Warwick District Council’s new leader highlights authority’s priorities

Having given a speech thanking former leader Cllr Michael Doody (Con, Radford Semele) for his service to the council and describing the honour and privilege of taking his place last week, Cllr Mobbs has laid down the approach the council will take to the challenge of making Warwick district a “great place to live, work and visit”.

Cllr Mobbs said: “The council has five priorities - prosperity, housing, health, and well being, community protection and sustainability, with prosperity being first among equals.

“There is an internal strategy to achieve this called Fit for the Future and it has three strands - to maintain or improve our services so that we can deliver our overall purpose, to achieve a balanced budget so that we have the resources to run our services, maintain our assets and be able to afford investments in projects and infrastructure and to progress change as an organisation.”

Cllr Mobbs said the authority needs to make estimated savings of £1 million by 2018 on top of savings already planned for that timescale.

He said services must be delivered with a reduced budget and that the council must operate differently to how it has over the last 20 years by being more “flexible, agile, mobile and effective as well as efficient.”

Cllr Mobbs described the council’s staff as its linchpin and called upon fellow councillors to show leadership and respect towards them.

Cllr Mobbs said: “More generally the council needs to communicate more with residents and the business community, listening as well as informing and consulting.”

The Local Plan will be the most controversial issue Cllr Mobbs will face.

He said he recognises the anguish it has caused to people in the areas most likely to be affected but described the need to cater for the housing need of a growing population.

He also highlighted the importance of the public consultation and of having a “sound” Local Plan, which would prevent the location and quality of developments and the connected infrastructure and services being dictated solely by the National Planning Policy Framework.

Cllr Mobbs said: “It could be said, with all the challenges the council faces and the limitations it experiences, that it could be the worst of times to be leader of this council.

However, I regard it as the best of times I look forward to demonstrating how successful it can and will be for the benefit of our community.

Cllr Mobbs’ full statement can be read on Warwick District Council’s website by clicking here.