Issue - meetings

Members considered a report which presented the findings of the LGA Peer Review Follow-Up, which had been undertaken to assess progress against the recommendations made in the original Peer Review conducted in 2020.

The Leader of the Council was pleased to present the report and in doing so highlighted to Members the areas, the LGA Peer Review team had particularly commented on, namely:

·      Members’ and officers’ enthusiasm, commitment and skills aimed at delivering the best possible services to the district’s residents, businesses and other customers.

·      That members and officers have used their strategic skills and knowledge to progress and plan the refresh of their Corporate Plan.  WLDC clearly knows what it wants to achieve and what it needs to do to achieve those aims

·      More consolidated internal thinking of council specific concepts and programmes, e.g. around the Together 24 Programme and Levelling Up.

·      WLDC’s own self-awareness, openness, honesty and ideas as to what it could do better on its continuous improvement journey and why, both through and outside of this Corporate Peer Challenge process.

He considered the follow-up had been a really positive experience resulting in some further recommendations that would now be integrated into the standard planning process and as such would form a key part of our work going forward.

It had been agreed with the LGA that a further Peer Challenge be undertaken around January 2024.

The Leader took the opportunity, on behalf of the Council, to thank everyone involved in the successful delivery of the process including, Corporate Peers, the LGA, Members and Officers.

Members were delighted to see openness and honesty feature positively once again in the refreshed opinion.

Opposition Members however expressed a differing view and did not support the outcomes of a process, which they considered, had failed to take in to account their Group’s views and thoughts from the outset. The Opposition Leader further considered the 10 recommendations which had been focused on, needed revising to reflect and incorporate areas where the Council was failing in his view, and concerns regarding having had equal opportunity to feed into the process needed raising with the LGA.

Having been moved and seconded, on being put to the vote it was: -

RESOLVED that: -

(a)        the significant progress made by the Council against the ten original recommendations arising from the 2020 Local Government Association (LGA) Peer Review be noted; 

(b)        the findings of the LGA Peer Review Follow-Up Report, be noted, having paid particular regard to the follow-up recommendations, and the actions being taken to ensure these are implemented in full;

(c)        the actions required be built into the Council’s ongoing planning processes; and

(d)        the LGA Peer Review Follow-Up Report (Appendix B of the report) be published on the Council’s website.