To consider recommending to Council the South & East Lincolnshire Councils Partnership Sub-regional Strategy.

•         That the Sub-regional Strategy at Appendix A be recommended to Council, subject to any final consultation feedback as agreed by the Portfolio Holder;

•         That Council be recommended to include the Sub-regional Strategy as a line of inquiry in the Partnership’s Annual Scrutiny.

A report was presented to recommend to Council the South & East Lincolnshire Councils Partnership Sub-regional Strategy.

When the South & East Lincolnshire Councils Partnership formed, the Business Case identified opportunities for greater alignment and closer working on a range of strategic issues that were common for each Council area within the sub-region.

Each of the Councils existing Corporate Strategies were reaching the end of their life, or were due for review, and Councillors previously approved (via the Annual Delivery Plan) the development of a Sub-regional Strategy to replace the existing Corporate Strategies.

As well as identifying the sub-regional strategic priorities going forward, the proposed Strategy (Appendix A) also identified specific priorities where these were a matter of importance to one sovereign Council within the Partnership.

Moving to a single Sub-regional Strategy further cemented the positive joint working between the three Councils and positioned the Partnership well for the future.  The Strategy had been considered via each Councils’ sovereign scrutiny processes and had been refined based on feedback received from Members and public consultation with residents and stakeholders.

During discussion reference was made to the proposed priorities of Growth and Prosperity, Healthy Lives, Safe and Resilient Communities and the Environment. 

Following which it was

RESOLVED

1.               That the Sub-regional Strategy at Appendix A be recommended to Council, subject to any final consultation feedback as agreed by the Portfolio Holder;

2.               That Council be recommended to include the Sub-regional Strategy as a line of inquiry in the Partnership’s Annual Scrutiny.

Reasons:

The opportunity to align strategic priorities across the Councils through a single Sub-regional Strategy provides a Partnership platform to further realise the benefits of collaborative working. 

Having the single Strategy would demonstrate to external partners our alignment in key areas and collective focus on addressing the issues of strategic importance to our sub-region. This will be particularly helpful when engaging with Government and funders.

Other options:

Do nothing.  It has already been agreed by Councillors, via the Annual Delivery Plan, that a Sub-regional Strategy for the Partnership should be developed.   As such, this option was discounted.