Decision details

Cabinet had before it a report * and NOTED from the Corporate Manager for People, Governance and Waste and the Corporate Performance and Improvement Manager on the Corporate Performance Report including the Performance Dashboard.

The Leader of the Council and the Corporate Performance and Improvement Manager outlined the contents of the report with particular reference to the following:

• The Corporate Plan included an ambition to avoid carbon emissions (renewables and green transport). This was an aggregated indicator, made up of two indicators as outlined. By generating electricity through solar panels, the Council had avoided 259t CO2 emissions this financial year.
• Through the use of electric vehicles in the fleet, the Council avoided a further 8.8t CO2e against an annual target of 10t CO2 emissions. This result demonstrated that electric vehicles were becoming embedded and well used as part of the fleet.
• Planning applications determined within 8 weeks was 99% for the year to date, and minor applications overturned at appeal was 0.4%.
• Under the ‘The Support the Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) sector by securing additional external funding’, data showed that for the financial year to date indicated that £182k had been secured.
• Household waste recycled in the financial year to date was 59.8% and was above target (58.5%).
• The dashboards contained 99 performance measures on how services were performing across the Council, and included the indicators that were part of the Corporate Plan. Those dashboards had also been reviewed by all the relevant Policy Development Groups and the Planning Committee.
• Section 2 of the report provided performance analysis on a theme by theme basis, focusing on Corporate Plan performance indicators.
• The total number of open planning enforcement cases was 338. Having reviewed this, it should have stated 319.

Discussion took place regarding:

• The total number of missed bin collections was going in the right direction.
• The staff turnover percentage increase. 
• The Council should be acknowledged for the effort they were putting into delivering their Corporate Plan.
• The Planning Environment and Sustainability Policy Development Group’s dashboard seemed a bit light on performance measures.
• The absence of air quality metrics, especially considering two designated air quality improvement areas within the district – Cullompton and Crediton.
• Behind the scenes to reinstate real-time air quality monitoring within those zones, which was not funded by the previous administration and therefore switched off in June 2023
• The Director of Place and Economy had confirmed that real-time monitoring would be back in place by January 2025, after a rather elongated process that started in July 2023
• Given the significance of this development, could air quality be monitored as a key metric on the dashboard?
• It was AGREED to include real-time air quality monitoring within the two air quality management areas as a performance metric on either the Planning Environment and Sustainability Policy Development Group, or Communities, People and Equalities Policy Development Group dashboard moving forward.

(Proposed by the Leader)

Note: * Report previously circulated.