Agenda item

Councillor Ric Metcalfe, Leader of the Council:

a.    presented the draft core delivery plan for the final three years of Vision 2025 for comments prior to referral to Executive

b.    advised that Vision 2025 was approved in February 2020, but due to the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic was never officially launched and in some areas of activity, progress on the initial plans had been affected

c.    explained that a mid-term review on the proposals of the original version was undertaken. As part of the work, the effect of Covid-19 on the health of residents had been considered – and as a result a new focus on physical and mental health developed for the way forward

d.    referred to the Three Year Delivery Plan attached at Appendix A of the report and explained that it should be considered as an addendum to Vision 2025 as there were no changes to the core priorities, aspirations or values identified in that document

e.    explained that 2021 had seen most services recover to a ‘new’ normal, this was not necessarily the same as pre-covid, the issues faced by the Council were listed at paragraph 3.2 of the report

f.     advised that it should be recognised that although the pandemic did significantly affect the Councils ability to progress in all aspects of Vision 2025 – this did not mean that there had been no progress. The projects that had been progressed were detailed at paragraph 3.4 of the report

g.    explained the development of the Mid-term Vision 2025 review as detailed at paragraph 4 of the report

h.    referred to the Vision 2025 Mid-Term review at Appendix A of the report and explained that it contained a range of projects spread across the five priorities and 25 aspirations, however, this was a three-year plan and thus there were minimal dates, specific dates given at project level, so that workload could be spread to match available resource and as well as meet customer priorities

i.      advised that consultation with the public, businesses and the voluntary sector had started in 18^th January 2022 and would be completed on 10 February 2022, the results would be circulated to the committee following the meeting

j.      invited members questions and comments

Councillor Mara referred to the priority “ Let’s make walking, cycling and the use of public transport the best and favourite way to move around Lincoln” and commented that complaints regarding public transport were regularly received by Councillors. He asked how the service would be improved to encourage people to use it.

Councillor Ric Metcalfe, Leader of the Council acknowledged thatPublic transport was an issue in the City and it needed to be addressed to encourage people to use it. Some example of work being undertaken in the City was provided such as initiatives run by Visit Lincoln and the focussing on the shift to modal transport by the Lincolnshire Transport Strategy Group. He further acknowledged that public transport was commercial and was driven by profit. He explained that there was some  public subsidy available for example routes to the hospital, but the subsidy could not be used for more general routes. He stressed that this was a priority and overall work would be done alongside partners in the future.

RESOLVED that the Vision 2025 Mid- Term Review Delivery Plan be supported and referred to Executive for approval.