Issue - meetings

As detailed in the recommendation.

Councillor Shotton welcomed Mr. Paul Goodlad from Wales Audit Office to the meeting.

Mr Goodlad explained that the Annual Improvement Report (AIR) summarised the audit and regulatory work undertaken at the Council by the Wales Audit Office (WAO) since the last report was published in June 2016. This report was published in the new format.

Overall the Auditor General for Wales had reached a positive conclusion of “The Council is meeting its statutory requirements in relation to continuous improvement” and no formal recommendations had been made during the year. 

The Executive Response, which was appended to the report, was the Council’s response and current status of progress on the areas identified as voluntary proposals for improvement.

The Chief Executive said that the report had been submitted to the recent Corporate Resources Overview and Scrutiny Committee where it had been explained that there were no formal recommendations but the Council did want to respond on the voluntary proposals for improvement.  He commented on the positive observations in the report, particularly on the good governance arrangements. 

At the Corporate Resources Overview and Scrutiny Committee a discussion had taken place on Scrutiny Committees having more input in some areas.  The Chief Executive explained that on budget items, Overview and Scrutiny Committees were able to track progress the Chairs of those Committees were being encouraged to identify areas of interest for them to track.  Councillor Attridge commented on the low number of calls ins by Overview and Scrutiny Committees on Cabinet decisions which demonstrated the effectiveness of the pre scrutiny process that the Council followed, which included reporting any specific comments to Cabinet.

In response to a question from Councillor Bithell on not being able to guarantee the number of planning applications submitted, Mr. Goodlad explained that an 85% achievement of the target was not the lowest but some Councils did achieve a higher figure.  He commented on their being some scope with ‘creative accounting’ and also ensuring that efficiencies were implemented as soon as they had been agreed to help to achieve a higher saving.

RESOLVED:

That the Annual Improvement Report for 2016/17 be accepted and the Executive Response to the Annual Improvement Report be submitted to County Council for endorsement.