Agenda item

The Council received a report presented by Ros Jones, Mayor of Doncaster, on the Corporate Plan for 2017/18.  Members noted that the current Corporate Plan ran out at the end of 2016/17, and the Mayor was pleased to set out the Council’s priorities for 2017/18 within the updated Corporate Plan.

The Mayor outlined that the Corporate Plan was presented alongside her budget proposals, and had four priority themes to focus upon which would look to improve the quality of life for residents of Doncaster. These priority themes were detailed below:-

·         Doncaster Working

·         Caring

·         Living

·         Learning

These four priority themes were under-pinned by a cross cutting theme, this being ‘Connected Council’, which covered the things that must be undertaken to deliver better outcomes, including enabling residents to access modern, on-line customer services.

The Mayor reported that she was grateful to the Overview and Scrutiny Management Committee for considering the Plan, and for their feedback and support, which resulted in several changes being made to the Plan which she felt was a better document as a result.

Members were informed that there was a growing £5 billion economy and record levels of residents in employment had recently been witnessed with many more new jobs in the pipeline.  Services were being redesigned and more of them were being delivered in partnership.  Significant budget savings had been achieved and the Council was looking forward with confidence although, it was very important not to be complacent.  However, despite the positivity, Members noted that quality of life still varied significantly across the Borough and greater emphasis needed to be placed on tackling inequalities and ensuring that local people benefited from the opportunities being created, and therefore, it was essential that services were joined up and effective.

The Mayor stated that it was therefore important that the Plan shifted its focus from monitoring indicators to driving the delivery of plans and programmes.  These plans were already shaping how the Council worked with the examples of the One Doncaster Action Plan, Early Help Strategy and the Place Plan given.  In conclusion, the Mayor asked for Council to give its support to the updated Corporate Plan in order to guide the Council’s work over the next year, to shape Doncaster’s future and improve the lives of local people.

Following consideration of the report, Members of Council were invited to make any comments on the Corporate Plan.  Whilst Members were largely in support of the Corporate Plan and happy to endorse it, a couple of concerns were raised which the Mayor endeavoured to answer.

Councillor Jonathan Wood, raised concerns regarding Superfast South Yorkshire, at which he expressed dismay in terms of its delivery as he felt it was failing in Doncaster with residents in outlying villages still not receiving adequate broadband services.  The Mayor assured Councillor Wood she would find out more information on this issue and provide him with a written response.  A concern was also voiced in respect of the airport, but Members were assured that this continued to be a priority of the Sheffield City Region to drive its success forward and increase its connectivity in the region.

RESOLVED that Council approve the updated Corporate Plan.