Minutes:
a) Discussion with the Leader
The Committee had invited Councillor Dan Swords, Leader of Harlow Council to the meeting, as it was the first meeting of the year at what the Leader had the opportunity of outlining his work for the year and for the committee to scrutinise the priorities he had set for the year.
The Committee received two supplementary agendas; a written letter to Councillor Tony Edwards from Councillor Dan Swords with his views on the committee’s work plan for the year and another containing an email from Councillor Tony Edwards to the Leader, following the submission of the Leader’s letter to the Committee.
Councillor Dan Swords expressed to the Committee he felt that the Committee should be focusing their time on scrutinising the work of the administration rather than outside matters.
Councillor Tony Edwards responded that he felt discussions like this evening with the Police and other organisations, were beneficial even though it was not the Council’s primary responsibility.
The Leader told members he had the upmost confidence in delivering his five key priorities for Harlow Council which had been outlined for this year and that he took full responsibility in the delivery of them.
A question was raised about the number of women in senior roles within the Council, Councillor Dan Swords stated whilst there were no women currently occupying Senior Management roles, there were women in Assistant Director roles and in the Wider Leadership teams. He explained that after the report from the Local Government Association Review and from briefings with himself and the Chief Executive, Andrew Bramidge, more decision-making powers are planned to be given to those in Wider Leadership Teams and over 50% of those roles were occupied by women.
Councillor Dan Swords agreed to provide the Committee with a specific number on commercialisation profits for this year.
A question was raised regarding the use of the Councils assets specifically the accommodation review and the use of the building Councillor Swords stated progress had been poor and he believed this was due to lack of a corporate view on what the Council were asking for the review to achieve. Councillor Swords noted that the LGA report said there was a lack of clarity on the current Hybrid Working Policy, and an action plan on this was due to go to Cabinet. He understood to date progress had been poor but work was being carried out which he believed would speed up the progress on the accommodation review.
In response to a question on progress on new cycle paths, Councillor Dan Swords confirmed Harlow Council had secured funding to deliver a new cycle path route. Detailed discussions had taken place regarding this with Essex County Council.
Councillor Dan Swords responded to concerns of the committee that Harlow Council had seen a high number of staff leaving their jobs. He said that Harlow Council had a high retention rate of their staff and that the recent staff survey showed a higher than national average number of employees found the Council was a good employer and spoke positively about their workplace.
Councillor Swords agreed to provide the Committee with a copy of the implementation plan on the five priorities and objectives planned for this year.
Councillor Swords agreed to provide the Committee with a link to the monthly performance data for Key Performance Indicators.
B) Agreement of Work Plan
The Committee discussed the work plan for 2023/2024 and had agreed to the changes to the work plan with the removal of Online Gambling.
It was agreed that the Councillor Enquiry System Topic Submission Form required additional clarification. Councillors Morrisson and Gunn agreed to discuss this further with Senior officers outside of this Committee, The topic will be reviewed at the October meeting.
Councillor Tony Edwards suggested that the topic submission form for Travel Plan for the new Princess Alexandra Hospital also currently was not a high priority to add to the work plan at this current time.
Councillor Alastair Gunn noted that this is an important topic facing Harlow but that the submission form did not define where the Committee could add value to this. Suggestions could be made to define this further to be reviewed again at a future meeting.
The Committee agreed to add the New Estate Developments to the Work Plan.
The Committee agreed to bring the Corporate Strategy and the Medium Term Financial Strategy to the October meeting.
RESOLVED that the work plan was agreed.