Agenda and minutes

To receive apologies for absence.

To receive any declarations of interest from Members relating to items to be considered on the agenda.

There were no declarations of interest reported.

To consider a report by County Councillor David Thomas, Cabinet Member for Finance and Corporate Transformation.

Cabinet considered a report setting out the framework for Sustainable Powys, which outlined the programme principles together with the place-based planning areas and principles which would be used to plan future services. Sustainable Powys would provide a structured process to review and reshape Council services in the face of growing financial and workforce pressures.

Place based planning would help divide the county into manageable areas for service planning and for working with communities and partners. The “locality model” was already used in Powys, breaking the county into 13 localities based around the main market towns. It was proposed that the 13 localities fit inside four larger “core areas” defined by the following towns: Welshpool, Newtown, Llandrindod and Brecon.

County Councillor Beverley Baynham speaking as the joint leader of the opposition challenged the proposal saying that it would lead to services being withdrawn from all but the four towns, with residents having to travel up to one hour in order to access services. She noted that there had been no consultation on the proposals.

The Leader noted that for many communities there would be no change as the Council did not currently provide comprehensive services across the county. The Cabinet needed to find a way of sustaining as many services as possible in as many places as it could. The locality model was a flexible approach to tackling this challenge. Cabinet noted that all services and facilities would be supported by a sound business case. The Chief Executive confirmed that there would be a county wide consultation.

RESOLVED

1.    To approve the Sustainable Powys principles.

2.    To approve the Place-Based Planning principles.

3.    To approve the 4 core areas and 13 locality areas.