Labour Party Exeter City Council Manifesto 2021
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Exeter Labour Manifesto Exeter City Council 2021-22 “Our city, our future” “By the time they are an adult, a child born in Exeter today will live in a city that is inclusive, healthy and sustainable, a city where the opportunities and benefits of prosperity are shared and all citizens are able to 1 | P a g e - Labour Exeterparticipate City Manifesto fully in the 2021/22city’s economic, social, cultural and civic life.” Index Introduction .................................................................... Page 1 Impact of and Response to the Pandemic ....................... Page 2 Exeter City Council’s key Covid message during 2020 Labour Working for You Labour Continuing to Work for You 1. Net Zero Carbon 2030 ................................................ Page 3 9. Achieving Net Zero Exeter 2030 ........................ Page 11 2. Housing and Supporting People ................................ Page 4 10. Supporting Active and Healthy Lifestyles .......... Page 12 3. Green Spaces, Parks, and Recycling ............................ Page 5 11. Building Great Neighbourhoods ........................ Page 14 4. Leisure, Health and Wellbeing, Live and Move ........... Page 6 12. Leading a Well-run Council ............................... Page 15 5. Economy and Recovery .............................................. Page 7 6. Communities and Culture........................................... Page 8 7. Planning and Building Control .................................... Page 9 8. A Well-run Council .................................................. Page 10 2 | P a g e - Labour Exeter City Manifesto 2021/22 Introduction: Exeter City Council Leader, Phil Bialyk, provides an have. We have had to work extremely hard to balance the introduction to both this Manifesto and the Council books in the current financial year, and we will need to Strategic Plan it shapes. continue setting very challenging budgets in the years ahead. Delivering value for money services is therefore This Labour administration led the Council to declare a critical. It would be easy to scale back our ambitions as a climate emergency in Exeter and as a result has set the result of the Covid-19 crisis. But I will not let that happen. I ambitious target of creating a Net Zero Carbon city by am absolutely determined that the success our city has 2030. This will be at the heart of everything we do going enjoyed over recent years will continue. forward. We have also experienced the Covid-19 crisis, which continues to have an impact on all of our lives in a We will protect and maintain the services that we as way that would have been almost impossible to imagine residents all depend on. At the same time we will pioneer before the outbreak. I am extremely proud of the way our transformational programmes designed to address active city is responding to the crisis. Residents, communities and lifestyles, clean growth, active travel, innovation, housing organisations across Exeter have come together during supply and a carbon neutral city. It is essential that Exeter lockdown to look after and support each other during the is at the forefront of the UK’s recovery from the Covid-19 most difficult times. This work is ongoing, as it becomes crisis. Everyone at the Council is working hard to ensure obvious that the virus is something that we are going to this happens, but we can’t do it alone. The collaborative have to learn to live with, in the future. approach we have taken with our partners on the Place Board means all major institutions and organisations in The Council has not been immune to the impact of Covid- Exeter now speak with one united voice. It’s not simply 19, and we have been hit hard financially as many others about returning to where we were. We have pledged to 1 | P a g e - Labour Exeter City Manifesto 2021/22 Build Back Better - that means facilitating a sustainable to Exeter, with good skilled jobs and new apprenticeships recovery which builds on our commitment to delivering a in the technology of the future. carbon neutral city. Since we declared a Climate Cllr Phil Bialyk Emergency in Exeter last year a lot of work has taken place Labour Leader, Exeter City Council with our partners at Exeter City Futures to create a roadmap to a carbon neutral future. Now is the time to Impact of and Response to the Pandemic start putting this into action. TheCovid-19 pandemic continues to have a profound That’s why I have set up a new portfolio dedicated to effect on our lives. This labour-led City Council has had to lowering carbon emissions and fighting climate change, respond swiftly to address unexpected challenges arising with a new team set up to support Net Zero. The council from lockdown and local restrictions. has a long and proud record in reducing energy through a range of ambitious measures