Minutes:
The Leader gave the
following announcements:
a) Wished a Merry Christmas to
Reverend Ashby and all the church leaders;
b) Following approval of the
Housing Improvement Plan at the last Council meeting, the Council had started
to implement the agreed actions. The
recruitment of the new Director for Housing and Communities was underway and
there had been a really strong response to the advert with a significant number
of applications received. Members of the
Employment Committee would be meeting the next day to agree the long list of
candidates for the first stage interviews in early January. The Council looked forward to a successful
appointment by the end of January;
c) Over the last month the
Council had been in dialogue with the Social Housing Regulator, providing
additional information as requested.
Their response was awaited and the Council would continue to work with
them over the coming months. He was
pleased to report that the actions being taken were improving the position in
relation to health and safety compliance on a daily basis, with more and more
properties having new or updated assessments for electrical and asbestos
safety. Risk assessments were complete
and the Council was developing work packages to implement any required
actions. A more detailed update in
relation to fire safety would be reported to Cabinet in January.
This had been a long standing serious issue and he was
concerned that some Members may not have grasped the gravity of the
situation. In the current HRA Business
Plan, the risk register identified “Insufficient knowledge of current stock
causes unknown liabilities” as the first risk with “critical” impact and
“significant” liability. But the plan,
considered by the old Community & Social Affairs Committee in January 2012,
did not include enough emphasis on how to mitigate this nor did it allocate any
budget to address it, nor did it return to this issue on the HRA Business
Plan. This was another prime example of
how the old committee system failed to grip the issues faced quickly enough and
failed to show the leadership and strategic direction necessary to bring about
the change required. The new Cabinet had
shown they were ready to grip and lead this issue and the Housing Improvement
Plan demonstrated that. It should not be
underestimated that there were still some challenging times ahead as the
findings of the Regulator were awaited and this Council would have to account
for its past failings.
d) The Council had a history of
celebrating diversity and he and the Chief Executive would be exploring how
they might develop this further over the coming months. The Council had been a Disability Confident
Employer for some time but recent efforts to champion and support mental health
within the council had seen the Council secure the highest possible recognition
as a Disability Confident Leader. The
Council were only the 4th organisation to gain this accreditation in
Leicestershire and Northamptonshire and certainly the first local
authority. Only 11 other Councils had achieved
this across the country. This once again
highlighted the value placed on staff and the Council’s renewed commitment to
be a great employer as part of the Workforce Strategy.
e) The Council also continued
to follow through on commitments to customers.
Earlier this month a number of members had attended a presentation from
IEG4, the company commissioned to implement the Council’s new digital customer
service platform. It was exciting to see
the potential improvements that could be implemented by this new
technology. Alongside the work being
done to improve processes, this would represent a fantastic opportunity to make
a massive difference to service quality.
f) Last month it had been a
pleasure to host a delegation from Sheffield City Council who came to learn
from Melton Borough Council’s experience of moving from a Committee to a
Cabinet system. Based on the changes and
improvements made at MBC, the Local Government Association had suggested that
we would be a good council to speak to, it was pleasing to see the council was
building its reputation within the local government sector and to be able to
share our views with other councils.
g) There were significant items
on the agenda including the development of the work around climate change which
had been incorporated into the draft Corporate Strategy, which had been
published for consultation earlier in the week.
The Strategy sought to invest in housing, the environment and growth as
well as regeneration and utilising assets more commercially. The Leader looked forward to hearing public
views and discussing the results and the proposed budget with all members at
the Budget Scrutiny meeting in January.
The agenda also contained the Cabinet recommendation to support the
infrastructure agreement with the County Council. £65 million of government investment into
Melton had been collectively secured and through the agreement with the County
Council a further £35 million would be released. The work that had been done and approval of
the proposal tonight would see delivery of the relief road, which had been
talked about for decades, become a reality.
h) The Leader acknowledged and
congratulated the new MP following the General Election and looked forward to
working closely with Alicia Kearns for the benefit of the Borough’s
residents. He also thanked the elections
team and wider council team for the hard work that had been put into delivering
a third election in nine months.
i) The Leader finished by
wishing all members and officers a very merry Christmas and Happy New Year.