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

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Cowell, Hutchings, Law and Spacagna.  It was also reported that, in accordance with the wishes of the Conservative Group, the membership of the Board had been amended to include Councillor Barbara Lewis in place of Councillor Foster.

To confirm as a correct record the minutes of the meeting of the Board held on 12 March 2025.

The minutes of the meeting of the Board held on 12 March 2025 were confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

To consider the Food Strategy Action Plan and make recommendations to the Cabinet.

The Cabinet Member for Adult and Community Services, Public Health and Inequalities - Councillor Tranter and the Partnerships and Inclusion Manager – Laura Hill provided an overview of the background to the Food Action Plan and responded to questions.  The Board heard evidence from the following people on the work being carried out to support people to access food and receive help and signposting for the wider determinants relating to finance, health, housing, environment etc.:

Alan Tilley - Chief Executive Officer, Turning Heads - https://www.turningheads.org.uk/;

Karen Marcellino - Torbay Community Helpline Manager, Torbay Communities - https://www.torbaycommunities.com/torbay-community-helpline/;

Kelly Bedoyan - Torbay Food Alliance Co-ordinator, Torbay Communities - https://www.torbayfoodalliance.org/; and

Jed Stevenson - Local Motion Change Agent, Local Motion Torbay - https://localmotion.org.uk/torbay/.

Members also viewed a video on systems thinking which was hosted by the Sustainable Foods Network.

The Board asked questions in relation to how does the support from Turning Heads compare to other organisations; were people donating fresh produce from their allotments; what was being done on a ‘systems approach’ to work with manufacturers and supermarkets around healthy food and to reduce the number of fast food outlets in Torbay; what was being done to encourage people to exercise more; actions 11 and 13 relate to promoting and advertising healthy food, how do we do this; was Occombe Farm still producing food; how closely was the Food Alliance working with other food banks e.g. Paignton Community Larder; has there been a change in the way people are accessing food banks, for example there seems to be a lot of children turning up to services very hungry; and how would schools be involved in food growing projects.

In response to questions about access to fresh produce, Members were informed that it was difficult for food banks and social supermarkets to afford to buy in fresh fruit and vegetables with offers sometimes being limited to potatoes, carrots, onions etc.  Turning Heads had explored the Government’s proposal to take waste food directly from farms but the scale was too large and would have involved a contract around £14m.  A lot of waste from farms in Devon was being thrown away.  It was estimated that approximately 20% of farm waste that cannot be sold to the supermarkets was just left to rot.  It was really difficult to get access to fresh produce.  There were some local networks and the Food Alliance shared knowledge and produce where possible, however, due to the limited amount of fresh produce it was not normally possible to share this as it was sent out to families as soon as it was received.  The Food Alliance worked across Torbay and the Paignton Community Lader was a member and they did have access to fresh fruit and vegetables. There was a need to scale up access to fresh produce to be used in food banks and social supermarkets.  An example was given that 2,500 Christmas hampers was given out in 2024 which contained a full meal and desert for the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 56.

To approve the Overview and Scrutiny Annual Report for 2024/2025 for presentation at the Annual Council meeting on 15 May 2025. 

The Board received the Overview and Scrutiny Annual Report for 2024/2025 which celebrated the work undertaken over the past year and would be presented to the Adjourned Annual Council meeting on 15 May 2025.  The Overview and Scrutiny Co-ordinator thanked the Democratic Service Team Leader, previous Overview and Scrutiny Co-ordinators and everyone involved in the work of Overview and Scrutiny over the past 12 months.

Resolved (unanimously):

That the Overview and Scrutiny Annual Report for 2024/2025 be approved and submitted to the Adjourned Annual Council meeting on 15 May 2025.

To approve the initial Work Programme for the Overview and Scrutiny Board and note the emerging Work Programmes for the Children and Young People’s Overview and Scrutiny Sub-Board and the Adult Social Care and Health Overview and Scrutiny Sub-Board.

The Board received the Initial Overview and Scrutiny Work Programmes for the Overview and Scrutiny Board, Children and Young People’s Overview and Scrutiny Sub-Board and the Adult Social Care and Health Overview and Scrutiny Sub-Board for 2025/2026.  The Overview and Scrutiny Co-ordinator highlighted some updates to the submitted documents which are detailed in the decision below.

Resolved (unanimously):

That, subject to the below additions, the initial Overview and Scrutiny Work Programmes for 2025/2026 be approved as set out in the submitted report, and kept under regular review by the Overview and Scrutiny Co-ordinator, Chairs and Vice-Chairs of the two Sub-Boards and the Democratic Services Team Leader with consultation being carried out with other Scrutiny Members via the monthly informal Overview and Scrutiny Briefings:

1.         the item on Cockington Court being moved from 7 January 2026 to 8 October 2025 to be considered with other tourism items;

2.         to add consideration of the Action Plan arising from the update from the Local Government Association (LGA) Peer Review to a future meeting - July;

3.         to include SWISCo Annual Report on 4 June 2025 (moved from 7 May 2025);

4.         to add a Spotlight Review to be arranged for October 2025 on water and flooding, to include an update on the South West Water seasonal tariff trial (moved from 7 May 2025) and update on the cryptosporidium outbreak and how the additional money from South West Water was spent to support businesses in Brixham;

5.         to add Housing Delivery Plan Annual Review to 4 June 2025; and

6.         to add Annual Review of the Torbay Place Leadership Board to 10 December 2025.