introduced over the last The knock-on effect on Exeter City Council’s budget and decade. Now we are planning for the next phase of this day-to-day activity has been profound. The Council had to work. We have a lot of plans - the buildings that we are find £12m because of additional expenditure incurred creating here in Exeter are to super energy efficient responding to the corona virus crisis, and a significant loss standards, reducing carbon by up to 90 per cent and of income from car-parking, leisure centres, business rates reducing the bills for households. We are bringing forward and council tax. 500 council houses in the coming years all built to that Despite these unprecedented challenges your Labour led standard. We will be at the forefront of retrofitting existing Exeter City Council has maintained key services properties across the city to be highly energy efficient and throughout. We also have achieved some notable low carbon, reducing fuel bills and bringing clean growth successes in the past 18 months: 2 | P a g e - Labour Exeter City Manifesto 2021/22 Labour working for you 1. N e t Z e r o C a r b o n 2 0 3 0 o Declared climate emergency and committed to becoming Net Zero Carbon by 2030. o Commissioned, supported and adopted the Exeter Net Zero Roadmap* in conjunction with Exeter City Futures to achieve net zero Carbon targets. o Secured £1.6m of European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)funding to install Solar Farm & Battery Storage on waste ground close to Council depot. o Planted 2,000 trees at the Monkerton Ridgeline, a new woodland of 300 trees off Lancelot Road in addition to our ongoing tree planning programme. o In the last year the carbon saving measures have delivered: Financial savings of £630,000. Energy savings of 2,300,050 kWh. Carbon saving 550 tonnes. Pictures from the Net Zero Carbon 2030 Plan *www.exetercityfutures.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Net-Zero-Exeter-2030-Plan.pdf 3 | P a g e - Labour Exeter City Manifesto 2021/22 2. H o u s i n g and Supporting Peopl e o Brought forward plans to create 500 new Council homes from a 10 year plan to a 5 year plan. o Added 21 new 3 and 4-bedroom homes built to super energy efficient standards in Anthony Road, Thornpark Rise and Bovemoors Lane. o Started the roll out of retrofitting of all 4,000+ council housing homes to meet our super energy efficient standards to help meet 2030 net zero carbon target. o Supported the most vulnerable through the Covid-19 crisis. o Introduced a new Council Housing Advisory Board to gain advice and input from our resident representative and the most experienced people working in social housing in the South West. o Supported homeless people through the ‘Housing First’ initiative. o Supported over 450 rough sleepers and homeless people into either emergency, temporary, or supported housing. o Achieved 310 single homeless placements in 10 months since April 2020. o Successfully bid for grants worth £3.35m to address rough sleeping and homelessness including the purchase of units of ‘Next Steps’ and ‘Move on’ accommodation. o Installed a level-access bedroom and wet-room pod to support a disabled resident. o £77,000 in Test and Trace support payments issued to over 150 self-isolating residents. 4 | P a g e - Labour Exeter City Manifesto 2021/22 3. Green Spaces, Parks and R e c y c l i n g o Maintained the waste service throughout the pandemic with 12,000 bins collected every day. o a finalist in two national awards for recycling excellence, one for partnership working and one for Innovation o Continued the partnership with Keep Britain Tidy over marine plastic recycling across the South West o Continued partnership with Odyssey Innovation over the maritime port and harbour recycling of fishing nets, crates, buoys etc. o Continued to broker, process and sell other authority recycling as well as Exeter’s. Mid Devon use our services to market their domestic recycling and Teignbridge and Mid Devon send their trade recycling to us o Designed and built the new inclusive Play Park in Pinhoe and also completely rebuilt the football field. o Consulted on three draft strategies for Play parks, Trees and Parks and Open Spaces. o Donated land for the new cycle-bridge at Summer Lane. o Continued a phased reduction of glyphosate weed-killer use, to protect wildlife. 5 | P a g e - Labour Exeter City Manifesto 2021/22 o Encouraged biodiversity through wildflowers and naturalising grass areas. o Provided a wheelchair-accessible allotment in Topsham. 4. Leisure, Health and Wellbeing, Live and M o v e o The Labour administration brought the City’s leisure service in-house during the Covid-19 pandemic protecting jobs and to create a great service for the future. 168 staff transferred to ECC employment with the largest restructure of its kind taking place so all employees are on ECC terms and conditions by 31st August 2021.