Agenda item - Annual Performance Report

Annual Performance Report

Meeting of Council, Thursday 19 July 2018 7.30 pm (Item 28.)

To consider the above report

Minutes:

Members considered an overview of the council’s performance for 2017/18.

Councillor Dudley highlighted that the report included 25 Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) set around the council’s six strategic priorities, with a further 68 indicators below. All were reported quarterly to relevant Overview and Scrutiny Panels. Of the 25 KPIs, 17 were meeting or exceeding the target, 6 were just short and two were off target. Benchmarking against other local authorities showed a number of the KPIs were challenging, stretch targets. This was the first year the council had provided an annual report in this format, which looked to present information to residents in an easily digestible manner. The report would be delivered to every household along with the current edition of Around the Royal Borough. Previously a courier company had been used for delivery however there had been concerns that some areas were not being reached. It had proved more reliable and cheaper to post via Royal Mail (£6,000 compared to £9,000).

Councillor Jones commented that many councils produced such a report; it was good to keep residents informed. For future reports, she suggested that the RAG ratings should be reviewed and actual numbers provided where only percentages were currently given, to provide context.

Councillor E. Wilson commented it was important to tell residents what the council was doing with their money. He would like to see copies available in libraries. He felt the council was very bad at telling people what it had done, for example the Old Court in Windsor had been rumoured to be closing, which had been fake news as it was now thriving.

Councillor Smith suggested, as he had already done so at a recent Audit and Performance Review Panel, that the report should include the source of funds. Given the costs quoted per councillor in relation to elections, he was keen to see how these may reduce in future with the reduction in the number of councillors. He highlighted a typographical error on page 17.

Councillor S. Rayner highlighted that the percentage of residents reporting satisfaction with the borough’s parks and open spaces was 85.2%. She was pleased to report that the percentage of calls answered within 60 seconds had now risen to 73.8% following some changes in the organisation of the team.

Councillor Beer commented that he did not understand why the document had not been incorporated in Around the Royal Borough. There was nothing included in relation to Heathrow in the last edition yet the council was spending money to defend its position. He asked how much the Annual Report had cost over an additional six pages in Around the Royal Borough? A lot of people would see it as a waste of money as they just wanted the job to be done rather than shouted about.

Councillor Bateson commented that as residents were council taxpayers they would lie to see something that told them what the council was doing.

Councillor Bicknell commented that the information provided helped residents to hold the council to account. He highlighted a number of key projects including 4660 potholes being filled, completion of phase one of the Waterways project, and capital projects expedited for the Royal Wedding. The Borough Local Plan was now in for inspection which was the result of a great job by the Lead Member and officers.

Councillor Dudley stated that the suggestions by Councillor Jones were very constructive. He would ask for the RAG rating tolerances to be looked at and for numerical values to be included rather than just percentages. He also agreed that the source of funds should be detailed. He confirmed that the printing cost was £18,000. The council spent £2m on councillors and elections therefore residents would be interested to understand how the council was performing annually.