To receive apologies for absence, including notifications of any changes to the membership of the Board.

It was reported that, in accordance with the wishes of the Independent Group, the membership of the Board had been amended to include Councillor Maddison in place of Councillor Cowell for this meeting.

To confirm as a correct record the minutes of the meeting of the Board held on 7 May 2025.

The minutes of the meeting of the Board held on 7 May 2025 were confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

To review the Council’s key performance indicators and make recommendations to the Cabinet.

The Board considered the submitted Performance Report for Quarter 4 2024/2025 which provided an overview of the performance of the Council working towards the ambitions and priorities within the Community and Corporate Plan and the Council Business Plan.  125 performance indicators had been identified and 33 projects.  The percentage of projects on target, completed or better than target had increased since Quarter 3.

The Board asked a number of questions in relation to the following:

·                what was the reason for BP47 percentage of weed spraying schedule achieved during the period (quarterly) being worse than target and was there not an opportunity to spray the weeds after the good job the Team had done sweeping leaves off paths and roads;

·                was there an update on the take up of MyBay since the report was prepared;

·                BP26 number of concessionary bus journeys was down on target, with a reason that 2025/26 did not have part of Easter, this was due to the date that Easter fell on that year;

·                what was the Minecraft Project and was it going to be delivered to other schools;

·                what were the challenges and incentives to encourage employed people to take up training;

·                when would we know if we have funding for the Family Hubs for 2026;

·                rough sleepers were worse than target, what action was being taken to reduce this;

·                BP04 percentage of contacts to Children’s Services progressing to early help services in the period was much worse than target, what was being done to improve this;

·                the Family Hubs have been really successful but the report refers to continuing to exit plan, how far had that progressed; and

·                the target for the number of young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and/or who were also care experienced accessing work experience, internship and apprenticeships had not yet been achieved, what was being done to support this.

The following responses were provided to Members’ questions:

·                BP47 for weed spraying was 100% on target for Quarter 4, but overall was 79% as it was taken over the whole year;

·                approximately 2,280 residents had signed up to the discount card and the Director of Pride in Place was meeting with the Team next week to look at card set up and for the Team to increase the number of businesses currently signed up from 150.  It was noted that there were also discussions on whether or not to have an additional sign up period around Christmas but were waiting feedback from residents;

·                the Minecraft Project was part of the Build Torbay initiative running with the construction sector across Torbay to raise awareness of careers across the sector and had been held at Shiphay Academy.  There were issues regarding capacity and resources to roll this out further, but the overall Build Torbay support had gone well;

·                the lack of employed people taking up training was around a contractor and what they had in place for training for the community, this had been addressed in contract review meetings and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

To consider the Budget Monitoring Report for Quarter 4 2024/2025 (to include Revenue Budget and Capital Budget monitoring together with financial and delivery details of the Capital Programme) and make recommendations to the Cabinet.

The Board reviewed the submitted Budget Monitoring Outturn Report for 2024/2025 which set out the final position in respect of the Council’s Capital and Revenue Budgets for 2024/2025.  The Report would be presented to the Cabinet meeting on 9 June 2025 and the Council meeting on 24 July 2025, which was recommended to approve the allocation of the surplus £0.351m Revenue Funding.  The Board also considered options for the allocation of the surplus funding, including the following outlined by the Cabinet Members at the meeting:

Members discussed the above topics and suggested that an additional item should be included to help support community centres, many of which were in a poor state of repair, and it would be useful for them to understand what needed to be done to help them apply for available grant funding for repairs.  It was noted that condition surveys had been carried out around 2022 and that they may need to be refreshed/reviewed to ensure that they were up to date as some community centres had received funding and had works done.  An example was also given that a recent Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) Panel had allocated money to a community centre in Torquay to provide kitchen facilities.

The Board asked questions in relation to the following:

·                was there still expected to be high pressures in Adult Social Care and Children’s Services;

·                what was the reason for the overspend in the Dedicated Schools Grant;

·                what was the Children’s Section 17  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

To receive an update on the Planning Service for the Future to include details of what progress has been made with enforcement and includes SMART targets to show how the backlog will be addressed.

The Chairman of the Planning Committee, Councillor Brook, the Divisional Director of Planning, Housing and Climate Emergency, David Edmondson, and the Service Manager, Development Management, Jim Blackwell outlined the submitted report which provided an update on the Service Fit for the Future – Development Management Project and responded to questions.  The Director of Pride in Place, Alan Denby, also attended the meeting and responded to questions.

Members asked questions in relation to the following:

·                the performance report showed targets for major applications, minor applications and enforcements being below target, what action was needed to improve performance;

·                was the number of applications received reducing;

·                would the Board see more positive performance reports continuing;

·                the last two Planning Committee meetings were cancelled was this because developers were not providing information quickly enough or detailed enough;

·                the Heritage Strategy for 2021-2026 would soon be coming to an end, what impact has the Strategy had;

·                when would the extra enforcement staff be in place; and

·                what was the average planning enforcement fine and what proportion of enforcements related to developers rather than members of the public.

The following responses were provided to Members’ questions:

·                there were currently relatively low numbers of major applications which were showing as red as the Team relied on extensions of time due to the need for negotiations, amendments and re-consultation on applications and negotiations on legal agreements.  The process has been changed focusing on pre-applications and working with a new Design Review Panel resulting in better quality applications being able to be approved first time by the Planning Committee rather than having to be deferred for further information or negotiation.  The use of Power BI was enabling better quality data to be used across the Service.

·                although the number of planning applications being received had reduced it did fluctuate.  The amount of responsibility and complexity to the applicant and Officers had increased e.g. biodiversity net gain, which was why there was such a focus on the pre-application process, especially for larger developments;

·                it was expected that performance on managing planning applications would continue to improve, for processing, validation and through use of pre-application and engagement processes;

·                there was a good pipeline of applications coming forward for the Planning Committee but often through the consultation process issues were raised and need further work, applications were only taken to Committee when there was certainty over the application which reduces the chance of it getting deferred.  Quarterly meetings were held with agents with focus on the importance of the flow of information and pre-application process and getting the pathways correct;

·                the Heritage Strategy has enabled the Council to secure millions of pounds of additional funding e.g. £10m over ten years from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, £8m from levelling up for Oldway and £10m from the Town Deal and other programmes.  The Council has developed positive working relationships with the Arts Council and Historic England;

·                there has been a promotion within the current Enforcement Team, there was now two Senior Enforcement  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.