Issue - meetings

The Cabinet Member for Finance, Governance and Customer Services presented the report of the Director: Communities, Customer and Commercial Services.

The report provided an update on the Digital Strategy, including the actions delivered since the strategies launch.

The strategy was progressing well, 15 of the 37 actions for 2021/22 had been completed, with a further 17 in progress.

Tom the Chatbot had been launched and had answered 12,530 queries since it had gone live. A 98.5% satisfaction rating had been achieved by this service, which operated 24/7 and received 33% of queries outside of office hours.

The delivery of full fibre infrastructure capable of supporting 5G was on target. In partnership with Virgin Media O2 Business, the scheme would boost digital infrastructure, employment and skills within the Borough.

Cabinet Members welcomed the strategy and noted that this strategy ran alongside the Council’s customer strategy. The strategy acknowledged that not everyone was able to or wished to use digital means to contact the Council and that all channels for access would be kept open and this was welcomed by both the Liberal Democrat Group Leader and the Conservative Group Representative.

RESOLVED that:

a)    The update to the Digital Strategy be approved, with the progress delivered to date be noted and the refreshed action plan as set out in Appendix A of the report be endorsed;

b)   Authority be delegated to the Director: Communities, Customer and Commercial Services in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Finance, Governance and Customer Services to take the necessary steps to implement the actions contained in Appendix A of the report.