Clewer & Dedworth, Environment, Homepage Features, RBWM Borough Council

RBWM Corporate Plan Consultation, or not?

The Corporate Plan is THE MOST IMPORTANT strategy document in the Council’s Constitution; It influences ALL the decisions that RBWM will make. But is the Council excluding residents through a fake consultation process? Are you being prevented from influencing the actions of your council?

Summary
·“A Corporate Plan sets the priorities for the council. It provides a framework for the decisions we take–including how we allocate the resources we have available.”
·It should include new or amended purposes to define What we spend the money on – in addition to those purposes defied by UK Law
·It should include high-level decision-making criteria – how money is spent
·The material published by RBWM seems designed to exclude residents from setting criteria by asking questions not related to the criteria you wish to see but rather other abstract questions.
· Decision-making criteria MUST include Climate Resilience, Net Zero Emissions, Biodiversity and Ecosystem Restoration, and Elimination of Plastic Pollution
·Additional Purposes MUST include Resident Well-Being (including cost reductions) and improvements to residents’ Mobility which also correlate closely to environmental decision-making possibilities.

What is a Corporate Plan?

RBWM correctly states that “A Corporate Plan sets the priorities for the council. It provides a framework for the decisions we take–including how we allocate the resources we have available.”

In other words, it does two things;

  • It sets the decision-making criteria that the Council MUST apply to every decision it takes including all those activities that are defined by law or those that we define in
  • It also helps set up new or amended purposes i.e. services to deliver.

New or amended purposes help define new areas of what we spend our money on but, decision-making criteria define how that money is spent i.e. which options to choose.

What should a Corporate Plan NOT include?

A Corporate Plan needs not consider any areas of its required activity or process which are defined by Acts of Parliament.

It could be argued therefore that the Corporate Plan should include Highways, Education, Waste and recycling, Social Care, Amenity management and tree work or Local authorities as social housing landlords to name but a few.

What should a Corporate Plan include?

A Corporate Plan should include 1) strategic targets (decision-making criteria) and, areas of activity (new or amended purposes) arguably missing from the issues required by UK Law.

Our Comments on the Corporate Plan Process

  1. The material published by RBWM seems designed to exclude residents from setting criteria by asking questions not related to the criteria you wish to see but rather other abstract questions. And so it seems to lead the audience to what the Council, be it officers or the administration, wants you to consider and not tell you what you can consider i.e. what is possible?
  2. It is unclear how the questions in the response form will result in residents setting the objectives and priorities of the final Corporate Plan as the questions are unrelated to the format of a Corporate Plan. So, when combined with a lack of further consultation steps, it seems as if the process is designed to exclude residents’ credible involvement.
  3. The material doesn’t seem to show any level of understanding by the Council of the needs or desires of its residents or local communities.
  4. Items to be included in the Decision Making Criteria (How the money is spent) should be included at the HIGHEST LEVEL in the Tiers of Priority to ensure that they are considered in every decision and demonstrated in every report and memo issues by the Council.
    • Anything NOT included at the Highest Level of the Corporate Plan will be largely disregarded or sidelined in practice.
  5. The Decision-Making Criteria (How the money is spent) should include the fundamental issues which bring assurance and safety to residents to ensure that everything that the Council does achieves this, whether Buildings or Contractors or our Services. Remember value for money, solvency, a good investment return or safe contractors is already stipulated by other UK Laws and regulations. This should therefore include the existential threats now facing us and not already stipulated by law. We MUST include the following at the highest trophic level in the Corporate Plan as decision-making criteria;
    • Ensuring all our infrastructure, operations and assets can function in the increasingly extreme weather we are predicted to face; heat; flooding; drought; cold; precipitation etc.. (Climate Resilience)
    • Ensuring that all our infrastructure, operations and assets contribute to achieving Net-Zero Green house Gas emissions in accordance with the 1.5C Limit agreed to by the UK Government (Net Zero Emissions)
    • Ensuring that all our infrastructure, operations and assets contribute to an increase in the amount of habitat, ecosystems and biodiversity (Biodiversity and Ecosystem Restoration)
    • Ensuring that all our infrastructure, operations and assets eliminate plastic or fully collect and recycle it including litter to stop plastic pollution affecting our pavements, rods, green space and water courses (Elimination of Plastic Pollution).
  6. Environmental criteria help bring great benefits to humans including
    • Reduction in heating bills – potentially £0  (Resident Well being)
    • Reduced levels of air pollution to improve health, well-being  and, academic  and workforce achievement  (Resident Well being)
    • More green spaces and watercourses for leisure activities to improve health  (Resident Well being)
    • More ecosystems for increased mental well beings and holiday activities  (Resident Well being)
    • Increased biodiversity improves garden and farming productivity and so reduce costs and improve health  (Resident Well being)
  7. Consultations are difficult and take much energy, effort and cost; it should contains many drafts and revisions over a long period of time with material delivered to each and every resident, school, organistion and business. At a time when the Council doesn’t have such money, I would suggest that you should include two to three iterations for public discussion and consultation for the process to be considered as resident-led, rather than officer or administration determined.
  8. I would suggest that you include Mobility, Well being and the Environment in your Topic headings as these are the main headings of comments from residents;
    • Good roads (Improved Mobility objective)
    • Safe, and level pathways and more pedestrian crossings (Improved Mobility and Resident Well being objectives)
    • Increased enforcement on parking, planning and highway and pavement damage (Improved Mobility and Resident Well being objectives)
    • Improved levels of welfare checks and improvement of community cohesion through Community Wardens. (Improved Resident Well being objective)
    • More and improved, useable, low cost, green bus services in lieu of car usage to improve mobility, local business viability, mental health and well being of residents (Improved Mobility and Resident Wellbeing objectives)
    • Increased decision-making powers and delegated spending to local areas (Improved Mobility and Resident Wellb eing objectives)
    • Reduced noise and air pollution (Improved Resident Well being objective)
    • Improved greenspaces and ecosystems for leisure Improved Resident Well being objective)
    • More leisure activities for children and youth Improved Resident Well being objective)
    • More big name stores in our shopping centre Improved Resident Well being objective

