The Chief Executive presented a report, the purpose of which, was to present to Members of the Authorities reviewed Corporate Plan 2013-17 (attached at Appendix A to the report) for Council to consider and approve.

           He confirmed that the Corporate Plan was annually reviewed and looked at delivering certain agreed commitments for 2015-16, and the latest review has concluded that the six improvement priorities outlined originally, were still relevant. These were shown in bullet point format in paragraph 4.2 of the report.

           The Chief Executive added that the desired outcomes against priorities were the same as last year, however, the actions in order to deliver these had changed and reduced in number in order to ensure a clear focus on the areas that matter the most to County Borough citizens.

            He added that the Council’s Community Safety and Governance Overview and Scrutiny Committee scrutinised the reviewed improvement priorities, actions to deliver those priorities, and the commitments for 2015-16. The Committee invited all Scrutiny Chairpersons to this meeting, to ensure a corporate response to the consultation.

           Of the comments and suggestions recommended by this Committee, all had been incorporated into the Plan added the Chief Executive, with the exception of one, which is, that the Committee suggested under the heading ‘What do we want to achieve by 31 March 2017’, it should state “we aim to” rather than “we will”. The reason for not adopting this suggestion though, was due to the fact that the Local Government (Wales) Measure 2009 and the statutory guidance, require that improvement objectives “both describe the overall purpose and the scope of action to deliver it”. The term ‘Aim to’, was deemed too broad to meet this requirement.

           The Chief Executive advised that there were financial implications relating to the Corporate Plan despite this not being referenced to in the report, in that it was directly linked to the Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS).

            A Member advised that a recent survey had been undertaken with members of the public in respect of local authority services, asking them if they were satisfied with what was being provided and the level of standard of such services. He added that only 50% of the public had confirmed they were happy with the services being provided by BCBC. He asked the Cabinet and Officers what was being done to address this issue through the Corporate Plan.

           The Chief Executive confirmed that this survey had only recently been undertaken, after the Corporate Plan had been prepared and put together and shared with Overview and Scrutiny and considered by the Cabinet. Therefore, the provisions of the document would not include anything that responds to the survey so referred to, though the results of this survey would be examined by appropriate Officers.

            A Member referred to pages 42, 43 and 46 of the Corporate Plan and Performance Indicators. He felt that in terms of increases and reductions shown in the target columns for the various Indicators so listed, there should be specific figures or percentages outlined there, even if these were just projections. The document he felt should also confirm as to whether or not specific targets in 2014-15 had been made met (or not) in all categories of PI’s shown, and similarly for 2015-16, an indicator if targets set for this period were likely to be met or not.

           The Chief Executive confirmed that the reflection of some PI information, ie those which have broader outcomes associated with them, were more vague in terms of figures and percentages of targets, due to the fact they were not specifically covered individually by BCBC, but pieces of work undertaken through a multi-agency arrangement of which this Authority were not necessarily leading upon.

            A Member commended the proposal to invite Chairpersons of other Overview and Scrutiny Committees  well as CMB being to a recent meeting of the Community Safety and Governance Overview and Scrutiny Committee to consider various Directorate Business Plans. However, he was disappointed to see from page 42 of the Plan that there would be an increase in the poor condition of A, B and C roads in the future, due to continued austerity measures and the borrowing initiative from Welsh Government towards highway improvements now having ceased. With £1m further being cut from the Communities Directorate he was disappointed to say that conditions of roads that form the highway network would deteriorate in the future, due to there being no money available to continue these improvement works.

           A Member referred to page 46 of the Plan and the visits to local authority Sport and Leisure Centres during the year to participate in physical authority, and asked why there was a projected reduction in visits targeted next year and the year after when compared to the total visitors current year. She also sought clarification that the number of visitors all visited for the purpose of participating in sports and social activities rather than any other reason.

           The Chief Executive advised that he would find out the answer to this point and in turn provide this to the Member outside of the meeting.

            RESOLVED:                    That Council approved and adopted the Corporate Plan 2013-17 reviewed for 2015-16 as shown at Appendix A to the report.