Agenda item

To consider a report from the Leader of the Council (copy enclosed)

The Leader of the Council presented a report which advised members of the steps being taken towards the adoption of a Council Plan for Westmorland and Furness Council. The Council Plan would set out the high level strategic direction for the new authority including vision and priorities.

 

Although there was no statutory requirement for a local authority to have a Council plan or Corporate Plan, most Councils had some form of over-arching corporate policy document or Council Plan which set out the Council’s vision, values and priorities.

 

A Council Plan was particularly important in the case of Westmorland and Furness where a new Council was about to come into being. There was an opportunity to set a long term direction of realising the benefits offered by local government re-organisation by doing things differently.

 

The new Council would be required to set budgets, design structures, make decisions on operating models and appoint the right people to the right roles. All of these things needed to be guided by vision, direction and priorities so that, in addition to being efficient, safe and legal, the new Council was able to structure and design itself in such a way that enabled it to deliver lasting change.

 

This Council plan would be prepared with a great deal of uncertainty around the means of delivery. So it needed to focus on;

 

•   Vision - how the Council see the District and its people changing in the long term;

•   Priorities – the areas to which resource will need to be targeted to deliver the vision;

•   Values and principles – the values that will inform how the Council delivers on the vision.

 

Importantly the new Council would face significant resource challenges. This meant that the plan would have to inform some difficult decisions on priorities and it would not be able to achieve all of its ambitions straight away. However it was important that if the benefits of local government re-organisation were to be realised, there needed to be vision, ambition and direction.

 

The plan would provide a high level framework for functions currently delivered by the County Council such as social care supporting families and vulnerable children and adults, highways and transport, strategic infrastructure and investment, services to support the education system and improve outcomes for children and young people  and District functions such as planning, environmental health, housing and recreation and was an opportunity to get some of these to work better together in pursuit of strategic priorities.

 

The Leader said that because of the considerable uncertainties and demanding timescales under which the plan was being prepared, it was likely that there would be a need for early review and extensive community conversations in the first year of the new authority.

 

The Leader then took members through some of the detail in the report, including:

 

·           The new district – facts and figures

·           The district economy

·           Challenges, and

·           The timeline and council plan preparation process.

 

Cllr Battye was concerned about the emerging vision and priorities as the plan still seemed unclear on what these might be.  She also had a concern that according to the proposed timeline it did not appear that the draft plan would be considered again by the Overview and Scrutiny Committee before adoption.

 

The Leader responded to say that the report outlined the timeline for the preparation of the plan and he reassured members that he would endeavour to find a way to engage with scrutiny members on the final plan.

 

The Strategy Lead Specialist said the current exercise was constrained by both the tight timescale and also that fact that there are no dedicated officers producing the plan, which was being developed by staff in the sovereign councils.  It was therefore likely to be a high level document.  However, soon after vesting day this would be refreshed with much wider consultation.

 

In relation to services going forward the Leader said that in the first instance it would make sense to continue with district led services in Barrow, Eden and South Lakeland in the transition stage, but in the future the Council would be looking at how services could be further devolved.

 

Cllr Battye was aware that parish councils were concerned that the new unitary authority would be looking to pass its responsibilities on to them.

 

The Leader said he would be engaging with all parish councils to discuss devolving services, but he was very aware that one size would not fit all.  However, the Council would be encouraging dialogue.

 

The Leader then made reference to the budgets and how these might be disaggregated.  Although there would be significant financial challenges ahead, officers and members were currently at an early stage of identifying budgets and the Leader would share these with Overview and Scrutiny Committee at an appropriate time.

 

The Cabinet Member for Finance said the budget would be part of an iterative process and the initial budget would be used as the basis for the Council Plan.  However, this would be renewed and refreshed after vesting day.

 

Cllr Hodgson commented that there were already some good economic partnerships in rural areas of the districts and these would need support and continuity from the new Council going forward.   She spoke particularly about the farming communities and the need to involve these in partnership discussions.  She also hoped that there would be levelling up for transport services in rural areas.

 

The Leader reassured Cllr Hodgson that there was a recognition of the importance of the agricultural sector in Westmorland and Furness and the sector would be engaged during the production of the plan.

 

Cllr Dew asked who would be producing the plan and when it would be going back to the Shadow Authority Cabinet to agree.  He was concerned that there did not appear to have been much discussion about this the last time the draft plan was considered.

 

The Leader responded to say that the Shadow Authority Cabinet had discussed the plan in detail during the informal cabinet meetings and he reassured members that the Cabinet was fully engaged in this process.  The Council Plan would be coming back to the Shadow Cabinet in October, and the Overview and Scrutiny Committee would have the chance to considered the Council Plan again before it was finally adopted.

 

Cllr Clark asked how the Lake District National Park Plan would fit into the Council Plan. He wondered whether disaggregation of services would have a detrimental effect on the Lake District National Park.

 

The Leader replied that both shadow unitary councils were working closely with the LDNP on this. There were lots of members that represented sovereign councils and decisions would be needed on how the membership would be spilt going forward.

 

Cllr Clark felt that to give a number of elected members should at least be the same as the currently representation.  The Leader noted these comments and would continue to work with the National Parks to resolve this.   

 

Cllr Phillips commented that he felt the Shadow Authority should prudent on the number of priorities in the Council Plan, as he felt it may be difficult to deliver on these.

 

The Leader recognised the concerns raised and shared some of them.  However, the two new unitary councils had been given the same timescales for delivery of a Council Plan as all the other councils going through local government reform.  There had been no recognition from Government that the splitting of services in Cumbria would require a much greater effort to achieve.  However, he again reiterated that the Council Plan would be in a two stage process – Stage 1 would be day 1 and then Stage 2 would be the transformation stage.

 

Cllr Phillips challenged the Leader on the timescale and it was not a statutory deadline, but was a deadline set by Westmorland and Furness Council.  He felt it would be better to have everything else underpinned before we published a Council Plan.

 

The Cabinet Member for Finance said the Shadow Council had to start building budgets and in order to do this there had to be a plan in place.  The Council Plan would be a high level document.

 

Cllr Evans implored the Leader to ensure that young people were at the heart of the priorities in the Plan, we need to encourage young people to want to stay and live in Westmorland and Furness.  They are the future and so important.  The Leader noted these comments.

 

Cllr V Hughes raised concerns about the health and wellbeing of the elderly living in rural communities and was pleased to hear this was being considered.

 

She also had concerns about businesses struggling to recruit staff and wondered if apprenticeships may be the key to resolving this.   

 

Her final concern was about the fact that local communities were being hit by the cost of housing and more specifically about the increase in the number of second homes in the area.

 

The Leader noted these comments and said in relation to the issue of housing South Lakeland District Council had been working with the Lake District Partnership and he hoped this would continue with the unitary council.

 

RESOLVED, that the Overview and Scrutiny Committee

 

(1)  Notes this report;

(2)  Forwards comments made today onto Cabinet for their consideration