Issue - items at meetings - Sustainable Community Strategy

Report of the Acting Director, Strategy and Governance. (to follow)

19.1    The Head of Partnerships and External Relations presented the report to the Commission. This report was an initial summary of changes to the first draft of the Sustainable Community Strategy (SCS), which was the overarching strategic document for the city, drawing together the main strategies from the various partners in the city including the public sector, the local authority and the private sector amongst others. It was intended to be a twenty year vision for the city, with some of the plans being aspirational, others being more realistic.

The report had been presented in order to invite the Commission to play a role in the SCS consultation process, which had started on 13 July and would be running until 5 October 2009.

19.2    Councillor Kennedy commented that the SCS was very detailed and suggested that it might be beneficial for there to be a scrutiny workshop so that it could be considered effectively. This was supported by other members, who suggested that a draft response from the Commission ought to be timetabled into the work programme.

The Head of Partnerships and External Relations agreed to this, although advised that it might be daunting to hold a workshop on the entire strategy, so it may be more appropriate for members to focus on headline information and key priorities. This was agreed.

19.3    Members made factual and style comments on aspects of the draft SCS. The Head of Partnerships and External Relations welcomed these and asked for any such comments to be forwarded to him in writing so that he could act on them.

There were also a number of more technical queries about performance measurements and statistical information. It was agreed that these would be answered in the next agenda item which focussed on the Local Area Agreement and performance monitoring.

19.4    RESOLVED – it was agreed that a Commission workshop would be held for members to consider the Sustainable Community Strategy in an effective manner.