In accordance with Council minutes 77 and 78 (12 December, 2011), the Committee is requested to consider those parts of the Corporate Plan within the remit of this Committee.

In accordance with Council minutes 77 and 78 (12 December, 2011), the Committee considered those parts of the Corporate Plan within its remit. The Committee had also had sight of a motion which had been referred to all Overview and Scrutiny Committees by the Council at its meeting on 12 December, 2011 (minute 76 refers) and which was considered in connection with the Corporate Plan.

The Draft Corporate Plan and report of the Chief Executive which had been considered by Cabinet at its meeting on 8 December were considered by the Committee and the Chair invited comments from the Committee.

Responding to comments from Members, the Acting Director of Regeneration, Housing and Planning stated that the Corporate Plan would have targets and these would be expanded on in more detail in the Departmental Plan. There would be measures in place for ongoing monitoring.

Members made the following suggestions for inclusion in the Corporate Plan:

• Addressing child poverty needs to be one of the main priorities. The Chair confirmed that the Working Group on Child Poverty would report to this Committee as well as to the Children and Young People O&S Committee.
• Housing – Make one of the targets around the issue of affordable housing and mortgage support schemes for first time buyers.
• ‘Improve access to employment and skills….’ - there was a need to be more specific with an emphasis on level 3 attainment in apprenticeship schemes and at least a level 2 in functional skills regarding employment readiness.
• ‘Position Wirral as a leading, vibrant global location….’ – need to refer to being committed to the Liverpool City Region and Local Enterprise Partnerships.
• Wirral Waters – there was a need to plan for the effects on existing retail and industrial areas of activity in the peripheral parts of Birkenhead which could suffer rather than just rely on a ‘trickle down’ effect from the Wirral Waters developments and make sure these areas benefit too.
• Retail – some centres are under stress and there was a need to plan ahead for interventions.
• The current draft plan gave no indication of the targets reached from the previous years’ plan and there was a need for headline priorities with start and end dates through a three year cycle with budgeting year on year.
• Looking at the phraseology used such as, ‘Ensuring that our young people have excellent skills and opportunities into employment,’ this could be re-phrased, ‘Ensuring that our young people have the best qualifications for whatever employment they want to go into…’
• ‘Continuing to improve our relationships with the private sector….’ – could these sectors be listed?
• Need for a measure of those co-ordinated resources for all business support services through Invest Wirral.
• ‘An increasing role for social enterprises in Wirral’s economy’ should be shown as a percentage.
• Wirral was over-dependent on the public sector for employment opportunities and there was a need for a re-balancing of this.
• There was a need to refer to the growth in the elderly population and the impact of this on every sector.
• Too many units of a certain type of housing stock.
• No sense of which priority was the driving force for the Council.
• No mention of the Council’s public health role, where it would sit within the Council structure and how it would be scrutinised.

The Chair suggested that it was also difficult to view the document in isolation without seeing any budget proposals or the Departmental Plan.

Resolved – That the comments of the Committee be referred to the Cabinet.