What Matters Strategy

Here's my speech on the What Matters Strategy debated today in Council.


I had the pleasure of being part of the T&F group scrutinising this strategy.
I think there was broadly consensus that this is a useful document that will avoid duplication. It is also only the beginning. This is our direction of travel. As I pointed out at the T&F, it is important that we build bridges with the business community and civil society as a whole.

However, and, of course, I might be biased on this, the most significant moment of this strategy, so far, has been the T&F group. Not just for the points being made, which were certainly valuable, but because councillors showed their passion, their frustration and high expectations.

I appreciate that, to the ears of the Leader, of the Chief Executive and officers, we might have sounded a little too passionate and too frustrated.

We need to recognise that we are faced with serious issues of inequality, unemployment, and poor health. I represent a ward where these problems are significant. So naturally, councillors want to do more and want more from the Council.

Some of these issues are beyond the powers of any Local Authority and, indeed, national government. But we can have a positive impact on the lives of people if we work together across sectors, across service areas and across parties, as we do in T&F groups.

There need to be more opportunities, especially for members who are not serving on committees, to feed into the policies of this Council.

Our role cannot be simply to complain and criticise when things go wrong. We need to contribute positively, so that we can have a positive impact on people’s lives.