Agenda item

This report presents an overview of the service plans, which articulate the council’s ambitions, priorities, and performance targets, and outline how each service area is contributing to the delivery of the new Council Plan which will launch in April 2026. Each plan incorporates Key Performance Indicators, service volumes, and references to associated strategic, operational, and climate resilience risks.

The following service plans are within the remit of this Committee:

Planning Policy and Conservation (for all areas apart from the Local Plan)

Regulatory Services (excluding CIL, Land Charges)

Strategy and Partnerships (excluding Corporate Services)

Waste and Environmental Protection

Housing and Residential Services

Recommendation:

That the General Public Services & Community Engagement Committee provides any comments or suggested amendments to the 2026–2029 service plans. Final service plans will be approved by Full Council in conjunction with the budget.

The Head of Strategy and Partnerships presented the report, which proposed the draft service plans for 2026-2029 for the service areas which were within the committee’s remit.  The service plans articulated the council’s ambitions, priorities and performance targets and outlined how each service area would contribute to the delivery of the new Council Plan which would launch in April 2026.  Each plan incorporated key performance indicators, service volumes, and references to associated strategic, operational and climate resilience risks.

Committee Members’ comments on each of the service plans are summarised below:

Planning Policy & Conservation

The timescales for the CIL Charging Schedule and the Local Plan are ambitious but may not be realistic.  Could these be reviewed, and clarification provided as necessary?

Conservation Area appraisals: could assurances be provided that there are sufficient resources available and that the service is correctly structured to deliver two appraisals per year?

Regulatory Services

A Committee Member commented that the Regulatory Services Committee had recommended that the impact on the trade of the implementation of the Taxi Policy (e.g. in relation to electric vehicles) should be monitored in the short term, and commented that the wording within the ‘Service Purpose and Core Functions’ section should therefore be amended to ‘Implementation and monitoring of Taxi Policy’.   Officers responded that any agreement to monitor or review the policy would more appropriately be included in the policies register.

Strategy and Partnerships

A Committee Member queried that there seemed to be limited reference to crime and disorder within the document.  Officers responded that whilst the core functions in relation to crime and disorder were shown, the individual projects which took place under that umbrella were not, as most depended on grants or budgets becoming available.  Once funding was secured, details of projects to be progressed were agreed within the Crime and Safety Partnership in partnership with the Police & Crime Commissioner and then included in the Community Safety Action Plan.   Officers undertook to include additional context around this, and also Prevent work, within the service plan.

In relation to a query on the increase in the KPI for Number of Legislative Enforcement Actions Taken for ASB (which had increased to 12, where performance in 2024/25 had been 1), officers clarified that this related to actions such as closure orders which were often led by the Police with support from the council.  A Committee Member suggested that the KPI could instead focus on the level of involvement rather than the individual number of orders secured.  Officers undertook to look at this further and respond to the Member with further information about how the metric was calculated.

Waste and Environmental Protection

In relation to a query on the KPI for Percentage of Household Waste Recycled which showed a reduction from an actual target of 30% in 2024/25 to a target of 28% over the service plan period, officers clarified that this referred to dry recycling only.  The majority of the council’s recycling performance related to garden waste which was not included in this figure.

A Committee Member suggested, in relation to the workstream to ‘remove graffiti with a 24-hour response for offensive and hate related content’, that a new workstream should be added to include removal of all graffiti.  Clarification was provided that the council responded to any graffiti on its own structures or street furniture but was not responsible for that on private property, structures owned by Hertfordshire County Council, or equipment owned by utility companies.  However, in the case of offensive or hate related content the council would consider removal even if located on third party owned property in order to avoid delay.  The council’s budget and resources did not allow for remediation of non-council property which was subject to graffiti; however, officers continued to work with partners to mitigate the problem.  It was noted the majority of graffiti affected structures which were owned by either Hertfordshire County Council or utility companies.

Housing and Residential Services

In response to a query as to whether additional licensing for Houses in Multiple Occupation could be included as a commitment within the service plan, officers responded that following the debate at Full Council in October a report was to be brought to the Policy and Resources Committee setting out options, as well as a HMO Licensing Policy.  Officers undertook to add reference to the HMO Licensing Policy within the document.

RESOLVED:

That the General Public Services & Community Engagement Committee comments on the 2026-2029 draft service plans as shown above and notes that the final service plans will be approved by Full Council in conjunction with the budget.