Issue - meetings

At its meeting on 1 June 2022, the Executive Committee considered the Council Plan 2020/24 refresh and RECOMMENDED TO COUNCIL that it be ADOPTED.  

29.5           At its meeting on 1 June 2022, the Executive Committee had considered the Council Plan 2020/24 refresh and recommended that it be adopted.

29.6           The report which was considered by the Executive Committee had been circulated with the Agenda for the current meeting at Pages No. 34-56.

29.7           The Vice-Chair of the Executive Committee proposed the recommendation of the Executive Committee and it was seconded.

29.8           A Member expressed the view that it would be helpful to have been provided with a list of why items had been added/removed and the Head of Corporate Services undertook to provide this following the meeting. It was understood that some items had been removed because they had been completed but there were some items which had been completed and were still included, for example the solar canopy, and some which had been deleted even though they were still ongoing, for example, “supporting community led biodiversity projects across the Borough”. It was felt the whole document was a little unclear. In response, the Head of Corporate Services explained that things described as ‘business as usual’ were reported to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee within the performance tracker so those that were not included in the Council Plan were overseen in other ways. This included the small Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment which had been implemented in August and was now business as usual meaning it had been deleted from the Council Plan.

29.9           It was proposed and seconded that “supporting community led biodiversity projects across the Borough”, on Page No. 51 under the heading ‘Promote a healthy and flourishing environment in the borough’, be left in the Council Plan document.

29.10         Referring to the economic growth section of the Council Plan, a Member indicated that there were areas in the Borough other than Tewkesbury Town that needed redevelopment/improvement. In response, the Lead Member for Built Environment confirmed that the Council did fund regeneration across the Borough but the Heritage Action Zone funding was from the government specifically for the Tewkesbury Town Heritage Action Zone which was the reason that was included in the Council Plan. In general she felt it was heartening to see the amount the Council had achieved in the last three years.

29.11         Upon the amendment being proposed and seconded, it was

                  RESOLVED          That the Council Plan refresh be ADOPTED, subject to the                                reinstatement of the wording “supporting community led                                          biodiversity projects across the Borough” on Page No. 51                                         under the heading ‘Promote a healthy and flourishing                                               environment in the borough’.  

To consider the Council Plan and make a recommendation to Council. 

That it be RECOMMENDED TO COUNCIL that the refreshed Council Plan be ADOPTED.  

9.1             The report of the Head of Corporate Services, circulated at Pages No. 80-102, attached the refreshed Council Plan which Members were asked to recommend to Council for adoption.

9.2             The Head of Corporate Services explained that the Council Plan was a key strategic document which established the overarching vision for the Borough and set out, in broad terms, the priorities, objectives and actions that the Council would focus upon to work towards the vision. The current Plan was approved by the Council on 28 January 2020 but, to ensure it remained a ‘live’ document, it was reviewed on an annual basis and, where appropriate, updated. In respect of the current review, the overall vision and values remained unchanged, and the Council’s six priority themes were reaffirmed as finance and resources; economic growth; housing and communities; customer first; garden communities; and sustainable environment.  Each of the priorities was supported by a series of key objectives and underneath each objective were supporting actions to be delivered or progressed during the year. The main purpose of the annual refresh was to review the Council Plan actions under each of the priority objectives and establish the status of each one. There may be a range of outcomes, for example, an action may have been delivered during the year and therefore could be removed from the plan; new actions may have emerged to support the delivery of the priority; an action may need to be amended to reflect its changing nature; and an action may need to be removed as it was no longer relevant or had been deferred. There were examples of that within the Council Plan refresh, for example, the action to ensure that Ubico resources made available as a result of the bulky waste review be redeployed had been removed as the action was complete; the action to introduce a shop-front grant scheme through the Tewkesbury High Street Heritage Action Zone had been amended to deliver projects as part of the Tewkesbury High Street Heritage Action Zone, including a shop front scheme, upper floors scheme and traditional skills to reflect the wider workstreams of the project; and a range of new actions had been added including to recommence the regeneration of Tewkesbury Town projects, deliver an Empty Homes Strategy, carry out a review of the licensing service and deploy CCTV cameras in fly tipping hotspots.

9.3             It was intended that the COVID recovery plan actions would be transitioned back into the Council Plan – this would not dilute the Council’s approach to recovery, and there would continue to be a thread related to COVID-19 within the Council Plan refresh. There were also actions within the Council Plan, for example through the formulation of strategies such as the Economic Development and Tourism Strategy and the Medium Term Financial Strategy which would recognise and reflect the impact the pandemic had on the Council, its residents, communities and businesses.

9.4             Accordingly, it was