Agenda and draft minutes

Venue: Council Chamber, Town Hall, Saturday Market Place, King's Lynn PE30 5DQ

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Items
No. Item

CP1

Appointment of Vice Chair for the Municipal Year

Minutes:

RESOLVED: Councillor Blunt was appointed as Vice Chair for the Municipal Year.

CP2

Apologies

Minutes:

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Collingham and Nash.

CP3

Minutes pdf icon PDF 292 KB

To approve the minutes from the previous meeting.

Minutes:

RESOLVED: The minutes from the previous meeting were agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

CP4

Declarations of Interest pdf icon PDF 128 KB

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.

Minutes:

There were no declarations of Interest.

CP5

Urgent Business Under Standing Order 7

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.

Minutes:

There was none.

CP6

Members Present Pursuant to Standing Order 34

Members wishing to speak pursuant to Standing Order 34 should inform the Chairman of their intention to do so and on what items they wish to be heard before the meeting commences.  Any Member attending the meeting under Standing Order 34 will only be permitted to speak on those items which have been previously notified to the Chairman.

Minutes:

Councillor Kemp.

CP7

Chair's Correspondence

Minutes:

The Chair explained that he had received correspondence from Councillor Ryves relating to the 2025-2026 Performance Indicator Target Setting Report and asking the Panel to consider looking at a wider pool of indicators going forward.  Councillor Ryves was asked to raise his points during consideration of that item during the meeting.

CP8

Call Ins (if any)

Minutes:

There were no call-ins to consider.

CP9

Membership of Task Groups and Informal Working Groups for 2025/2026 pdf icon PDF 94 KB

Minutes:

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The Panel noted that they currently had one Informal Working Group established and the work of the Group was ongoing.  The Panel considered the Membership of the Group noting that the current Terms of Reference stated five Members plus two Cabinet Members.  Councillor Lintern who was a Member of the Group was now a Cabinet Member.

 

The Deputy Monitoring Officer advised the Panel that the Terms of Reference did not state a cap on the number of Cabinet Members and that it was in their gift to appoint any Member as one of their five and as a result it was consistent with the Terms for Councillor Lintern to remain a Member of the Group alongside two other Cabinet Members.  The Panel were also reminded that in any event it was within their gift to alter the Terms of Reference of the Informal Working Group.  The Panel therefore determined that Councillor Lintern should remain on the Group resulting in three Cabinet Members sitting on the Group.

 

RESOLVED: That the Constitution Informal Working Group remain established with the following Members for the 25-26 Municipal Year and the Terms of Reference be updated to reflect the Membership:

 

Councillors Bearshaw, Dickinson, Long, Osborne, Ryves, Ware, Lintern, Beales and Moriarty.

 

 

CP10

Cabinet Report - Full Year Performance Management Report pdf icon PDF 107 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Click here to view the recording of this item on You Tube

 

The Corporate Performance Officer presented the update on progress against the Council’s Corporate Strategy and key performance indicators for 2024-25 and provided an overview of those indicators which had and had not met target, as set out in the report.

 

It was noted that when the Panel had considered quarter three performance monitoring the target relating to Major Housing was underperforming, but would catch up by year end and the Corporate Performance Officer stated that the end of year target had now been met.

 

The Deputy Chief Executive was present at the meeting and provided an overview of the indicators within her service area which had not met their target as set out below.

 

-        3.6 – Reduce revenue expenditure by 5%.  It was noted that year end figures were still being worked on and the Panel would be updated on final quarter four performance in due course.

-        3.7 and 3.8 – relating to paying of invoices within 30 days.  It was explained that work was being carried out to update procedures, roll out training and implement monitoring to ensure that invoices were processed in a timely manner.

-        3.9 - % of Council Tax collected against outstanding balance.  It was explained that this was 0.4% below target and the team would continue to work to collect outstanding balances.

-        3.11 – Council Tax Support Caseload.  It was explained that this was a monitor only target and it was acknowledged that caseloads fluctuated and support was offered where appropriate.

-        3.12 - % of BID Levy collected.  This was collected on behalf of the Business Improvement District and the Deputy Chief Executive agreed to look into issues.

 

The Chair thanked officers for the report and updates and invited questions and comments from the Panel, as summarised below.

 

In response to a question from Councillor Spikings, the Deputy Chief Executive agreed to report back on the amount of staff that worked from home.

 

Councillor Spikings referred to the Cycle Hire Scheme and asked for an update.  Officers explained that work was underway to reallocate the resources to ensure that they were used and an update could be presented to the Panel in the future.

 

Councillor Dickinson referred to the car parking strategy and stated that the report was incorrect as it said that a Borough wide Strategy had been completed.  She explained that only a high level overview had been presented to the Regeneration and Development Panel which only covered King’s Lynn.

 

Councillor Bearshaw as previous Chair of the Regeneration and Development Panel explained that the Panel had been pushing for updates and further updates would be presented to the Panel once prepared by Officers.  He welcomed the fact that the Panel had received a high level update early on in the process so that they could help shape policy.

