Plea to bring communities together

Plans to make Plymouth "a great place for all"

Efforts are being made to improve community cohesion in Plymouth after a survey revealed a drop in the amount of residents who think their local area is a place where people from different backgrounds get on well together.

Cabinet member for housing, cooperative development and communities Cllr Chris Penberthy (Lab, St Peter and the Waterfront) told members of the council’s performance, finance and customer focus overview and scrutiny committee on Wednesday that the council needed to rebuild the confidence of the people of Plymouth after six months in which people didn’t feel engaged.

Only 42 per cent of respondents to a city-wide survey last year thought their area was a place where people from different backgrounds got on well together, down from 55 the year before.

Caring for people and communities is a key part of the council’s corporate plan, with a friendly, welcoming city and a place where people feel safe being key to that.

“Clearly we need to rebuild the confidence of the people of Plymouth – that is a priority for us,” said Cllr Penberthy as he presented a report on the plan.

“The figures are really worrying in terms of terms of community cohesion. ‘People from different backgrounds’ is not just about ethnicity, it can be about work and all sorts of different things and we want a community who get on well together in their local areas and in the city.

“We want people to trust us and our aim is to make the city a great place for all residents where everyone enjoys a good quality of life. We will be looking at how to do that. “

He told members that planning issues, licensing and road closures had created ‘a blip’ in local engagement and the council had received a lot of freedom of information requests which had not helped to create a united Plymouth.

The report said there was evidence that community spirit was significantly uplifted by the pandemic. The Unify Plymouth programme, which was active throught the covid years, sought to promote cohesion in four areas in the city.

Cllr Penberthy added that there was some ‘polarised thinking’ around asylum and migration which may have had an impact on the figures.
“We need to have a deep dive into this but it may well be that areas which are the most diverse have better scores and we need to help people in the city better interact with others.”

Other areas for improvement highlighted in the plan were household recycling rates which are eight per cent shy of their target and the employment rate.

Areas of good performance during this quarter of the year were: The percentage of A roads in good or acceptable condition,  repeat referrals to children’s social care and business rates collection.