Agenda item

Cllr Tony Favell joined the meeting at 10.10.

The Senior Strategy Officer introduced the item.

The Chair of the Committee went through each Cornerstone and Directional Shift in turn .

Cornerstone 1 - Members asked if all of the Authority’s estates with Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) were in a favourable condition based on the Natural England standard and if there is a opportunity to use social media in a positive way rather than just defending the Authority’s position.

The Director of Conservation and Planning confirmed he would obtain the data regarding the condition of the Authority’s estates and circulate to Members. Officers highlighted the issues relating to social media of limitation of characters that can be used in certain forms of social media and the resource implications of engaging in exchanges with those who’s views are already entrenched and difficult to change.

Members requested clarification of the Health & Safety risk to members of the public relating to the Service Plan Actions linked to ‘Our Focus’ 2 & 3 -  maintenance work of the trails structure. High priority repairs were being identified and the work was in hand. There was a capacity issue and a wider conversation regarding support for the work was underway.  The Director of Corporate Strategy & Development will provide confirmation of the position regarding insurance cover for any incidents which may occur. Trees along the trails were not included in the maintenance of the trails, only the physical infrastructure.

Cornerstone 2 - The Director of Conservation & Planning clarified the performance figure for planning applications and stated that the quality of planning decisions was given priority and that it was important to keep applicants up to date regarding response times. He also clarified the current risk of Special Measures by the Planning Inspectorate because of the percentage of major appeals lost.  The percentage was high because of the low number of major planning applications received. If placed in Special Measures applicants could go straight to the Planning Inspectorate for decisions on planning. Satisfaction rates were measured by the Customer and Business Support Team from a random sample of applicants.

All enforcement enquires received by the Enforcement Team, even those which are anonymous, are investigated by the team.  Some authorities do not investigate anonymous enquires.

Directional Shift 1 – Traditional Building Restoration Grant Scheme did not include boundary walls, however there was another scheme to fund work on boundaries.

Members noted that the South West Peak celebration had been `brilliant` and a large number of volunteers were now involved in the project.

Directional Shift 2 – Members suggested a change to priority action q)  with the removal of the word ‘will’ from the statement. 

Members requested better measures of success regarding engagement with young people.

Members raised concerns regarding the reduction in volunteer days and Officers explained that this was due to a number of factors including the bad weather during the early part of 2018 and a new management system which provided more robust data reporting.  The current demographic of volunteers is older with many long serving volunteers, there was a need to recruit more young people but this was an issue that the organisation as a whole needed to look at. The Director of Commercial Development & Outreach agreed to share documentation regarding engagement numbers with young people.

Directional Shift 3 & 4 had red boxes which reflect the development work that was ongoing to develop income streams and visitor experiences. 

The recommendations as set out in the report were moved, seconded, voted on and carried.

RESOLVED:

1. That the 2017/18 Quarter 4 Corporate Performance Report, given in Appendix 1 of the report, which includes performance against indicator targets and priority actions, is reviewed and agreed.

2. That the 2017/18 Quarter 4 and year end status and analysis of complaints and Freedom of Information/Environmental Information Requests, given in Appendix 3 of the report, is considered and received.