Agenda item

This report will follow in a Supplementary Papers pack once the report has been published for Cabinet’s consideration (due for publication on Tuesday 9 July).

The Policy Manager presented the proposed Council Plan, providing overview of each of the sections. It was reported that the development of the Council Plan had taken place over a number of months and had begun with some sessions supported by the Local Government Association (LGA). Once key priorities had been identified, there were two further workshops held with Cabinet Members and the Corporate Management Team (CMT) to progress further the key priorities that had previously been identified.

The final Council Plan provided an overarching vision for the District with the four new priorities as follows:

1. Economic Development
2. Housing
3. Environment
4. Infrastructure

It was noted that operationally, the Council Plan informed the service business planning process and helped to determine the Medium Term Financial Plan. The priorities and objectives contained within the Plan would be monitored using specific measures in order to ascertain the success and any areas of improvement.

Following the presentation, there were a number of points raised by Members:

·       Members commended the Council Plan and noted that it reflected the whole of the District. Some Members suggested that the ‘Monitoring, Review & Reporting’ section should include performance data against key measures covered in the Plan. It was responded that performance data on the measures covered in the Council Plan was provided regularly through Quarterly Finance and Performance Monitoring Reports that were presented to Cabinet and scrutinised by Finance and Budget Working Group (sub-committee of Overview and Scrutiny Board). The finance and performance monitoring were combined within a single report and the next step was to improve the format of the monitoring reports to make them more accessible to residents.

·       Number of registered births in Bromsgrove – It was explained that data for the number of births in Bromsgrove was taken by registered home address at the time of birth (on UK birth certificate). Therefore, people born in a hospital outside Bromsgrove who had Bromsgrove as registered address were classed as Bromsgrove residents for the purposes of population data.

·       It was highlighted that increasing the employment rate in Bromsgrove required good transport links to be provided between the outlying areas of the District and key population centres such as Bromsgrove Town, Birmingham and Worcester. It was commented by Members that some areas such as Alvechurch had managed to obtain extra bus services, however, bus routes were designed by Worcestershire County Council (WCC) and West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) within West Midlands and the Council needed to work with these bodies on matters concerning bus services.

·       Concerns were raised about the fulfilment of the Local Plan’s affordable housing contributions in some house building projects in the District. Longbridge site was cited where it was reported that the affordable housing contribution could be reduced from 40 to 30 per cent because the houses were built in stages due to cost.

·       The issues of hidden and unidentified pockets of deprivation in the District was discussed. It was noted that the English indices of deprivation and other national deprivation data did not always reveal hidden poverty, sometimes among residents in areas classed as more affluent. An issue of fuel poverty among residents who lived in larger properties and could no longer afford to heat their homes was highlighted by a Member.

·       A Member asked regarding the infrastructure requirement as part of the new Local Plan for the District. It was noted that this would be detailed within the Local Plan as a separate document from this Council Plan and that the new Local Plan would be produced for the period from 2031 which was outside the timescale for this Council Plan.

The recommendation as printed in the report was endorsed.

RECOMMENDED that The Council Plan attached at Appendix 1 be approved.