Issue - meetings

Report of the Chief Executive enclosed. 

Mr. Stephen Martin, Mr. Alan Morris and Ms. Karen Lees from the Wales Audit Office will be in attendance to give a presentation to Members.

That the Council’s Annual Improvement Report 2011 published by the Auditor General for Wales and the Council’s response be noted.

The Chief Executive presented a report to advise Members of the Council’s Annual Improvement Report 2011 published by the Auditor General for Wales and the Council’s response.

            He welcomed Mr. Alan Morris, Group Director and Mr. Stephen Martin, Improvement Assessment Lead from the Wales Audit Office to the meeting who gave a presentation which covered the following areas:-

• The Improvement Assessment Report
• Planning for and making arrangements to deliver improvement
• Delivering improvement in priority areas
• Evaluating and reporting on performance
• Actions by the Auditor General, recommendations and proposals for improvement
• Annual Improvement Report – next steps

The Chief Executive outlined the Council’s response to the recommendations, copies of which had been circulated to all Members.  The Executive had recently received a full review of the People Strategy with quarterly review reports being made available to the Executive.  Also the Single Status project plan, objectives, timelines and decision-making steps and requirements had been reported to the Executive and Overview & Scrutiny in March, 2012. 

Councillor A. Woolley, Leader of the Council proposed that the Council note the Annual Improvement Report 2011 which had previously been presented to Executive, Audit Committee and Overview & Scrutiny.  The Administration welcomed the report but did not agree with the statement on the political fragility of the Council which he felt was able to address the needs of the Council.  The proposal was seconded by Councillor N. Phillips.

Councillor A.M. Halford commented on the discussions at the Audit Committee held on 26 March, 2012 around the high number of Workshops and the burden this posed on Members who were unable to attend them.  She commented on the criticism of the maintenance and repairs of Council housing and said that the Housing Overview and Scrutiny Committee had worked hard over the past 4 years to improve the repairs and maintenance and also to free up the fixed asset of Canton Depot.  She raised concern on the comments of inappropriate behaviour by a small number of Councillors and sought clarification on the term ‘inappropriate behaviour’ and how this would be addressed. 

Councillor R.B. Jones welcomed the presentation which he felt gave a balanced report in outlining the positive work of the Council.  On the recommendation to complete the Councils work in quantifying the financial benefits he outlined the work which had been undertaken as part of the Medium Term Financial Strategy Plan which was nearing completion.  He also felt that the Workshops provided Members with an opportunity to consider changes to policy in order to better inform Overview and Scrutiny Committees.  Councillor Eng. K. Armstrong-Braun supported the use of Workshops to enable Members who were not Members of any Overview and Scrutiny Committee the opportunity to inform Policy making decisions.

Councillor A.P. Shotton commented on the critique of the leadership of the multi-party Administration of the Council as reported to the Corporate Resources Overview and Scrutiny Committee and outlined within the report.  He reported that Councillor J.B. Attridge had requested a copy of the draft report under a freedom of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 167