 

Councillor Long explained that he would raise this with other Panel Chairs to ensure that it was flagged  ...  view the full minutes text for item CP10

CP11

2025-2026 Performance Indicator Target Setting Report pdf icon PDF 142 KB

Minutes:

Click here to view the recording of this item on You Tube

 

The Corporate Performance Officer presented the report which provided an overview of the corporate performance indicators and associated targets which had been proposed for the 2025-2026 year.

 

The Corporate Performance Officer provided an overview of targets which had been added and removed and the reasoning behind the changes.

 

The Chair thanked the Corporate Performance Officer for the report and invited questions and comments from the Panel, as summarised below.

 

Councillor Ryves referred to the target relating to retrospective Purchase Orders and the Deputy Chief Executive explained that processes and procedures were being updated to encourage improvement in this area.  The Portfolio Holder for Finance stated that this had been highlighted in a recent Internal Audit Report and improvements were being put in place.

 

The Chair referred to the correspondence received from Councillor Ryves in advance of the meeting which asked the Panel to consider expanding the amount of Key Performance Indicators.  Councillor Ryves commented that he felt that more indicators would be beneficial and was surprised to see a reduced amount of indicators presented for 2025-2026. 

 

Councillor Bhondi referred to the stretched resources as a result of Devolution and Local Government Review and did not think that now was the time to increase the performance monitoring.

 

Councillor Kemp addressed the Panel under Standing Order 34 and referred to the removal of the indicator relating to HMO’s.  The Corporate Performance Officer explained that this had been replaced by two new indicators relating to HMO’s which were easier to monitor.

 

In response to a question from Councillor Bearshaw it was explained that the save to spend targets were built into the budget so should be achievable.

 

Councillors Spikings and Blunt referred to the removal of the targets relating to New Homes Delivered and development on Brownfield sites.  The Corporate Performance Officer stated that these were monitor only targets and private development of units was out of the Council’s control.  Members felt that it was important that this information was still captured and reported going forward.  The Portfolio Holder for Finance reminded the Panel that this information was reported in the relevant Portfolio Holders report to Full Council.

 

The Panel discussed the use of technology an AI which could have a positive effect on performance.

 

Councillor Bearshaw suggested that last years targets be included in the report for comparison purposes and the Panel suggested that statutory and non-statutory targets be differentiated within the report.

 

The Leader of the Council agreed with the comments made by the Panel relating to the delivery of new homes and would support that this be added in as monitor only.  He also welcomed the suggestion to differentiate between statutory and non-statutory targets.

 

The Leader of the Council referred to the comments made by Councillor Ryves relating to expanding the suite of indicators and raised the issue of resource.

 

The Chair asked the Panel to consider if they wanted to explore expanding the suite of indicators as  ...  view the full minutes text for item CP11

CP12

Cabinet Report - Corporate Debt Recovery Policy pdf icon PDF 107 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Click here to view the recording of this item on You Tube

 

The Deputy Monitoring Officer presented the report which presented a new Debt Recovery Policy for the Council.

 

The Panel was informed that the Policy was still to be updated to include CIL levy collection and this would be included in the report to be presented to Cabinet.

 

The Chair thanked the Deputy Monitoring Officer for the report and invited questions and comments from the Panel, as summarised below.

 

The Chair noted and welcomed the positive impacts included within the Equality Impact Assessment.

 

Councillor Bhondi supported this approach as formal debt recovery processes could be expensive, so working with individuals was welcomed.

 

Councillor Kemp addressed the Panel under Standing Order 34 and asked how the Policy would identify vulnerable people, including those dealing with domestic violence.  The Deputy Monitoring Officer explained that work would be carried out to determine individual circumstances, and also noted this would often be reliant on the information provided by the individual and support would be determined on a case by case basis.

 

RESOLVED: That the Corporate Performance Panel supports the recommendations to Cabinet as set out below.

 

CABINET RECOMMENDATION: To adopt the Debt Recovery Policy as presented.

CP13

Panel Work Programme pdf icon PDF 129 KB

Minutes:

RESOLVED: The Panel’s Work Programme was noted.

CP14

Cabinet Forward Decisions List pdf icon PDF 164 KB

Minutes:

RESOLVED: The Cabinet Forward Decisions List was noted.

CP15

Shareholder Committee Work Programme pdf icon PDF 567 KB

Minutes:

RESOLVED: The Shareholder Committee Work Programme was noted.

CP16

Date of Next Meeting

To note that the next meeting of the Corporate Performance Panel is scheduled to take place on 2nd July 2025 at 4.30pm in the Town Hall, Saturday Market Place, King’s Lynn.

Minutes:

The next meeting of the Corporate Performance Panel was scheduled to take place on 2nd July 2025 at 4.30pm in the Town Hall, Saturday Market Place, King’s Lynn.