations of interest.

To consider any business which, by reason of special circumstances, the Chairman proposed to accept as urgent under Section 100(b)(4)(b) of the Local Government Act 1972.

There was no urgent business.

Members wishing to speak pursuant to Standing Order 34 should inform the Chair of their intention to do so and on what items they wish to be heard before a decision on that item is taken.

There were no Members present under Standing Order 34.

The Chair read out the email set out below from the Assistant Director, Property and Projects to Councillor Beal and copied into himself and Councillor Middleton regarding Hunstanton Promenade Waste Water issues.

“Good to catch up with you today to discuss the waste water (and hard waste) issues that you flagged at Corporate Performance Panel (CPP) recently.  I understand that the issues are :

Some kiosk tenants may be disposing of waste water, and other liquids such as frying oil, into the surface water drainage system on the promenade – that eventually discharges onto the beach.

Those kiosk operators with ice cream machines may generate fairly significant volumes of waste water (weekly) owing to the necessity to cleanse the ice cream machines thoroughly (with cleaning chemicals) potentially twice per week.

Some kiosk tenants may be disposing of hard waste in the litter bins within the Hunstanton resort.  This waste is classified as Trade Waste and in theory should not be disposed of with “general waste”.

I reiterated that it was very difficult for my team (and the Resort Team) to police this issue.

Following our discussion today I propose that the way forward is :

I will get one of my team to write to all of the promenade kiosk tenants reminding them of their duties under the terms of their leases in respect of the disposal of waste and waste water.  [Note – depending upon the outcome of bullet point three below – we may need to write to the kiosk traders again before next “season” starts – as a reminder]

I will make contact with the council’s Environmental Health (Food) Team to discuss general responsibilities that traders have in how they deal with waste from their kiosk operations – it is my understanding that this will all be classified as “Trade Waste”.  Potentially we could then send information to each kiosk tenant.

We will look at alternative options for how to deal with the waste (both types) thereafter.  This could be something that we (the council) sets up – however we would need to recoup these costs from the kiosk tenants – and this may be a sticking point.

I hope the above reflects our discussion.”

There were no call-ins.

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T Humphries, Skills Policy Manager, Norfolk County Council presented the report circulated with the agenda.

T Humphries responded to questions and comments in relation to:

·         Available budget.

·         Allocation of funding.

·         Spend per student.

·         Government Green Book Appraisal.

·         Cost benefit analysis.

·         First project for Town Deal Board.

·         Engagement with employers to identify potential candidates and recruitment process.

·         Likely impact of this project on raising aspiration of young people.

·         Modular training.

·         Provision of services identified with other partners/training providers, for example, Adult Learning Services and the College of West Anglia.

·         High Street presence to create an entrance and visibility of the project.

·         Staff structure to support candidates.

·         Evaluation of the project to judge if it is successful and ascertain if it made a different to the current statistics available.

Councillor Morley commented that he would like to see the calculations for the cost benefit analysis.

The Chair thanked the Skills Policy Manager for attending and giving an informative report.

RESOLVED:  The Panel noted the report and invited the Skills Policy Manager, Norfolk County Council to attend a Panel meeting in 2023 to provide an update.

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The Panel received a presentation (copy circulated with the Agenda) from the Assistant Director, Central Services, Communications Officer, CIC Manager and ICT Web Team Manager.

Officers responded to questions in relation to:

·         Future potential recording of telephone calls to both protect staff and Councillors.  The Panel was advised a business case would be required to consider the introduction of recording telephone calls.

·         Test and Trace.

·         Channelshift project and various methods of communication for the public to access the council’s services.

·         Training received by all CIC staff.

·         Increase in customers using web chat/frequently asked questions.

·         Why the Borough Council was taking the lead role in the new website for the Climate Change Partnership.

·         Future developments within the CIC, Communications and IT.

·         You Tube representation.

·         Utilising Councillors as a resource to send messages out to local communities.

In response to a question from the Chair with regard to viewing a specific planning application on the planning portal, the ICT Web Team Manager invited Councillor Moriarty to contact him following the meeting.

The Leader, Councillor Dark undertook to ascertain the figures for the initial funding for test and trace from Central Government.

The Leader, Councillor Dark outlined the work which had been undertaken by the above teams and thanked all officers for their work.

The Chair expressed personal thanks to the Graphics Team.

The Chair thanked officers for the annual update report.

RESOLVED:  The Panel wished to continue to receive an annual update report.

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At the invitation of the Chair, the Leader, Councillor Dark addressed the Panel and explained that Councillor Sandell, Portfolio Holder was not able to be present at the Panel, and as the Leader put the report into context and explained that Cabinet was proud to propose a 9% increase in one year to help the 2,000 lowest income residents in West Norfolk.  The Leader explained that the increase would be for every year going forward.  The Leader drew the Panel’s attention to section 5.8 of the report and highlighted that 40% of people in this group were working and 40% had children over the age of five and the majority were in the lowest council tax bands.  The Leader also drew Members’ attention to section 8.2 and Appendix C which set out the impact of the Borough Council’s decision on other local authorities in Norfolk.

