12th October 2024

Dear Councillor Chapelard,

Thank you for the draft strategic plan for our consideration and feedback.

While we acknowledge the ambitious aspirations from the political leadership, it’s imperative that the strategic plan is deliverable, both from a resource and a financial perspective. The context of Local Government funding is changing, and we welcome positive commitments from the Labour Government at this early stage. However, the outlook remains challenging with significant substantial contracts due for recommissioning in the next few years, the vital commitment to reach net zero by 2030, and additional financial pressures regarding waste management on the horizon. Accordingly, this current document cannot be judged as a strategic plan but rather a strategic ambition – it should state this in the document if the proposed projects are to remain in the finalised document.

We have concerns regarding the process by which the plan was drafted. At Full Council on 2nd October, you confirmed that you had drafted the plan yourself, with limited input from officers. This is evidenced by the fact that rather than setting the strategic direction for the Council, the draft strategic plan is an additional uncosted manifesto, drafted without the benefit of robust officer evaluation of the appropriateness and impact of the proposals outlined. It is disappointing that this draft was published without the opportunity to feedback on the lack of officer input or scrutiny from members.

The Labour Group raised a number of questions at Full Council on 2nd October that highlighted specific issues regarding some of the proposals under ‘Making it happen’. Overall, our concern is that these proposals lack detail. They rely heavily on the cooperation with external stakeholders which TWBC cannot control. The presentation of these proposals in the draft strategic plan is misleading residents who may assume that these suggestions are embedded into council policy and will be delivered. The responses from colleagues at Full Council did not reassure us that the political leadership of the Council has a good understanding of the complexities and financial constraints linked to these proposals.

The Labour Group is, like our political colleagues, keen to ensure that Tunbridge Wells Borough thrives. This plan gives residents no sense of the complex challenges that might have to be overcome to deliver the proposals and provides no measurable detail of what the potential benefits might be. The delivery of local government services needs to be planned cross-party and long term in order to be effective, and it is therefore disappointing that there has been no attempt to collaborate to build a plan that has cross-party buy in. In the Coalition Cabinet of 2022-2024, Cabinet agreed to identify three large, impactful projects that could be implemented within this time scale with smaller projects to be a secondary focus depending on circumstances, funding and resource. That more realistic approach has been lost in this new, Leader-drafted Draft Strategic Plan.

We will contribute to, and support, any proposal that is a sensible use of resources and will have a tangible, sustainable impact on improving services for residents and businesses. At this stage, the lack of detail and preparation in this draft means the Labour group of Councillors will not support this unevaluated, unfunded, unrealistic plan.

Yours sincerely,

Councillor Victoria Jones on behalf of the Labour Group