Issue - meetings

Report of the Leader

The Leader introduced the report which presents an overview of the refreshed Corporate Plan for 2025-28, a reassessment of its priorities following the reintegration of housing services to reflect local needs and national development. At the same time, a two-year review of the plan shows where progress has been made and where the council needs to do more, as well as ensuring it stays ahead of the curve in a fast-changing world. 

She outlined the five key priorities:

-       Securing Our Future

-       Quality Homes, Safe and Strong Communities

-       Reducing Carbon, Achieving Net Zero, Creating Biodiversity

-       Reducing Inequalities, Supporting Better Outcomes

-       Taking Care of Your Money

She said the performance report for 2024-25 shows some real wins, with progress on affordable housing, cyber infrastructure and digital services, but also highlights challenges, for example around homelessness prevention and recruitment in planning enforcement.  

In conclusion, she reminded Members that the refreshed plan is about building on what is working, fixing what is not, and staying focussed on what matters most to Cheltenham residents.

Questions

In response to a Member’s questions, the Leader said she believed that the years referred to in the plan – Year 1, Year 2 etc. – relate to the financial year rather than the calendar year. 

Debate

Members welcomed the report, the refreshed plan, and the opportunity to pause and reflect on progress, thanking officers and Cabinet Members for their hard work in driving it forward.  They made the following points:

-       under Key Priority 4, it would be good to amend the heading to ‘continue to build relationships with local, regional, national and international visitor economy stakeholders’ in view of the Liberal Democrats and the town being outward-looking and international.  Thanks to Richard Gibson for his excellent work in the international arena, and to Andrew Lansley and Ian George of Cheltenham Festivals for their great efforts working with partner towns and raising Cheltenham’s international profile; 

-       the Corporate Plan should be used to showcase the council’s ongoing commitment to the UK’s efforts towards the United National Sustainable Development Goals, such as Key Priority 2’s working directly to achieve Goal 11, regarding sustainable cities and communities. The Member will be happy to look at this with officers and Cabinet colleagues;  

-       the shift to more vague, overarching key priorities is welcomed, but when delving deeper, there is space for more concrete targets and actions.  For example, one of the actions under Key Priority 1 is ‘clear social value targets with a main contractor by the end of Year 1’, but there is no indication of what the council would like those targets to be; and a target under Key Priority 3 is to construct the innovation centre by the end of Year 2 as a low carbon building, but with no metric defining a low-carbon building, it isn’t clear precisely what we exactly want to achieve.  The report sets out many great initiatives but doesn’t take them far enough;

-       the plan is full of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 10

Report of the Leader, Councillor Rowena Hay

RESOLVED THAT:

1.    thecorporate planreview andend ofyear performancereport is noted;

2.    therefreshed CorporatePlan 2025– 2028 is approved.

The Leader began her introduction by thanking officers for their input and suggested changes.  She said the council has refreshed its Corporate Plan to reflect its evolving responsibilities and reassess its priorities, particularly following the reintegration of housing services, and the updated plans sets the strategic direction for the next three years, ensuring alignment with local needs, national developments, and the council’s expanded role as a housing provider and landlord.   The two-year progress review of the 2023-27 plan highlights achievements and areas for improvement.  In addition, national policy shifts and local developments have necessitated a refreshed focus. 

She said our first strategic priorities have not changed and remain: securing our future; quality homes, safe and strong communities; reducing carbon, achieving Net Zero, creating biodiversity; reducing inequalities, supporting better outcomes; and taking care of your money. 

The performance report for 2024-25 highlights strong areas such as affordable housing delivery, cyber infrastructure and innovation centre progress, ICT reliability and digital service improvements, and decarbonisation grants and energy efficient housing upgrades.  It also reveals challenges such as homelessness prevention, recruitment difficulties, and lower-than-expected income in some areas, but said that overall CBC is a council that delivers, and always looks, questions and challenges itself on what it is doing. 

Members are asked to note the report today, before it goes to Full Council on Monday.

The Cabinet Member for Climate Emergency appreciated that one of the five key priorities is reducing carbon, achieving Net Zero and creating biodiversity, but said that he expects the plan will move towards adaptation to climate changes given the last six months of weather, and will be driven by the climate itself.   

The Cabinet Member for Waste, Recycling, Parks, Gardens and Public Greenspace said that CBC is a progressive, well-run and managed council, and gave huge congratulations to all the staff who do such a good job in protecting front-line services. 

RESOLVED THAT:

1.    thecorporate planreview andend ofyear performancereport is noted;

2.    therefreshed CorporatePlan 2025– 2028 is approved.