Time to have your say over Torridge's new Strategic Plan

You may recall that a few months ago I reported on the launch of a process aimed at the development of a new Strategic Plan for Torridge. To recap, the plan sets out the vision and ambitions the council aspires to achieve over the coming years running from 2023 to 2028.

I’m pleased to report that a comprehensive draft version of the plan was approved at Monday’s Full Council meeting. With this in mind I’d like to use this week’s column to bring you up to date with further detail on our progress and invite you all to review and contribute to the six week public consultation the council has now launched.

Back in July councillors agreed a timetable and schedule for the work and there has been much activity behind the scenes to assist with the drafting of the document.

This began with a councillor workshop in August where councillors from all wards shared their wish lists for the district and debated and prioritised the themes and high level actions that form the backbone of the new plan. Working groups, including myself as leader, and lead members then took the raw output from this meeting and with the input of senior officers, refined the information captured on the day, to produce the list of high level deliverable actions.

Councillors had previously decided that the strategic themes under which these actions should be grouped were still relevant from the previous plan and would remain as the four headline topics: the Local Economy, Communities Health and Housing, Our Environment Our Future, and Our Council.

The plan this time around will have even greater significance because, as previously reported, the council has been identified as one of twenty Local Authority Areas across England to be invited to form a Levelling up Partnership with Government. The details of this initiative are still emerging and there are ongoing discussions in advance of any final announcements.

However, we do know that around £400m in total has been allocated to the policy, but we don’t yet know how this will be allocated across the authorities involved. Because of this work its vitally important that, as a council, we have a clear vision of what we would like to achieve and it’s an opportunity to align our plans with this emerging policy to put forward broad workstreams and project areas that might be supported through grants from the partnership.

This is a very exciting opportunity for the area and the funding will be vital to improving so many aspects of people’s lives in Torridge including better educational outcomes, an improved economy and earning potential, and improved health provisions and outcomes.

All of this work can’t be delivered by the council alone and so the new plan also emphasises the importance of strategic partnerships both old and new. We already work closely with our neighbouring partners at North Devon Council producing a joint local plan and supporting the local economy through a joint funding of North Devon Plus.

To build on this we’ll be looking for further collaboration opportunities and both councils are members of the recently formed Northern Devon Futures. This is a strategic partnership of multiple organisations working together to improve the lives of everyone living and working in the two council areas.

The Torridge Strategic Plan has also been shaped to compliment the Northern Devon Economic Strategy, which is also being refreshed in the coming months and will focus on growth and opportunity where the previous version was understandably focused on recovery following the Covid Pandemic.

I’m optimistic that this will all be a forerunner to a much more positive outlook for the region and the timetable now moves forward with a period of consultation.

This will be open to all Torridge residents and will be shared with Town and Parish Councils, businesses, voluntary organisations and other partners for comment.

The consultation can be accessed on the Torridge website at www.torridge.gov.uk/strategicplan and will remain open until 14th November 2023.

We’ll be considering the feedback and final plan during Full Council in December so please do let us know what you think.