Issue - meetings

The report updates Cabinet on the progress made against a key set of strategic performance measures which assess our progress on delivering the Corporate Strategy, other key strategies, and key aspects of service delivery.

Cllr Dave Wood introduced the report, moved the officer recommendation and explained that this is the performance indicator report on the Council’s new Corporate Strategy.  The information presented is changing to reflect the new corporate priorities and the Liberal Democrat manifesto.  Future reports will see the introduction of new performance indicators which are currently under development.

Cllr Sarah Warren seconded the report and made the following statement:

“I very much welcome the Quarter 2 performance monitoring report, representing an increasing emphasis across the organisation on evidence-based monitoring of progress against key objectives in the corporate plan. It is really pleasing to see the progress made towards a performance culture and ensuring that we are targeting our investment effectively.

The development of performance monitoring in relation to key climate emergency targets is one of the most challenging areas, and very much still developing, as in many cases, it takes time to identify or develop the appropriate data flows. The measures we have been able to include in this year’s reporting around are useful and show some promising trends.

Houses are becoming more energy efficient, and we are seeing a corresponding improvement in Energy Performance Scores of dwellings in B&NES. However, an increase in the overall number of houses mean that total emissions from housing are still increasing. We hope that in future years, we will start to see more rapid improvement, as the ground-breaking requirement for zero carbon new build that we have introduced through our Local Plan Partial Update works its way through the house building system.

Renewable energy generation is increasing both on the council's own estate, and district wide - but is still below target. On the council estate, we expect to take decisions over the coming year to bring forward some larger sites, which should see that measure improving more rapidly.

B&NES remains a strong performer on recycling, with the percentage of household waste being reused, recycled, composted, removed remains well above target at 96%. In another positive sign, we are seeing a continuing reduction in air quality monitors breaching legal limit value.

Measures of nature recovery and road transport remain in development, and I look forward to reviewing work over the coming months to further develop KPIs for transport and travel so that we can provide clear and transparent information on our achievements in this key priority area for the council.”

Cllr Kevin Guy stated that officers have been asked to make B&NES Council one of the greenest councils in the country.  He thanked staff for working so hard to fulfil this high expectation.

RESOLVED (unanimously) to note progress on the delivery of key aspects of the Council’s service delivery, details of which are highlighted in section 3.6 and Appendix 1 of the report.