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Council Plan
Published: 18/06/2018
The Council Plan for the coming twelve months is set to be endorsed by Cabinet
at its meeting on Tuesday 19 June.
Every local authority is required to publish an annual Council Plan, and this
sets out the Council鈥檚 aims and objectives for 2018/19.
This year鈥檚 Plan continues with the new, fresh format introduced last year. It
has full details of the Council鈥檚 six priorities and sub priorities. Its format
allows easy navigation to specific content online, which also means that
information can be easily updated to ensure that it remains the most current.
The six main priorities remain as follows:
路 Supportive Council
路 Ambitious Council
路 Learning Council
路 Green Council
路 Connected Council
路 Serving Council
Within Supportive Council, our priorities include provision of new social and
affordable homes, continuing with our pledges to build 99 new Council and 22
new affordable homes, increase the number of properties managed by NEW Homes
from 126 to 148 and deliver options for new, innovative low rent housing
schemes for single people. We will also work proactively with landlords and
tenants to improve the quality of private sector housing.
We need to do this to prevent homelessness, offer more diverse housing options
and meet the Welsh Government target for all social housing to be brought up to
the Welsh Housing Quality Standard.
Another priority is to continue to support 天涯社区 residents to better
manage their financial commitments, particularly building on the good work
achieved by officers working to minimise Universal Credit risks and helping
residents manage these fundamental changes to how they receive their
benefits. It is important to reduce the risk of poverty in 天涯社区
households and reduce the impact of rises in fuel cost.
We will work to embed the Early Help Hub, officially launched this month by the
Children鈥檚 Commissioner for Wales, into everyday practice by working with
partners and the third sector. This ground-breaking innovation was commissioned
by the 天涯社区 Public Service Board and is designed to deliver more timely,
and co-ordinated, support to families with greater needs. The recent launch
celebrated the Hub鈥檚 achievements to date sharing positive stories about how we
have worked collectively to support families with two or more ACEs (Adverse
Childhood Experiences).
We will ensure that all employees understand and act on their responsibilities
to address safeguarding by raising awareness and working with partners to
increase the public鈥檚 awareness of safeguarding.
As an Ambitious Council, we will drive the development of the Regional Economic
Growth Deal to final approval stages with UK and Welsh Governments, including
agreement of funding allocations and formal governance arrangements. We also
want to protect and enhance the scale and quality of apprenticeships both
regionally and locally and develop a more strategic approach to regenerating
and supporting town centres in partnership with Town Councils. This will help
to grow the local and regional economy, develop transport solutions for the
region and help to support and grow our tourism sector.
Our Learning Council ambitions are to provide effective learning opportunities
and quality learning environments for all pupils aged 3-18 to achieve their
potential and high levels of educational attainment. This is important to
ensure they have the right skills to access modern employment opportunities.
Where schools are needing support, we will provide effective assistance to
quickly re-establish good educational standards.
As a committed Green Council we aim to improve protect and enhance buildings
and structures by adopting a Local Heritage Strategy. We need to balance the
need for sustainable development with the protection of the natural environment
and continue to reduce our carbon emissions.
We will be using available grant funding to support our priority of introducing
a sustainable transport network. We are prioritising repairs and maintenance
to our transport network to improve its resilience, efficiency and reliability.
Importantly, we will support isolated communities to develop innovative and
sustainable transport schemes, giving people access to key services and linking
communities across 天涯社区.
As a Connected Council, we aim to grow the capacity of the social enterprise
sector and Alternative Delivery Models (ADMs) to help them become more
self-sustaining, enabling them to maximise their contribution and deliver
community benefits. We will also ensure that our Armed Forces Community and
their families are not disadvantaged when accessing Council Services.
In this continuing climate of austerity, we must manage with reducing resources
and, as a Serving Council, we will develop and implement a renewed five year
financial plan that reflects anticipated funding, costs and efficiencies. We
will continue to aim high and operate effectively as a smaller organisation and
achieve the highest possible standards of customer services.
Councillor Aaron Shotton, Leader of 天涯社区 said:
This Plan sets out our key priorities to support and enhance residents鈥� lives.
We continue with some of our priorities for example, expanding the provision of
affordable homes for residents in need; protecting people from poverty;
enabling people to live independently and well at home, whilst avoiding
unnecessary admissions to hospital; working with partners to sustain economic
growth and increase employment opportunities and developing the county
transport infrastructure.
鈥淒espite continued financial austerity, we will remain committed and ambitious
as a Council to continue to deliver for our local communities.鈥�
Cabinet Member for Corporate Management and Assets, Councillor Billy Mullin,
added:
鈥淲e aim to continue the work of supporting children and young people to achieve
their potential; enhancing the natural environment and promoting access to open
and green spaces. The important thing is 天涯社区 is continuing to reach and
surpass its targets and is setting priorities to sustain the solid performance
of the Council every year.鈥�
The final Council Plan will be available on the website before the end of
September.