Agenda item

(Report to follow).

This report will follow in a Supplementary Papers pack once the report has been published for consideration of the Cabinet.

The Chairman noted that this was an addendum to the existing Council Plan and invited Ms. Poole, as Head of Business Transformation, Organisational Development and Digital Strategy to provide a brief overview of the report.

Ms. Poole presented the background to the Council Plan and reminded Members that this had been put in place prior to the pandemic.  A workshop had been held with the Corporate Management Team (CMT) and Cabinet Members in 2021 to ensure that the Council’s strategic purposes and measures remained relevant in a post pandemic world and to consider whether any new areas of focus were needed following it. 

It was highlighted that there was no change to the majority of the Council’s priorities and milestones.  However, there was a significant change in respect of the Green Thread, which now played a more prominent role and had become a priority in its own right, with its own set of focal points.  The addendum should be considered side by side with the Council Plan, which would be reviewed fully in 2023.  The Recovery and Restoration Plan had been put in place as a response to the pandemic and the majority of this had now been completed, any remaining areas had been picked up within the Council Plan.

The Leader reiterated that the importance of the Green Thread and how it had been highlighted as a priority and needed to be addressed moving forwards.  Members went on to raise a number of areas, which were noted by the Leader and Officers and would be picked up within the Council Plan, this included:

·       Strengthening visibility in the district centres – concerns were raised that there had been little or no support from the Centres Manager.  The Leader advised that she was new to post and was working hard to make contact with everyone, but she would feedback concerns raised.

·       Details around the use of the welcome back funds was provided.

·       Reference to the ABCD model was discussed and how some Parish Councils were already doing some of this work and would be willing and able to provide support and further help. (The Leader was happy to discuss this with Members in more detail outside of the meeting, if they wished to contact her.)

·       The wording in respect of housing growth on page 18 of the agenda pack, which it was felt did not read particularly well – officers agreed to revisit this.

·       The Green Thread and the work already being undertaken within the District and the Council being able to find an area that it could put its own stamp on and make a real difference.  It was suggested that the heat pump project could be included within this section.

·       Councillor A. Kriss commented that he understood some of the businesses in his area had not been contacted or supported (as referenced in the Economic section on page 16 of the agenda) by any of the programmes mentioned or received the NWEDR newsletter, he was concerned that this was online and not everyone was able to access online services.  The Leader provided information around how this could be access and encouraged Councillor Kriss to pass this on to those businesses within his Ward.  It was noted that Members could also register for this newsletter and pass on the information to those in their Wards who would find it useful.

·       Clarification was also sought in respect of the travel section of page 22 of the agenda pack and the need to promote car sharing and public transport was discussed.

The Chairman thanked everyone for their input to this document and the Executive Director, Finance and Resources acknowledged the valid points that had been made and the need for the Green Thread section to be further developed.  The Climate Change Strategy was currently being developed and these discussion points would be fed back to the relevant officers.