Responses to specific RBWM Topic Area Questions

  • The local area 
    1. What are the keys strengths of the borough and the community that you live in? Where would you most like to see improvements? Strengths include Environment, green spaces, ecosystems however these are also areas at risk due to poor planning decisions and a lacking Borough Local Plan in addition more support is needed for children’s & youth activities
    • How safe and clean is your local environment? Our lived in environment is Poor – air pollution, noise pollution, litter, fly tipping,
    • How easy do you find it to get out and about around the borough? Difficult due to lack of bus services, lack of parking and, cost of parking
    • How able are you to follow environmentally friendly ways of living and working, and to respond to the effects of climate change? Very difficult due to lack of government and local government regulations and activities
    • The council is facing very challenging pressures on its budget. Where do you think the council should prioritise? And where can it make savings or generate more income? That’s your problem as defined by law and should be your area of expertise!!!
  • Living well 
    • Are there enough opportunities for different groups (such as young people, older people, or people with disabilities) to volunteer, learn new skills or work? Don’t know
    • How easy is it to find out about and access housing options which meet your needs? (including respite housing, adaptations, supported housing, transitional housing, affordable housing) – Impossible
    • What support is there to combat mental health issues, including anxiety, stress and loneliness? Insufficient whether via NHS or Local Authority or other charities and, Council arguably creates stress due to poor levels of service and engagement
    • How easy it is to get support for daily living and care needs? Not easy
  • Communication and engagement 
    • How effective is the council at communicating and engaging around relevant decisions and developments? Social media is great. Engagement and especially consultation is awful and, this exercise is even worse than under the previous administration.
    • What do you think of the balance between online and in-person services? We need more paper services and publications.
  • Working together 
    • What are the main challenges and opportunities in running a business/voluntary organisation/community group in the borough? Challenges include High rates & rents, poor footfall and traffic, poor vision of Council. Opportunities include Windsor being a world famous, though not world class, tourist destination.
    • How can businesses in the borough contribute to making it a great place to live and work? Council collaborating with businesses on transport and social initiatives
    • How effectively does the council work in partnership with local business/local communities/the voluntary and community sector? Inefficiently and with apparent and unhelpful biases.
    • How well does the council support collaboration and coordination between different organisations in the community?  Inefficient and with apparent and unhelpful biases.

We want the Council to bring back the first draft of the Corporate Plan for Consultation and, if needed further amendment.

Anything else is not democracy.

Accountably yours,

Carole AND Wisdom

Cllr. Carole Da Costa AND Cllr. Wisdom Da Costa

cllr.c.dacosta@rbwm.gov.uk AND cllr.dacosta@rbwm.gov.uk

West Windsor Residents Association 

Clewer & Dedworth West