The Chief Executive presented a report, in order to seek Council approval of the proposed changes to Corporate Plan targets for 2022-23 as outlined in Appendix A.

He explained that as part of the recovery planning process, each directorate had the opportunity to re-consider targets for 2022-23, based on verified year end data.

He referred Members to Appendix A to the report, which set out the proposed changes to the Corporate Plan targets, endorsed by Cabinet yesterday and if approved by Council today, these will be published as an addendum to the current Corporate Plan. The new or amended targets were highlighted for ease of reference.

As part of a wider review of performance and governance due to the Local Government and Elections (Wales) Act 2021, Council approved this approach to target setting in future planning cycles. This will ensure that the published corporate plan remains up to date with the most recent year end data and avoids the issue of publishing the Corporate Plan without targets due to lack of available data.

The Chief Executive reminded Council that this was the last year of the Council’s current Corporate Plan, which would be reviewed then for the next 5 years following this.

The Chief Executive advised Members that the draft self-assessment report had previously been presented to the Governance and Audit Committee on 13 October 2022 for consideration.

At the Cabinet meeting yesterday, he finally confirmed that there had been  some minor amendments to some supporting data information. These were on the top of page 127 of the report, the first two performance indicators relating to Care Leavers and Education and Employment training. The adjustments here, were that the percentage shown in terms of 12 months since leaving care would now be 65% with this then being 55% following 24 months since leaving care.  

The Leader advised that as the Chief Executive had made reference to, some targets had been changed at Cabinet yesterday, in order to make these more challenging going forward.

The Cabinet Member – Communities further added, that the performance indicator target for the recycling of waste could also be considered to be set higher in future, notwithstanding the fact that BCBC were attaining already high targets in terms of performance in this area.

A Member referred to Appendix A to the report – Growth and Prosperity – and he welcomed the new performance indicator for 2022-23 in terms of footfall figures to Maesteg town centre as part of a number of wider new benchmarking targets. As we were 6 months into the year, he asked when evidence will be available to see how we are measuring against the targets so set, as part of these performance indicators. 

The Corporate Director – Communities advised, that she was pleased to see that over 900,000 people had been registered as visiting Maesteg town as part of footfall figures recorded. In terms of overall benchmarking data, figures were being awaited and would be reflected in the next year quarter. This was due to accuracy in data statistics, lagging from one quarter into the next. With the new Corporate Plan proposed for next year, she added that this would include new, revised indicators and objectives to include town centre indicator data and associated information.

As a supplement to this, a Member felt that if data was more up to date on certain performance indicator information as detailed in the report, then some of the performance indicators showing as red on the RAG status, may actually reflect some of these as being completed (green) or partly completed (amber), which would then give for more accurate and positive outcomes in relation to some of the performance indicator data being shown.

The Corporate Director – Communities, confirmed that as part of Quarter 2 data to be issued in November, this would reflect a more up to date position on the performance indicator information. Also, she added that in terms of the future, it may be a good option to provide the data to members throughout the year, as opposed to sharing information less frequently. This would also give more accurate status in terms of performance at a given moment in time.

A Member stressed that footfall figures in terms of target setting for 2022-23, should not be based on 2021-22 data, due to the fallout of Covid and resulting lockdown. He asked how the data for 2021-22 compared with more historic data figures set pre-pandemic.

The Corporate Director – Communities confirmed that footfall into our town centres was high in terms of numbers pre-Covid and obviously this reduced during the pandemic in 2020, but then rose back up in 2021-22. The figures were approximately 3 million and 4.5 million when comparing the two periods.

A Member referred to page 126 of the report and asked for details regarding data on empty properties being brought back into use to support homeless people.

The Corporate Director – Communities confirmed that she would obtain this information outside of the meeting and update Members on this, at the earliest convenience.   

RESOLVED:                                 That Council approved the revised  Corporate Plan targets for 2022-2023