Agenda item

To receive the report of the head of corporate strategy (attached).

Matthew Barber, Leader of the Council, introduced this item.  Also present to answer questions was Sally Truman, policy and partnerships manager

The committee considered the head of corporate strategy’s report, which proposed a new corporate plan to cover the period 2016 to 2020.  This identified the council’s strategic objectives and priorities, and would help guide decisions on the allocation of resources.  The corporate plan, if adopted by Council, would replace the priorities set out in the corporate plan that ended in 2016. 

The Leader stated that the corporate plan would focus activity, guide policy and operational decisions, and inform the public of the council’s aims.  The draft plan would be considered by Cabinet on 15 April and the committee was invited to consider and comment on the draft prior to that meeting.

In response to questions and issues raised by the committee, the Leader reported that:

·         the plan was a high-level statement of objectives and actions.  Further detail, including measures, targets and specific actions would be included in a corporate development plan, which would be reviewed annually by Cabinet;

·         the list of objectives and priorities was not exhaustive and did not include the Council’s many statutory duties;

·         the plan had been developed from the previous corporate plan but incorporated, amongst other things, the administration’s 2015 manifesto and some of the findings of the customer satisfaction survey.

Members suggested the following amendments and clarifications to the draft plan which the Leader agreed to take to Cabinet for consideration before a final version was submitted to Council on 11 May.  The changes included:

·         Several typographical amendments

·         In the section titled ‘housing and infrastructure’ amend the fifth bullet point to read ‘promote exemplars of  housing design …’ and the sixth to read ‘work with developers and other partners to develop a protocol that will ensure high quality, sympathetic designs appropriate to all areas of our district’

·         In the section on tackling infrastructure challenges, add a reference to the Oxford and Abingdon flood alleviation scheme

·         In the section on tackling infrastructure challenges, add a reference to health, education and other infrastructure

·         In the section titled ‘sustainable communities and wellbeing’ amend the fourth bullet point to read ‘continuous improvement programmes for our leisure centres, facilities and schemes’

·         In the section titled ‘sustainable communities and wellbeing’ amend the ninth bullet point to read ‘carrying out district-wide deep cleans of streets, pavements, public footpaths and to remove litter and graffiti’

·         In the section titled ‘building an even stronger economy’, amend the eighth bullet point to read ‘working with developers to introduce local apprenticeship and local workforce schemes that benefit our residents’ and the tenth to read ‘supporting, promoting and encouraging business collaboration’

·         In the section titled ‘running an efficient council’, amend the first bullet point to read ‘keeping district council tax low’

·         In the section titled ‘running an efficient council’, amend second bullet point to read ‘continuing to work in partnership with South Oxfordshire District Council and others to develop new ideas for improving service delivery, including considering the option for a unitary council covering southern Oxfordshire’

·         Amend the last bullet point in the draft corporate plan by deleting the words ‘South Oxfordshire and….’.

RESOLVED: to review the corporate development plan on an annual basis.