Agenda item

Members will recall that Overview & Scrutiny had requested that Portfolio Holders present their Business Plans at the first meeting of the new Overview & Scrutiny Cycle on the 6 June 2017.  As the Business Plans are developed on a Directorate basis, such a presentation would have required some careful choreography. However, agreement has been reached, that it makes more sense for the Business Plans to be presented to the relevant Select Committee, where there would be better alignment.  This way the Select Committees would have time to undertake a more in-depth scrutiny role regarding the numerous services which make up their Select Committees. 

On this basis, the relevant Portfolio Holders are requested to attend this meeting and take the Select Committee through their plans for the coming year.

The Overview and Scrutiny Committee had requested that the relevant Portfolio Holders attend the first meeting of each Select Committee to present their Business Plans, which were developed on a Directorate basis. This would enable each Committee to undertake a more in-depth scrutiny role regarding the numerous services which made up each Select Committee.

The Business Plan covers a diverse range of services including Development Management, Governance, Legal Services, Audit and Corporate Fraud.

Councillor J Philip reminded Members that development of the Local Plan was in the remit of the Neighbourhoods Business Plan. Councillor Philip then introduced the Planning and Governance Business Plan.

Development Management

To support measures to protect and enhance the green character of the district, ensuring all planning and building control applications were compliant with Local Plan policies. To support timely planning enforcement of protecting the unique character of the District.

To Implement effective change in Heritage Conservation as part of the Council’s statutory responsibility, to protect heritage assets across the district. All advice would be provided by the Council’s Conservation Team on works to listed buildings and applications for Listed Building consent.

Integrating change measures were being introduced into the Council’s workforce to adapt from manual paper based working to electronic paperless working. This would be achieved by reducing paper usage whereby all documents could be viewed and accessed electronically and to give effective support for mobile and flexible working.

The Government had introduced an increase in fees for planning applications by up to 20%. This extra income must be invested back into the service which would enable the Council to better meet its targets.

Governance

The Council were looking to improve communication standards with accessibility in terms of improved staff awareness, recognition and understanding of EFDC services and increased employee engagement.

The County Council and Parliamentary Elections held in May/June 2017 were successfully completed with no electoral petition.

The Council were looking at the possible implementation of the report management functions of the Modern.Gov committee management system. Streamlining the process for submitting reports with the aim of removing the need for report clearance meetings. Standardisation of processes for all reports.

The Council were looking to develop an on-line version of the Freedom of Information Publication Scheme which would allow the public better access to Freedom of Information data by means of a self-serve web page.  More FOI enquiries could be dealt with, without recourse of officer intervention.

Councillor A Lion introduced the element of his Business Plan which was relevant to his Portfolio.

Audit and Fraud

To successfully managing the shared services with Harlow, Broxbourne and Epping Forest Councils and deliver the Council’s audit plan for 2017/18. To check the processes are financially sound and supported by the Audit and Governance Committee, which was made up of 7 members, 5 were elected Councillors of Epping Forest District Council and two co-opted members of the public. The Audit and Governance Committee had been operating since 2015 and part of its job was to look at all elements of the Council.

One of the main focuses of the Corporate Fraud Team was to assess the Right to Buy applications with a view to identifying any money laundering activity.

The Legal Services of the Council would continue to provide support to all directorates and the Council was investigating shared service opportunities.

Councillor G Waller introduced the element of his Business Plan which was relevant to his Portfolio.

Conservation

Conservation support was previously provided by Essex County Council under the terms of a Service Level Agreement which had now been terminated and brought in-house. Councillor Waller stated that he thought the service now provided by this Council had significantly improved the previous arrangements.

The Conservation team have a significant workload and deal with 40-50 consultations and pre-application submissions per month. The team are also dealing with listed building applications and conservation area character appraisals.

Trees

The Council deals with a large number of applications for works to protected trees. The Trees and Landscape team support this process and also encourage tree planting within the district.

Members expressed concern that if an urgent or emergency situation occurred when the offices were closed how they would be able to contact someone otherwise if they waited until the offices were open it could be too late and a protected tree could be destroyed.

Councillor Waller advised that one of the Trees and Landscape officers were always on call when the offices were close.