Issue - meetings

The Director of Strategy, Insight and Governance presented her report providing an update on the progress made against the Action Plan for 2022/23 contained in the Annual Governance Statement for 2021/22 which was approved by the Committee in July 2022. It was noted that progress had been made across all areas identified for action, including embedding the new process for Part II items and reviewing the Constitution and decision making.  The Committee had already received an update on progress against the Data Protection Action Plan as part of the Information Governance Report.

In response to questions:

The Director of Strategy, Insight and Governance advised the Committee that:

·  The Chief Executive had identified governance failings at other local authorities.  These failings were considered at meetings of Officers with governance responsibilities to determine whether anything needed to be done differently at Maidstone.  There was also an internal governance group that she managed, and reports would be submitted to that group on what was happening nationally to identify any lessons.

·  The Council had secured £565k investment from the Safer Streets Fund for community safety in the town centre.  She would circulate details of how it would be spent to all Members of the Committee.

·  Actions taken to mitigate the risk of general and localised economic pressure leading to contraction in the retail sector were reported to the Policy Advisory Committees and the Executive and details could be circulated to Members of the Committee.  For example, work had started on the development and delivery of a Town Centre Strategy to guide the reallocation of land uses within the Town Centre (including retail) following the appointment of a contractor.

The Head of Finance advised the Committee that:

·  The implementation of Social Value and Sustainability procurement policies should not impact current projects.  There might be some cost going forward, but it was only a small marginal assessment of the procurement process.  The idea was to encourage Maidstone businesses and add local value.

RESOLVED:  That the update on progress against the Annual Governance Statement Action Plan 2022/23, as set out in Appendix A to the report of the Director of Strategy, Insight and Governance, be noted.