The Leader of the Council, Councillor James
Waters presented Report No: OAS/FH/17/016, which outlined the draft
West Suffolk Annual Report (2016-2017), which had been written as a
joint West Suffolk document and was before the Overview and
Scrutiny Committee for their comments.
The Council had taken a slightly different
approach in producing this year’s Annual Report, and hoped
that the new format was more engaging and would provide the
opportunity to provide updates on the Council’s achievements
throughout the year.
The draft West Suffolk Annual Report (Appendix
A) highlighted the key activities and developments which had been
achieved over the financial year 2016-2017, with regard to the
priorities set out in the West Suffolk Strategic Plan. The draft report contained a number of case
studies and examples from West Suffolk to illustrate the
achievements described.
The Leader and officers then highlighted
relevant issues for the attention of the Committee.
Members examined the document
in detail and asked a number of questions of the Leader and
officers, to which comprehensive responses were
provided. In particular, comments were
held on the following areas of the draft Annual Report:
(1)
Page 9: Local markets:
suggest including an additional sentence setting out that the
“Council was working with Suffolk County Council to
improve the offer on the market in
Newmarket’.
(2)
Annex 1: Community Chest Funding: suggest including
the amount of funding allocated to each organisation.
(3)
Page 21: Locality Budgets: suggest including an
additional sentence advising that “the website was regularly
updated with information about the latest projects which had been
supported by Members”.
The Leader wished to thank the
Overview and Scrutiny Committee for their comments on the draft
Annual Report. He also wished to thank
officers and councillors working together across West
Suffolk.
It was then proposed by Councillor Simon Cole,
seconded by Councillor Nigel Roman, and with the vote being
unanimous, it was:
RECOMMENDED
That
the Draft West Suffolk Annual Report 2016-2017, as contained in
Appendix A to Report No: OAS/FH/17/016 be approved, subject to
comments made during the meeting.