To receive a ‘State of the Borough’ presentation from the Leader of the Council, Councillor Dave Waters.

98.1           The Mayor invited the Leader of the Council, Councillor Dave Waters, to make his ‘State of the Borough’ presentation to the Council.  

98.2           The presentation covered the following main points:

·         Introduction – 2017/18 had been a successful year and had marked the end of the second year of the Council Plan; the next couple of years would continue to be exciting although the challenge remained to deliver services that cost less but provided the same level of support for customers; Tewkesbury Borough was an ambitious Council which punched above its weight and would carry on driving its transform programme to ensure it continued to have efficient and effective services and it would continue to be a Council to be proud of.

·         Finances and Resources - this year the Council had acquired a further three commercial property investments, which brought its total investment to £31.1 million (for five properties), and was generating a net return of £1.15 million - a further £12 million investment had been agreed in additional properties; the top floor of the Public Service Centre had been refurbished, of which one third had been let by Commscope - overall income received from Public Services Centre partners for rental purposes was £184,000. The Leader thanked the Officers, and the Transform Working Group, for its work in producing the Medium Term Financial Strategy which was a significant piece of work - he felt it demonstrated the good working relationship between Members and Officers. It should also be recognised there were significant asset-related projects which would be delivered across the lifetime of the Council Plan which included Spring Gardens and the MAFF site - through positive Member and Officer joint working he felt sure those projects would come to fruition.  

·         Economic Development – in June 2017 the Council had launched a new Economic Development and Tourism Strategy 2017-21 to support its ambition to be the primary growth engine of Gloucestershire - this showed the real value of Overview and Scrutiny Committee as it was an Overview and Scrutiny Working Group that had worked with Officers to develop the Strategy; £465,000 of funding had been secured to bring a Business Growth Hub into the Public Services Centre - this was an exciting project and Tewkesbury Borough Council would be the first local authority in the country to host a Growth Hub within its building - the hub would open in September; the Council had continued to work with neighbouring authorities and key stakeholders to promote the local and strategic national benefit of an improved Junction 9 and was also working with Gloucestershire County Council, and other partners, to secure funding to improve Junction 10 to benefit the delivery of key sites and wider accessibility. In addition, the Community Funding Officer had supported over 100 community groups throughout the year to apply for funding - this took the total funds granted to over £1 million since July 2015.

·         Housing – after all the hard work of Officers and Members over a significant period of time, it was pleasing to see all three Councils adopt the Joint Core Strategy; the Council continued to provide support to Town and Parish Councils with the development of Neighbourhood Plans and 18 Parishes were preparing 14 plans of which three had been adopted. By quarter three the Council had exceeded its 2017/18 target of delivering 150 affordable homes. In addition, the first year of the Housing and Homelessness Strategy had now concluded and the Executive Committee had approved the year two action plan. The Leader also advised that the Housing Team was in line to receive a Bronze award following submission of an application for ‘Challenge One’ of the Gold Standard.

·         Customer-Focused Services – the £2.3 million refurbishment of the Public Services Centre was underway - this was a real transformational project and would ensure the Council maximised the operational capability of the building to deliver services to meet the needs of its residents. The Council had a commitment to maintain and improve a culture of continuous service improvement - one of its key front line services was Development Services and there was an ambition to make this service as efficient, effective and economical as possible - an action plan to deliver that was being considered later on the Agenda. The main phase of the Revenue and Benefits restructure was complete with a new management structure in place and, early in 2018/19, a similar review was taking place in relation to Community Services. The garden waste service had been a significant project running for the whole financial year and had delivered the transition of all customers moving to one renewal date along with the implementation of a sticker licence. To date, over 14,000 customers had subscribed with 72% doing so online which was a positive contribution to the Council’s digital agenda. A range of the Council’s self-serve online forms had been improved to give a better customer experience including: business grant applications, community support requests, job applications, food business applications and missed bin forms. This was supported with new payment channels for customers which sought to make it as easy as possible to make payments. The Council continued to support the Citizens’ Advice Bureau with a grant of £53,000 and this had helped to support over 1,000 residents. 2017/18 had seen an increased recycling rate of 56% - an excellent improvement on 2016/17 which was 54% - and the Council had cracked down on enviro-crimes issuing more than 20 fixed penalty notices and making six successful prosecutions throughout the year. New policies had been approved such as the Public Spaces Protection Order (dog fouling) and Fixed Penalty Notices. The Leader thanked the Overview and Scrutiny Committee for its continued challenge of how the Council dealt with enviro-crimes which had resulted in the development of a refreshed enviro-crime action plan.

·         Moving Forward – the Council had an exciting and challenging time ahead – with constant pressure to do more with less. The third year of the Council Plan continued to have big ambitions with many projects nearing fruition throughout the coming year e.g. completion of the Public Services Centre refurbishment, implementation of the Growth Hub and delivery of key strategies such as the JCS and the Economic Development and Tourism Strategy. Infrastructure, skills and housing delivery remained important issues for the Borough and the adoption of the JCS had been vital for shaping its future. Projects were now being prepared to ensure the Borough’s infrastructure was meeting the needs and maximising the growth opportunities Tewkesbury Borough’s strategic location provided. The Council remained committed to its ethos of ‘better for customers, better for business’ and a key element of this was its commitment to the digital agenda. Looking forward, key projects would come to the fore such as paperless billing for Council Tax and business rates, a corporate digital platform, interactive planning maps and roll out of Office 365.

98.3           The Mayor thanked the Lead Member for his informative presentation and it was

                  RESOLVED          That the Leader’s ‘State of the Borough’ presentation be                                     NOTED.