Agenda and draft minutes

Prior to commencement of the Council meeting, the Chair, Councillor Gwyneth Kensler extended condolences to Councillor Bill Tasker following the recent loss of his sister.

No Declarations of Interest.

No urgent matters.

To note the civic engagements undertaken by the Chairman of the Council (to follow).

A list of civic engagements undertaken by the Chair and Vice-Chair for the period 13 August 2015 to 12 October 2015 had been circulated prior to the meeting.

RESOLVED that the list of civic engagements undertaken by the Chair and Vice-Chair be received.

To receive the minutes of the meeting of County Council held on 8 September 2015 (copy enclosed).

The minutes of the Council meeting held on 8 September, 2015 were submitted.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting held on 8 September, 2015 be confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

At this juncture, the Chair introduced Meira Owen of HomeStart to give a brief explanation to Members of the work undertaken by HomeStart within the community and the families they assist.

Meira Owen thanked Council Members for allowing her to have the opportunity to explain the work of HomeStart.

HomeStart were a charity who had supported families in Denbighshire for the past 15 years. There were a team of approximately 100 volunteers from diverse communities across the county together with 5 members of staff.  The criteria to be referred to HomeStart was that there needed to be one child of the family under the age of 11 years. 

Following the presentation by Meira Owen, the Chair and Councillor Raymond Bartley thanked Meira and her team for all the hard work they did within the communities which was invaluable.

To consider a report by the Strategic Planning and Performance Officer (copy attached) on the Council’s Draft Annual Performance Review for 2014-15.

The Lead Member for Finance and Assets, Councillor Julian Thompson-Hill, introduced the Annual Performance Report (previously circulated) for members to approve the draft 2014/15 Annual Performance Review, subject to agreed changes, to enable translation and publication prior to 31 October 2015.

The Head of Business Improvement & Modernisation explained that the Council’s Corporate Plan 2012-2017 set the strategic direction for the Council and its priorities for the five year period.  Details of the Council’s intention to deliver the priorities had been set out in the annual service plans and the Corporate Plan Annual Delivery document and a set of Outcome Agreements with the Welsh Government.

The Annual Performance Report provided a retrospective evaluation of the Council’s success in delivering against these plans during 2014-15, and whether the Council had successfully fulfilled its obligation to make arrangements to secure continuous improvement.

The report had been developed by the Strategic Planning & Performance Team, in consultation with other council services.  The performance information contained within the document had been provided by services, and had been drawn from the Verto Performance Management system.  Consultation had taken place with the Senior Leadership Team (SLT) prior to being submitted to County Council for approval.

This had been the most ambitious plan to date and was the third year of the plan.  Good progress had been made but a lot of work still needed to be carried out.  The statistics within the report were to date as at the end of March 2015.

The Head of Business Improvement & Modernisation proceeded with a powerpoint presentation for Members which included case studies to give clearer examples of the work taking place.

Seven priority areas required key actions to deliver and those priorities were:

·       Economic Development

·       Education

·       Roads

·       Vulnerable People

·       Clean and Tidy Streets

·       Housing, and

·       Modernising the Council

The Economic & Business Development Team and Programme Manager (E&BDTPM) explained the Economic Community Programme developing initiatives.  The importance of acceptable broadband and telecommunications and focussing on businesses in the use of technology.  Within the DCC Website, there was to be a page set up which would contain information for businesses and the page would include short, sharp video clips of businesses explaining how they use technology to improve their business.  There were plans to have approximately six different video clips in both Welsh and English.

The E&BDTPM showed an example of a draft version of a video from a company based in Denbigh.

Following the video, the following items were raised during discussion:

·       Broadband speed in certain rural areas was an ongoing issue.  It was confirmed that BT and superfast broadband were behind schedule but it was the responsibility of the Welsh Government to liaise with BT to improve the service.  Councillors were requested to lobby the Welsh Government on the issue.  The Chief Executive suggested the issue of the roll out of superfast broadband should be called to Scrutiny.  The concerns would also be raised with the Assembly Members. 

·       Welsh language video clips were proving to be a more difficult task as there was a shortage of Welsh speaking business owners who were willing to take part to film a video.

·       Following the restructure of the Department, there has been greater interaction with other Departments.  A Project Manager was now in place and their task was to put together all information.  There were currently 16 projects and meetings were regularly held to ensure the schedules for projects were kept on track.

·       The Leader, Councillor Hugh Evans, reminded Members that the figures shown were up to and including March 2015.  The work had been completed with a reduced team together  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

The Chair introduced the Council’s Forward Work Programme (previously circulated).

It had been agreed earlier in the meeting to reinstate the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) to the Council Briefing being held on 2 November 2015.

RESOLVED that subject to the above, the Council Forward Work Programme be approved and noted.

The meeting concluded at 12.35 p.m.