1)         That the Food Strategy for Torbay for 2025 – 2030 be endorsed;

2)        That the Director of Public Health and the Partnerships and Inclusion Manager be instructed to develop a food action plan for Torbay Council to deliver against the aims of the Strategy and present it to the Cabinet for approval within three months.

Adoption of a five-year Food Strategy for Torbay, would help to ensure a strategic and focused approach to promoting positive change within our food system locally and would support the future resilience of communities.

To not progress with a food strategy.  This was not deemed to be a sustainable or suitable option.  The scale and complexity of challenges within our local and national food system were significant, and therefore they would require a more strategic, joined-up approach to address them in any meaningful way.  Many interventions needed were not within our gift locally, but those which were, would require longer to implement.

This decision will come into force and may be implemented on 5 February 2025 unless the call-in procedure is triggered (as set out in the Standing Orders in relation to Overview and Scrutiny).

Since 2023, the Torbay Food Partnership had been hosted by Local Motion, Torbay, which was facilitated by Torbay Communities.  This had been a positive, neutral space for collaboration, connecting different departments and sectors to amplify work already underway and think creatively about the future.

In 2024, the Torbay Food Partnership took its next development step and became a member of the Sustainable Food Places (SFP) network – a national partnership programme led by the Soil Association, Food Matters, and Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming.

The Torbay Food Partnership had developed a Food Strategy for Torbay which aimed to set out the blueprint for the approach to sustainable food systems change in Torbay.  The Strategy set out a vision for the Torbay food system which could be used for the purposes of engagement, awareness, and influence across all aspects of the community.

At the meeting Councillor Tranter proposed and Councillor Tyerman seconded a motion that was agreed unanimously by the Cabinet, as set out above.

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