Issue - meetings

To consider the 2012/13 Service Plans relating to

·         The Chief Executive’s Office

·         The Corporate Services Department

The Assistant Chief Executive provided a briefing on the preparation of service plans for 2012/13 for the Corporate Services and Chief Executives Departments.

Arising from Members’ questions and comments the following points were noted:

·         Figures for the number of people responding to the Town and Country survey would be circulated

·         A number of discussions had taken place over the best way of distributing Town and Country including consideration of the possibility of withdrawing paper copies

·         Officers were working with a market management company to develop an approach to the market offer that works well for Bracknell both now and in the future.  It was expected that these plans would be discussed with the market traders in the Autumn with a view to starting work in the spring

·         The shading in Section 3 was used to differentiate between the 198 National Indicators and locally decided performance indicators

·         Anti-social behaviour targets were cumulative

·         When setting targets officers tried to strike a balance between setting a target that stretched performance whilst being realistic at the same time

·         Responsibility for the Bus Station refurbishment was split between the Chief Executive’s Office, who had responsibility for securing funding, and the Planning and Transport Teams who were responsible for delivery.  More detailed information on the highway improvements at the Twin Bridges roundabout would be sent to members

·         The Government are encouraging larger organisations to pay all invoices within 30 days to help stimulate the economy and support small and medium sized enterprises

·         The possibility of offering net monthly invoices as part of contracts would be explored

·         Staff turnover figures included staff made redundant

·         The percentage of staff leaving within one year of starting was considered high and it was thought that the number of staff employed in the leisure section on a casual basis had a significant impact on this figure.  The possibility of separating this indicator to show turnover rates for both casual and permanent staff would be explored

The Commission thanked officers for a particularly informative report.