Cllr. David Thomas: We need to deliver for you, our community

At cabinet and council this week we discussed recommendations that had been submitted regarding TDA – Torbay Development Agency, or some of you may know them as Torbay Economic Development Company.

Some background for you on this, TDA was originally established with local private sector leaders involved in decision making to support economic development in Torbay. Today though we face a different set of challenges to those faced in 2009 when the TDA was just a concept.

The council have renewed their focus on how we create spaces to thrive for you and have established our Torbay Story. This has included setting up the Place Leadership Board and the Place Champions programme. If you haven’t heard of the Torbay Story, I highly suggest that you visit www.torbaystory.co.uk to find out more on how we are working together with a range of other partners. This is so we can put Torbay on the map, showcasing the opportunities the Bay has to offer as a place to invest, live, visit and have fun in.

In recent years though, we have seen a continued decline in our overall economic performance and skill levels in our general workforce. We have also seen decline among other indicators which emphasise the challenges we have here facing us in the Bay.

Now more than ever we need a stronger focus on the Torbay economy, its development and our priorities. As TDA focus has evolved, we too as a council have a need to renew our focus to deliver for our communities.

This week we discussed a future options paper which looks at the structure, performance, assets owned and managed and external contracts of the TDA. This provided us with three options. It was agreed by cabinet and council that TDA is brought into the council and that it is dissolved as a company. We will now work through the next steps needed to do this.

We also discussed this week our 20-year Community and Corporate Plan. This plan sets out the council's ambitions between now and 2043.

Usually our plans cover a four or five year period. This one is different as it covers 20 years. This is so we as a council can focus on long term ambitions. A council Business Plan will now be developed and will show the actions we will take towards those ambitions over the next four years.

We have developed this draft Community and Corporate Plan using feedback we received from you from our first Resident Satisfaction Survey. These results helped and supported us putting you at the heart of everything we do and in identifying three strategic themes, the priorities we will focus on and the outcomes we want to achieve.

Our strategic themes are: Community and People; Pride in Place and Economic Growth. Priorities include from ensuring our town centres are safe and welcoming for all, improving the delivery, affordability, and quality of housing for residents in Torbay, to raising skills levels and developing a year-round economy.

We now want to hear from you if we have these themes and priorities right. The consultation opens today and there are number of ways you can take part. Either online by visiting www.torbay.gov.uk/consultations or if you prefer a paper copy, these will be available in Torquay, Paignton and Brixham libraries from Wednesday September 27. The consultation is open until the end of October so there is plenty of time to take a look or grab a paper copy.

You can also feedback your thoughts at our first Have Your Say engagement event that is taking place next Friday September 29 at Paignton Library and Information Centre. We will be there from 10am to 4pm to listen to any general concerns you have. It will be great to see you there if you can make it, If not, don’t worry as we will be running one of these engagement events every other month across the whole of Torbay. Watch this space to find out when the next one will take place.