TRAFFORD COUNCIL
Report to:
Date:
Report for:
Report of:
Executive
10th March 2008
Decision
The Leader of the Council and the Chair of the Trafford
Partnership
Report Title
Sustainable Community Strategy 2008-2021
Summary
To update Executive Members on the Community Strategy Refresh and
present the Sustainable Community Strategy 2008-2021 for approval and
recommendation to full Council for adoption.
Recommendation(s)
Executive Members are requested to

note the outcome of the refresh process

approve the Sustainable Community Strategy (SCS) 2008-2021

recommend the SCS to full Council for adoption
Contact person for access to background papers and further information:
Name:
Suzanne Hilton Head of Regeneration, Economic Development, Policy
and Partnerships/ Paul Corner Economy, Strategy and Partnerships Manager and
Rob Huntington Director of Performance and Improvement
Extension: 4230 / 4330 / 4326
Background Papers: Draft Sustainable Community Strategy 2008-2021
Background
The Sustainable Community Strategy 2008-2021
The Council and its LSP partners, as the Trafford Partnership, have just
completed a refresh of the existing Community Strategy, “Trafford 2021: a
blueprint”. Members will recall that there were 3 drivers for the refresh:

The Neighbourhood Agenda-Since the consultation and development of the
existing community strategy (2006-2021), the Council has established 9
neighbourhood forums as the major focus of engagement with local people. A
sustainable community must have a focus on (and be built up from) the
Borough’s neighbourhoods. This was a recognised area of improvement for
Trafford’s existing Community Strategy. The refresh of the Community
Strategy has allowed us to engage local members and communities more
effectively in reviewing the vision and priorities for Trafford and their local area.

Sustainable Community Strategies (SCSs)- All Councils and their LSP
partners now have a Community Strategy in place but Government has set us
the challenge to turn these into Sustainable Community Strategies “which
develop a stronger focus on integrating social, economic and environmental
issues and in tackling the area’s longer-term and more global impacts”. This
required us to undertake an assessment of and demonstrate the impact of our
commitments and plans on the economic, social and environmental life of the
borough.

New Local Area Agreement (LAA) 2008-11- As a result of the Government’s
decision to introduce new style Local Area Agreements from June 2008 the
current Trafford LAA will not run for a second year and will be replaced instead
by a new Trafford LAA which is due to be negotiated with GONW from MarchJune2008. It was agreed by the Trafford Partnership to refresh the Community
Strategy this year to have a refreshed Strategy in place for March 2008 in
order to inform these negotiations. The method by which the partnership
arrives at the list of targets, should be grounded in the SCS. The SCS provides
the rationale behind the LAA targets and tells the ‘story of the place’. This
story of place must be credible and recognisable to all partners at a local,
regional and national level, with a shared evidence base between partners.
The refresh has provided an opportunity to build the Sustainable Community Strategy
at the neighbourhood level and to ensure that the new LAA targets are properly
informed by the most up to date national, sub-regional and local priorities.
In addition, as the spatial expression of Trafford’s strategic objectives the Borough’s
Local Development Framework Core Strategy must be aligned with and grounded in
the Sustainable Community Strategy. The refresh has also provided an opportunity to
align the 2 consultation processes.
The preparation of the SCS comes at a key and opportune time in terms of national
policy developments more generally. Various significant and high-profile documents,
not least the Local Government White Paper (October 2006) itself, as well as the SubNational Review of Economic Development and Regeneration (July 2007) and the
Housing Green Paper (July 2007), stress the need for a strengthened local authority
role in partnership working, community leadership and public service planning and
delivery. Crucial to this is their sub regional and national roles, working with others, in
‘place-shaping’ and leading the sustainable development of localities. The assessment
of the Council’s lead role in developing and implementing the SCS with local partners
will be a critical factor in the outcome of CAA.
Financial Impact:
No direct impact but the Sustainable Community
Strategy (SCS) will inform Council and partners’
policy development and business planning
Gershon Efficiency Savings:
Legal Impact:
None but see above
No direct impact but the Sustainable Community
Strategy (SCS) will inform Council and partners’
Human Resources Impact:
Asset Management Impact:
E-Government Impact:
Risk Management Impact:
Health and Safety Impact:
policy development and business planning
No direct impact but the Sustainable Community
Strategy (SCS) will inform Council and partners’
policy development and business planning
No direct impact but the Sustainable Community
Strategy (SCS) will inform Council and partners’
policy development and business planning
No direct impact but the Sustainable Community
Strategy (SCS) will inform Council and partners’
policy development and business planning
Risk assessed as strategic- see above- included
within the Strategic Risk Register
No direct impact but the Sustainable Community
Strategy (SCS) will inform Council and partners’
policy development and business planning
Other Options
Options
Option 1 Retain the existing Community Strategy for the original duration of the
existing action plan 2006-09 and review as planned in 08/09.
Option 2 Retain the existing Community Strategy but re-badge it as a Sustainable
Community Strategy following a desk based assessment
Option 3 Adopt the refreshed Sustainable Community Strategy.
Conclusion
Options 1 and 2 will not allow us the opportunity to build the Community Strategy from a
neighbourhood level or to ensure that the new LAA targets are properly informed by the most
up to date national, sub-regional and local priorities.
Consultation
We have conducted a comprehensive 15 week programme of consultation with local
people, businesses, partners and other stakeholders in two phases including:









All Neighbourhood Forums- November and December
Thematic Partnerships –November- February
Equalities Partnerships –November - February
Council Executive – 14th January
On-line Web Consultation- February
Postal Comments- February
Children and Young People’s Event- 1st February
Neighbourhoods and Diverse Communities Event- 6th February
Town Centre Partnerships - February
There were more than 1100 individual comments received and there has been strong
across the board support for the vision, success factors and commitments.
A detailed consultation report will be published on the web site so that people can see
what happened to the comments made.
Reasons for Recommendation
.The Sustainable Community Strategy 2008-2021 represents the most up to date and
relevant articulation of the Council, LSP partners and local people’s vision and
priorities on which policies can be developed, services planned and delivered and
positive changes made for the future. It will enable Trafford to negotiate its LAA 20082011 with Government in order to balance and reconcile local and national priorities
effectively and to demonstrate that our Local Development Framework Core Strategy
is genuinely the spatial expression of that vision and priorities.
Key Decision
This is a key decision currently on the Forward Plan: Yes
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