Agenda item

Report to follow.

The Consultation Officer, Mrs V Loftis presented a report to the Committee which set out a list summarising the main consultation exercises carried out in 2016 to 2017 and some exercises planned for 2017 to the end of March 2018.

This summary showed a wide range of consultations, which the Council undertook.

Consultation Register

The Consultation Register was a list of the most recent exercises which were carried out on behalf of the Council or by the Council in the last financial year.

Some consultation was undertaken every year, such as the Local Council Tax Support Scheme which was a requirement of the legislation amending state benefits.

Also the Travel Plan Survey which gauged the various methods of travelling to the workplace to encourage more sustainable travel amongst the work force.

The Cost of Consultation

The Council undertook 8 statutory surveys and have another one planned for this year. The Council also carried out 10 discretionary surveys and planned a further three. Costs were being kept low again this year by using resources in-house and using online technology.

There were 2 surveys that made up the bulk of the costs involved in public engagement which totalled £117,288, the ‘Draft Plan Preferred Approach’ was carried out in October and made up the bulk of the cost mentioned in the report of £100,000. The Customer Satisfaction Survey with the Council telephone survey costs were approximately £15,000.

Overview

The report sets out to provide Members with a corporate overview.

A great deal of smaller local consultation took place as a routine part of day to day business which was not in the report. Such consultation tended to be undertaken in-house and at a cost of postage and officer time only, such as Housing Estate Maintenance issues. Estate maintenance surveys tend to be very small and targeted at small groups of tenants or residents.

Judgement on whether or not to include consultation on the register should be relative to the impact and local sensitivity of the subject. For example:

If the changes being proposed are likely to be either:

·         contentious,

·         an expensive project;

·         a possible cause for complaint;

·         effect a lot of people;

·         controversial; or

·         a possible nuisance to residents,

these were included on the register, however small. All dates, costs, methods and sometimes titles may be estimated and subject to change over a period.

Transformation

A major consultation with regard to the Council’s ‘Transformation’ programme was to find out how staff would react to the coming changes in the organisation. The Change Readiness Survey results were analysed and discussed by the Leadership Team. The results have been published and could be found on the Council’s Intranet.

Community Involvement

Surveys currently running were:

·         The Crucial Crew Survey for young people; and

·         An exit Survey for both Waltham Abbey and Lowewood Museums.

The work carried out on a Customer Satisfaction Survey of over 500 residents, their expectations and experiences of the Council’s customer service and their local area in the Spring.

This was to get a baseline reading of opinion and may in future be carried out on an annual basis to enable benchmarking this data with other local authorities.

Another survey was planned around the Council’s Corporate Plan for the future years 2018-2023.

Councillor Wixley asked about the Private Sector Landlord’s Survey and how many Landlords we have in the District and was this as a response rate.

The Consultation Officer replied that she wasn’t aware of how many Landlords there were in the District but she would find out and let Councillor Wixley know.

Councillor Avey asked about the Change of Management Survey and whether Members were able to access this through the internet.

The Consultation Officer stated that Members were able to access the Change of Management Survey and that she would provide the link to go into the minutes. Please see below:

http://www.efdc.info/intranet/index.php?option=com_remository&Itemid=191&func=download&id=3396&chk=079e856462f1b75aeaf33031c4841445&no_html=1

RESOLVED:

That the Consultation Register for 2017/18 setting out those issues on which public consultation was to be undertaken during the municipal year and those consultation exercises completed during 2016/2017 be noted.