Issue - meetings

That the Winchester District Thriving and Resilient Communities Strategy (2026-2030) be adopted as set out in Appendix 1 of CAB3549.

Councillor Becker introduced the report which set out a framework to build connected and confident places by fostering an environment where communities could evolve and solve their own challenges.  The Strategy had been discussed by the Health and Environment Policy Committee on 2 December 2025.

At the invitation of the Leader, Councillors Lee and Godfrey addressed Cabinet as summarised below.

Councillor Lee

Councillor Lee welcomed the strategy’s focus on the practical necessity of community resilience during the ongoing cost-of-living and climate crises. However, he believed it required clearer mechanisms to enable genuine community influence and specifically queried what practical capacity-building support or funding would be available to help parish councils take on a stronger role as LGR progressed.   He suggested that specific additional information be provided to parish councils on setting up emergency hubs.

Councillor Godfrey

Councillor Godfrey supported the strategy while highlighting that rural isolation and a lack of local community cohesion remain significant challenges across the district and expressed disappointment about the lack of direct financial contributions to address this.  He urged the council to provide stronger leadership by linking the principles of this strategy to all other council activities to improve resident well-being.  He also suggested that the mayoralty could play an important role in sharing the strategy’s vision but suggested that additional support from the communications team would be required to enable this. 

Councillor Becker, together with the Corporate Head of Economy and Community responded to the comments made including emphasising that in the context of the strategy, resilience did not refer to emergency planning.  The Chief Executive confirmed that potential funding streams available would be investigated and the resulting information shared with parish councils. 

Cabinet agreed to the following for the reasons set out in the report and outlined above.

RESOLVED:

That the Winchester District Thriving and Resilient Communities Strategy (2026-2030) be adopted as set out in Appendix 1 of CAB3549.