Decision

The Scrutiny Committee Corporate and Strategic RESOLVED to:

·         Consider and provide feedback on the proposed content of the Corporate Plan in relation to the key deliverables and corporate performance measures.

·         Identify any additional actions and performance measures that the committee would recommend.

In addition, the Committee made a number of comments for Executive consideration:

·         The Committee emphasised the importance of ensuring that the Corporate Plan remained focused on outcomes for residents and service users and recognised that residents are the primary beneficiaries of the Council’s services, policies and investment decisions, and that performance measures should demonstrate tangible improvements in residents’ lives rather than primarily measuring internal processes, activities or operational mechanisms.

·         The Committee sought assurance on the approach that would be taken to prioritise the Council's numerous priorities and how decisions would be made where competing demands arose.

·         The Committee requested that performance measures included clear, measurable targets and milestones which would enable effective monitoring of progress and delivery. Members noted that terms such as ‘increase’, ‘decrease’, ‘maximise and ‘minimise’ should be supported by defined targets.

·         The Committee raised concerns regarding the Council’s pathway towards its carbon neutrality ambitions and emphasised the importance of ensuring that climate-related targets, actions and delivery arrangements were measurable, credible, regularly reviewed and aligned with wider Council objectives.

·         The Committee noted the importance of improving digital connectivity, particularly in rural communities and suggested that measures should consider coverage and accessibility, rather than focusing solely on infrastructure delivery.

·         The Committee questioned whether the proposed active travel performance measure sufficiently captured meaningful behavioural change and suggested that consideration be given to strengthening the measure to better reflect outcomes.

·         The Committee requested that fly-tipping reporting should include both the percentage of incidents addressed within target timescales and the overall number of fly-tipping incidents, which would provide a more complete picture of service effectiveness and community impact.

·         The Committee reiterated previous comments regarding the importance of children's play and early intervention opportunities and asked that further consideration be given of how these themes could be reflected within the Corporate Plan.

·         The Committee sought greater clarity regarding references to Artificial Intelligence (AI) growth zones and their implications for Somerset. Concerns were raised regarding the potential infrastructure, energy and wider community impacts associated with future data centre development.

·         The Committee highlighted ongoing concerns regarding planning enforcement performance and asked that planning enforcement be reflected within the high-priority performance measures.

·         The Committee asked that the Corporate Plan should more clearly demonstrate how the emerging Local Plan will contribute towards delivering the Council's climate ambitions.

·         The Committee noted that delivery of some outcomes was dependent on external partners and sought assurance that performance and risk reporting would appropriately reflect those dependencies and any associated risks to delivery.