Agenda item

The Leader of the Council will present the key actions for 2017/18 arising from the Council’s current Corporate Plan.

The Leader of the Council, Councillor C Whitbread introduced the key action plan for 2017/18 that arose from the Council’s current Corporate Plan. He noted that the report started with Council’s finance. He observed that over the last decade the council has been able to protect front line services, where other councils across the country have struggled to do so. Not only that, but the Council tax has been frozen for the past seven years, so over this long period of time the share of the District Council’s tax has actually fallen if inflation was taken into account. So their medium term aspiration was to remain a low tax council authority and to protect the front line services. Over the years we have made much better use of its assets, such as Oakwood Hill, St John’s redevelopment scheme, the Epping Forest Shopping Park, the housebuilding programme and North Weald Airfield. The Shopping Park when it comes on-stream would deliver £2.7million income a year to the council’s finances; St. John’s road would be a key asset and bring in local jobs, playing our part to make sure that the younger people have jobs for the future.

Another thing to be proud of was the Council Housebuilding programme, noting that just recently the first keys were handed over but could not be widely publicised because of the impending election. One of our largest assets was North Weald where we were looking to make the best possible use of and this was in our action plan.

Councillor Baldwin asked what assets we had at North Weald in the airfield and how were we developing those assets. Councillor Whitbread noted that our asset base was akin to a small London Borough, we have a lot and it may be worth arranging a tour to look at these assets. The airfield was a major purchase in the 1980s, providing a whole range of facilities from flying, the Saturday market which has provided a great deal of income over the years and over the years have also built a large number of houses there. We also acquired a large number of houses at that time as well. With such an asset it was the council’s duty to keep it well run and provide income for the district in the years ahead.

Councillor Whitbread continued with the corporate plan and considered the finances and partnership working and deriving income or revenue from doing this. One of the key things was our work with the Lowewood Museum on behalf of Broxbourne Borough Council, which we now manage on their behalf. We also have a first class team that gets the Council first class external funding that enable us to do many of the “added value” things, something for members to be aware of.

Councillor Wixley asked what was the National Portfolio Organisation status from the Arts Council England. Mr Macnab said that it was an accreditation that the museum had been awarded that allows us to act on behalf of the national institutions and museums indicating that they have confidence in us for working to a higher standard.

Councillor Whitbread continued pointing out that ‘Aim 2 – to ensure that the Council has a sound and approved Local Plan…’ which would be their priority number 1.  As a council we have had our draft consultation and were now working on the responses. We are a 92.4% green belt and we have been told by residents not to build one more house than was absolutely necessary. The Local Plan was so important because it was vital we have appropriate, not inappropriate, development. We have done more than other councils to listen and consult our residents.

Councillor Whitbread then moved on to the modern delivery of services and noted that later on in this meeting the Committee would be appointing a Task and Finish Panel to look at the Transformation Project. This would take on board the way we worked, the staff, the technology and how we could free up space. It would be good to have Task and Finish Panel to monitor and scrutinise this.

Councillor Surtees asked about the three multi agency groups to contribute to health and wellbeing etc. would non statutory and voluntary organisations have a roll in contributing to that work. Councillor Whitbread believed that they would but would come back with more detail later.

Councillor H Whitbread asked about the Transformation Programme and if we had looked at how other councils had run theirs and how it affected businesses etc. Councillor C Whitbread answered that they have looked at best practice across the whole area and had carried out a number of visits to see how other councils handled their programmes.

Councillor Janet Whitehouse wondered what groups was involved and who would be involved in these three multi-agency groups. Mr Macnab could not name specific organisations but as a key local authority we had a good track record in involving non-statutory organisations and the voluntary sector. Certainly the Health and Well-being board has that type of representation on it; but will get this confirmed for her.

Councillor Neville noted that the Waltham Abbey Leisure Centre was to be renewed. And the Loughton leisure Centre, was to be partly redeveloped; did they have a time scale for this? Councillor H Kane noted that the Waltham Abbey Leisure Centre was to have the application go to the next District Development Management Committee meeting. As for the Loughton Centre we do not have a timetable as yet, we are still in the transition period and were still the exploring period to find and resolve issues as they arise.

Councillor C Whitbread continued saying that leisure and the cultural strategy was something else he was going to touch upon. The new Leisure contract would bring improvements in leisure service and also savings to the Council; up to £20million in the next 20 years. We used to have a well run but underfunded in-house leisure service; we now have a well funded and well run service benefitting our residents. The service has now got a brighter future. One of the final things in this corporate Plan was that we have an aging population and this was one of the things we have to address, partly by working with partner authorities.

Councillor Sartin asked about the trial of flexible working for Building Control and Development Management officers through the use of new technologies. Could this be expanded upon? Councillor Philip said that this was a move away from paper based, office based work, by using mobile technology so that the officers did not have to come back to the office, making more sense.

RESOLVED:

That the Key Actions for 2017/18 arising from the Councils current Corporate Plan be noted.