Statement from new Warwick District Council leader, Councillor Andrew Mobbs

It has even managed to increase its reserves and achieve a financial surplus several years running. This is a fantastic basis for a Council to face the many challenges it faces. I am glad to have been part of the team led by Councillor Doody that has delivered these results.

I am conscious though that our world keeps changing and what was right yesterday may not be tomorrow. The area and the Council face many challenges. Politically, the Council has no overall majority and my view is that given the many challenges faced, the whole Council needs to be involved. I believe that Councillors across the parties are united in many respects in that we share the same aspirations:

• A healthy organisation without which we can achieve nothing
• A sense of duty to individual residents who need our help
• A common sense approach to the challenges we face
• A common purpose based on strengthening the prosperity of the district

Next week, the Executive of the Council will consider an update for the Council's overall strategy for the area. It restates that our purpose as a Council is to help make Warwick District a great place to live, work and visit. It identifies five priorities - Prosperity, Housing, Health and Well Being, Community Protection and Sustainability, with Prosperity being first among equals. This is the overall challenge; how do we help make the District a great place to live, work and visit at a time of limited public funding and of improving but still uncertain economic times.

The Council has an internal strategy to achieve this; it's called Fit for the Future. It has 3 strands.

1. To maintain or improve our services so that we can deliver our overall purpose. We will also want to see how we can continuously improve and review how we deliver our services.
2. To achieve a balanced budget so that we have the resources to run our services, maintain our assets and be able afford to make investments in projects and infrastructure. We estimate that we need to save £1 million by 2018/19 on top of the planned savings of £1 million over the same timescale. This Council has already saved £5 million since 2010.
3. To progress change as an organisation. To be able to deliver our services with a reduced budget we will have to operate differently from how we were one, five, 10, or 20 years ago. We will need to be more flexible, agile, mobile and effective, as well as efficient.

Our staff are our linchpin. Our services depend on them and as they will need to change as the organisation requires, we need to invest in them. I call upon all Councillors of all parties to show the leadership to our staff and for the community and step up to the plate on this point. We as Councillors, if demanding more of our staff, also need to show them respect and embrace change.

The vision and ambition of the Council will not be achieved alone. We will need to work in partnership with other public bodies, especially the County Council, the private sector and the voluntary and community organisations. I know that leading partnerships will be part of my new role but it will require the Council as a whole to engage more with its partners to seek out new opportunities and to boldly go forward to make the most of them for our communities.

More generally, the Council does need to communicate more with its local resident and business community, listening as well as informing and consulting. The better we do that, the better we will be as a Council.

Of course, none of this will avert controversy from time to time. In such times I will aim to make sure that all relevant issues are aired but also aim to do the right thing, not just that which is the most common denominator. In becoming Leader, I know that I take on a controversy straight away, the Local Plan.

It's clear that the proposed extent of development, especially around Warwick, Whitnash and Bishop's Tachbrook has caused anguish amongst many of our residents. We must continually seek the best solution for the District that adheres to Central Government legislation and rules but there are no easy answers to the conundrum that the Council faces, which is that if we want to plan to allow for some growth in the economy; if we want to address our shortage of affordable homes; and, if we want to cater for the housing needs of our growing population, then we need to allow for a significant amount of housing. Our problem is that we are bound by the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) which gives greatest protection to Green Belt land and this covers 80 per cent of the District, leaving brownfield land and the non-green belt land, which is to the south of Warwick and Whitnash. We do not have a great amount of brownfield land and I am sure no one wants to see the garden grabbing that we saw about 10 years ago so it became inevitable that the focus for some development lay to the south of Warwick and Whitnash on non-green belt land.

We need to do this to ensure our Local Plan is sound. If it's not sound then planning applications will be determined in accordance with the NPPF and this could mean that applications are agreed where no one locally wants them and the developments do not come with the amount and quality of infrastructure and services that any good development would provide.

However, public consultation is important and so what I have asked Council Officers to do is to look at how housing need is calculated and to check it accords with the Government's requirements. I have also asked officers to see what scope there is to reduce greenfield releases by accommodating more of our housing needs as part of a canal side conservation and regeneration zone through Warwick and Leamington; in our town centres as part of our plans to rejuvenate them; and to explore the opportunity to convert older industrial areas.

I realise that infrastructure provision is important. Officers are already looking at what infrastructure is needed and at the timing of its provision, including forward funding.

I know that the likely traffic impact of the Local Plan proposals is a key matter for many people, especially in Warwick. County and District Officers are already looking at an alternative approach to address those concerns.

All of these matters will be reported back and will form part of the consideration of the next stage of the Local Plan in spring next year. The Local Plan is an important policy document that can, if drafted correctly, protect our urban and rural environment, promote the growth of the local economy and address the wider social needs of the local community. It will be a framework for investment and for the future of our District. I have no doubt that the debate on the Local Plan will continue but when the Council comes to next make decisions on it I want to reassure everyone that all the issues will have been raised and debated.

It could be said that with all of the challenges the Council faces and with all of the limitations it experiences that this could be the worst of times to take over as Leader. However, I regard it as the best of times and I shall look forward to demonstrating how successful that this Council can, and will, be for the benefit of our local community.