Agenda item

For Council to consider and approve the Final Business Plan 2023-2024.

Members considered the Final Business Plan 2023-24 report presented by Councillor Boden.

Councillor Boden highlighted that the Business Plan contains a new section this year which is titled Council for the Future which highlights some of the bigger changes which are taking place and will be taking place going forward. He explained that the Transformation One agenda is being focussed on which involves the process mapping of the work that is undertaken and the reorganisation of the services that the Council has.

Councillor Boden also explained that preparation is also taking place for the Transformation 2 agenda which changes the physical and virtual footprint of the Council. He stated that the report went to the Overview and Scrutiny Panel last month and they in turn made various suggestions which have been incorporated within the report.

Membersmade comments,asked questionsand receivedresponses asfollows:

·       Councillor Cornwell stated that he was surprised to see 29 people had responded positively to the Business Plan consultation out of a population of 102,500 which, in his opinion, is a very poor response. He made the point that it is concerning to see that no businesses responded, and added that could be because there is very little in the plan which deals with business and economic development and, in his view, that is an area which needs to be addressed. Councillor Cornwell stated that the feedback received did contain some very pertinent questions or answers and some people had obviously given it some thought prior to responding, although some of those views do not seem to be reflected in the final version. He referred to the Council’s consultation strategy where it states that ‘only consult if you are willing to make changes based on responses’ and he expressed the view that he does not see any changes because of those responses. Councillor Boden responded that the reason why there are so few responses is, in his opinion ,people are fed up with consultation exercises taking place by all layers of Government and people do not believe that consultations matter and they are of the view that their responses will not be even read. He added that is the reason why there are such small numbers of individuals responding. Councillor Boden made the point that it is possible as a local member to get more interest in your area out of something which is relevant by encouraging people to read what has been said and to respond to something what is particularly important to an area. He stated that all responses in this case were read, and consideration was given to the comments made by the Overview and Scrutiny Panel, with changes were made as a result.

·       Councillor Booth stated that one of the biggest comments which seemed to come out of the consultation was that the language style used could be made clearer and simpler and whilst there have been improvements made to the presentation style rather than the content compared to previous versions. He explained that he had highlighted at the Overview and Scrutiny Panel, the section in the Business Plan which lists the priorities but there does not appear to be any actual measures in place on delivery which is the Council for the future. Councillor Booth expressed the view that individuals are also of the opinion that whatever they say will not be considered anyway and in particular the views of those residents who live in a rural area often focus on what the District Council is delivering for them. He stated that the document pays lip service to what is happening in rural areas and all of the projects appear to focus on the towns and there does not appear to be anything to help and support those residents who live in the more rural areas of the district, who are isolated and receive poor services. Councillor Boden stated that the whole ethos of growth in Fenland is that it needs to be as widespread as possible and there are opportunities in the rural areas which do not exists in the towns and the Council needs to ensure that every opportunity which exists to promote economic growth is in place. He explained that more resources have been included into the economic growth section this year and this will continue to grow next year. Councillor Boden added that he is very aware that there are any number of opportunities especially for micro and small businesses within the rural areas where assistance can be given to ensure that those businesses start, grow and thrive. He gave assurances to Councillor Booth that the districts’ larger businesses in the rural areas receive as much attention as the larger businesses do in the town centre locations.

·       Councillor Tierney stated that some members have raised the point that some of the consultation documents that are published are difficult for people to understand and he apologised as that is something which forms part of his role. He added that he has worked with officers and focussed on the Business Plan, portfolio reports and the website to try and make them more user friendly but he has never thought to review consultation documents and he gave assurances that it will be something that from now on he will be doing to ensure that they are clear and easy to understand.

Proposed by Councillor Boden, seconded by Councillor Tierney and AGREED that the Business Plan 2023-2024 be approved.