To receive apologies for absence, including notifications of any changes to the membership of the Board.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Douglas-Dunbar and Cabinet Members: Councillors Bye, David and Jackie Thomas; and Councillor Tranter (who was represented by Councillor Tyerman).

To confirm as a correct record the minutes of the meetings of the Board held on 6 and 14 November 2024.

The minutes of the meetings of the Board held on 6 and 14 November 2024 were confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

To review the progress of the Sustainable Food Partnership and draft Torbay Food Strategy, encompassing food insecurity (sustaining social supermarkets etc), community growing projects and use of Council assets; and reducing food waste and make recommendations to the Cabinet.

The Cabinet Member for Housing and Finance – Councillor Tyerman, Director of Public Health – Lincoln Sargeant and Partnership and Inclusion Manager – Laura Hill presented the submitted papers in respect of the Torbay Food Strategy which aims to encourage and support a ‘social movement’ around food in Torbay.  The Director of Adult and Community Services – Jo Williams also attended the meeting and responded to questions. 

The Strategy had been informed by consultation and engagement with colleagues working in and around food in Torbay including the Torbay Food Partnership and Local Motion Torbay.  This centred around six key themes:

·                     Food Governance and Strategy - Taking a strategic and collaborative approach to good food governance and action.?

·                     Good Food Movement - Building awareness, active food citizenship and a local good food movement.

·                     Healthy Food for All - Tacking food poverty, diet related ill-health and access to affordable healthy food.

·                     Sustainable Food Economy - Creating a diverse, prosperous and diverse sustainable food economy.?

·                     Catering and Procurement - Transforming catering and procurement and revitalizing local and sustainable food supply chains.?

·                     Food for the Planet - Tackling the climate and nature emergency through sustainable food and farming and an end to food waste.?

Members asked questions in relation to the written response provided in respect of free school meals and how the Council could help parents to take up the offer and be confident that children would not be identified as taking this up; why does Torbay have an opt in system for free school meals when other areas automatically enrol children using Department for Work and Pensions data and people have to opt out; how many children were eligible for free school meals but do not take it up because they don’t like school dinners, was the type of food on offer putting children off and did schools offer themed base meals e.g. Chinese to celebrate Chinese New Year (a written response would be provided to this question); were school meal providers and schools themselves part of the Food Partnership; what was the criteria for identifying land to grow food and how do communities nominate a piece of land; the involvement of the Community Partnerships in communication and engagement on the Torbay Food Strategy Action Plan; there were only 20 responses to the consultation, who was consulted and how was it carried out; where would the Action Plan be presented and what was the timescale for producing this; what plans were in place to ensure people have the skills and knowledge to tackle food insecurity; what would success look like and what were the measures; how did the Council join up with people who have excess food produce to ensure that it gets to those who most need it e.g. produce market; how could the Council work with SWISCo to understand why people were throwing food away and how could the Council support initiatives in communities who want to grow fruit and vegetables in their communities; what consultation would be done to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 38.

To review the implementation of Operation Brighter Bay and Operation Town Centres projects.

The Board considered the submitted papers which provided an update on the performance of the Operation Brighter Bay and Operation Town Centre projects from 1 April 2024 to 31 October 2024.  These projects had been created to improve the attractiveness of Torbay’s public spaces, make improvements to highways across Torbay and to address anti-social behaviour and increase feelings of safety.  The Cabinet Member for Pride in Place, Transport and Parking – Councillor Billings, Cabinet Member for Housing and Finance – Councillor Tyerman, Interim Director of Pride in Place – Anthony Payne, Divisional Director of Economy, Environment and Infrastructure – Lisa Tuck, Manging Director of SWISCo – Matt Reeks, Director of Adult and Community Services – Jo Williams and Divisional Director Community and Customer Services – Tara Harris attended the meeting for this item and responded to questions.

In respect of Operation Brighter Bay, Members asked questions in relation to, if anything had been done to the grass cutting machinery to enable grass to be cut in the Spring when it was wet; would there be planting around The Strand and had sponsorship of flower beds been explored; there were 7 grass cuts a year, was the Council still doing ‘No Mo May’; what progress had been made to the proposed timetable for grass cutting and sweeping for residents; the target for street cleaning in Brixham was ambitious, would it reach 2008 hours by the end of the year; did the additional cleaning include the inner Harbour Brixham and Berry Head; what happens to the grass cuttings at the end of the season; work was concentrated around prestige routes and tourism areas, was the Council trying to bring the whole area up to a standard, including residential areas; what progress had been made to catch up on weed spraying; what was the reason for only 5m of line marking in the Clifton with Maidenway Ward compared to other wards, was there comparison figures for last years line marking; what action was taken for grass cutting in community areas; and was the SWISCo reporting system being used by residents and Councillors and what was the average time to a response.

In response to questions around grass cutting, Members were informed that two large machines and four walk-behind grass cutting machines had been fitted with balloon floatation tyres which were bigger and don’t dig in so much which would help with the grass cutting when it was wet.  It was noted that ‘No Mo May’ was not necessarily the best way to improve biodiversity and SWISCo was looking to move to more formal conservation areas e.g. central reservation on Dartmouth Road had a protected species of orchid and edge strips were cut with areas left long and cut and collected at the end of the season.  Branding was being developed around conservation and biodiversity and information would also be put out on social media to explain what was being done and why areas were not being cut.  A trial was due in early  ...  view the full minutes text for item 39.