In presenting the report, the Revenues and Benefits Manager explained that the council must implement a Council Tax Support (CTS) scheme for its working age residents for each financial year.  It was highlighted that the council must first decide on a draft CTS scheme which was open for public consultation, and then must agree a final CTS scheme, taking into account the consultation responses.

The Panel was informed that since 2017, authority had been delegated to the council Leader, in consultation with the relevant Portfolio Holder and the s151 Officer, to agree the draft CTS scheme.  The draft CTS scheme was open for consultation from 19 October 2021 to 29 November 2021 and the responses were included in the report.

The Revenue and Benefits Manager advised that the final CTS scheme for 2022/2023 was a continuation of the 2021/2022 CTS scheme, with an uplift to the maximum weekly CTS that can be paid under the scheme.

It was explained that the current limit of 75% would increase to 84% for 2022/2023 onwards and this would bring the council in line with several other Norfolk authorities and the CTS scheme more generous at a time when working age people may still be financially impacted by Covid-19.

The Revenues and Benefits Manager drew the Panel’s attention to the key issues set out in the report.

The Revenues and Benefits Manager responded to questions in relation to the costs both to the Borough Council (£22,000) and Norfolk County Council (£361,000) for a 100% scheme.

Councillor Morley commented that in his view the council should look to increase the scheme to 100%.

Councillor Nash drew the Panel’s attention to section 5.6 of the report:  Customers who were in a protected group, including those who had reached pension age, were not subject to the weekly maximum council tax limit, and could receive up to 100% CTS.

Councillor Morley asked if paragraph 5.6 could be amplified so that those in dire straits could get 100% alleviation which would not have a significant impact on Norfolk County Council and would  ...  view the full minutes text for item CP72

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In presenting the report, the Senior Policy and Performance Officer explained that the council’s performance management framework had historically included performance monitoring and reporting of performance.  Performance monitoring reports had been presented to the Corporate Performance Panel.

Members were reminded that a Covid-10 Recovery Strategy was agreed by Council on 8 October 2020. 

The Senior Policy and Performance Officer advised that the report provided an update on the corporate performance monitoring indicators for the Recovery Strategy for the 2021/22 year.

The Panel’s attention was drawn to the key issues set out in the report.

In response to questions from Councillor Devereux on the likelihood of continuing with Covid related performance indicators or moving more objectively towards business and commercial parameters for the new corporate business plan, the Senior Policy and Performance Officer explained that work was ongoing with Assistant Directors to develop service plans with would feed into the new corporate business plan and advised that it may be necessary to review the content in line with any forthcoming announcements.

The Senior Policy and Performance Officer responded to questions from Councillor Morley in relation to service plans meeting the corporate business plan outcomes and performance indicators.

The Chair referred to page 54 and  protecting environment and tackling climate change and referred to the reintroduction of the food waste collection.  The Chair added that it would be useful to have a performance measure for food waste in the year to come as a sign that the Borough Council was tackling climate change by reducing the level of waste going to landfill.

The Chair thanked the Senior Policy and Performance Officer for the corporate performance monitoring update report.

RESOLVED:  The Panel reviewed and noted the council’s performance indicators for Q2 2021/22.  Performance against these indicators will continue to be reported to the Corporate Performance Panel via periodic updates.

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The Panel received the Annual Employment Monitoring 2020/21 annual report.

The Assistant Director, Central Services outlined the background to the report.

The Assistant Director, Central Services responded to questions and comments from the Panel in relation to:

·         An employee Opinion Survey being built into the review of internal communications.

·         Opportunity for staff on an individual to feedback to line managers during the annual appraisal process.

·         Organisational chart being available to view on Sharepoint. An overview of the structure of the council/resources and how it related to the corporate business plan would be presented to a future meeting.

The Assistant Director, Central Services advised that there was an overview of the organisation/services available on the website and it could be circulated to the Panel for information.

The Chair thanked the Assistant Director, Central Services for the annual report.

RESOLVED:  The Panel noted the annual report.

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The Panel noted the Cabinet Forward Decisions List.

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The Chair invited Members to put forward any items for the future work programme.

To note that the date of the next meeting of the Corporate Performance Panel will take place on 6 January 2022 at 4.30 pm in the Assembly Room, Town Hall, Saturday Market Place, King’s Lynn.

To consider passing the following resolution:

“That under Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act, 1972, the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the following item of business on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Act”.

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RESOLVED:  That under Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act, 1972, the press and public be excluded for the following item of business on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Act.

The Vice-Chair, Councillor Devereux was in the Chair for this item.

Councillor Moriarty did not take part in the debate on this item.

The Assistant Director, Resources presented the report and responded to questions and comments from the Panel.

Councillor Moriarty abstained from the recommendation below.

RESOLVED:  The Panel recommend to Cabinet to approve the signing of contract(s) with the insurers that provide the best tender offers when measured against the pre-determined award criteria.