Agenda item

Richard Gibson, Strategy and Engagement Manager

Richard Gibson, the Strategy and Engagement Manager introduced the update as circulated with the agenda and the draft Place Strategy which was starting to take shape.  With the final draft scheduled to go to Council at the end of March, it was considered timely to seek the views of the committee, on the changes that had been made since the committee last looked at it in January.  Efforts had been made to simplify the framework and condense the vision, to which three ambitions had been aligned (Cheltenham is the most digitally enabled town, Cheltenham champions physical and mental wellbeing and Cheltenham has an international reputation for culture, heritage and sport).  He noted that the four values had been retained, which he and other officers had felt was important and the document was deliberately short, with an open and accessible style, in order that it would not be seen as a weighty policy document.

The following responses were given to member questions:

• The reference to ‘mental wellbeing’ had been used in its broader definition rather than simply relating to clinical mental health.  The recent study in Frome was given as an example of where connecting people and reducing social isolation, amongst other things, had helped to improve people’s mental wellbeing. 
• The Place Strategy was a partnership document rather than a CBC document and the ambition around an international reputation for culture, heritage and wellbeing was important to all partners.  Cheltenham certainly had an international reputation for horse racing but this needed to be translated into other areas and the Tour of Britain represented an attempt to do this.  There was something around capturing and harnessing the energy and possibilities, rather than this being something for the council to deliver directly. 
• Education was captured in one of the nine aspirations and there was agreement across partners that Cheltenham had a state and private education offer to be proud of.  But there was admittedly a skills gap and more needed to be done to address this at the same time that work was ongoing to co-ordinate this to respond to the expected growth in terms of cyber/digital skills.
• Whilst recognising that economic growth was hugely important in order to allow culture and communities to grow and prosper, there was a need for this document to be balanced and to progress all three ambitions together.  The Corporate Strategy would contain specifics about what this council would be doing to support these ambitions and this might be the place to highlight particular priorities.
• Although some might feel that certain aspects of Cheltenham (for example the ‘supply of business space’) were being undersold in this document, there was a need for honesty in terms of areas where there was the desire or need to invest.  It was acknowledged that the University were critical to enabling the success of some aspects of this strategy and members could be assured that links had been established. 
• The point about the document appearing insular as a result of there being nothing about the town’s relationship with the county or neighbouring towns and cities was an important one, and would be addressed before the document was taken to Cabinet.

The Strategy and Engagement Manager highlighted that the Corporate Strategy was usually tabled with this committee at this time each year but due to various other pressures, this had not been possible.  The intention was that this year, the Corporate Strategy would be relatively light-touch and simply reiterate existing commitments, with a more developed strategy being devised in July, after the elections. 

The Chairman thanked the Strategy and Engagement Manager for his attendance.