Minutes:
The Leader submitted his report to the Council on the following items:
(a) the first edition of the newly revamped Members’ Bulletin which provided updates on key policy developments – one of the commitments made as part of the first phase of the governance review. The purpose of the new Bulletin was to ensure Members were kept up to date on key policy developments and both the Leader and Chief Executive welcomed any feedback on its content. The second phase of the Governance Review was progressing and the Governance Development group was working on identifying a number of Councils to visit with different arrangements to explore what might work best for Melton. The group would review the findings and report back to Members in the Autumn;
(b) the recent announcement by the County Council to pursue a single unitary council for Leicestershire was acknowledged and was the subject of two questions from Members later in the agenda. The Leader reassured Members that it was important that issue did not become a distraction; in May the Council made some significant changes to its governance processes and also set out an ambitious delivery plan for Melton. Good progress was being made and the Leader was determined that this should continue;
(c) the commitment to the establishment of a Town and Place Partnership: preparation work was well underway and the steering group was to meet for the first time on 25 July. Councillors Sheldon and Freer-Jones as Place Committee chair and vice-chair were the Council’s representatives on this group and would be working with a small number of key partners to oversee the establishment of the partnership. Support was to be commissioned from some place marketing specialists who would undertake engagement with a much wider group and all Members would have an opportunity to feed in to the development of the partnership;
(d) the Melton Local Plan: the Main Modifications for the Local Plan remained subject to consultation prior to receiving the Inspector’s findings shortly afterwards;
(e) Procurement: the Council had recently concluded two significant procurements and was now mobilising the new waste collection and housing repairs contracts. Both would deliver better services for residents and ensure the Council remained on a sound financial footing;
(f) Workforce Strategy: the new strategy had recently been adopted, reinforcing the commitment to staff who were so important to ensuring the Council could deliver its ambitions and good quality services to residents. The Leader was pleased to welcome the two new Directors; Adele Wylie joined in June as the Director for Legal and Democratic Services, and Pranali Parikh joined in July as the Director for Growth and Regeneration. Both Directors were now building their teams and a number of other new service managers were due to start in the next couple of months. Given the number of recent new staff, the Leader said he would be arranging a ‘meet and greet’ in the Autumn for Members to meet the new starters and start building the all-important relationships;
(g) recharging Parish Councils for the cost of elections: the Leader advised Members that following the decision made in February that the cost of parish elections would be passed onto the respective parish council, letters would be going out to all parish councils next week setting out all the relevant information.