EHDC’s ambitious new Council Strategy received cross-party support at last night’s council meeting – and work to deliver it starts today.
The evidence-led strategy, which you can read below, runs from now until 2028 and provides a concise plan that clearly sets out targets and how they will be achieved.
Sustainability remains at the heart of the plan and is central to each of the four themes, which are: an environmentally sustainable district and council; economic growth and prosperity; thriving communities; and a modern and efficient council.
It sets out clearly what EHDC is aiming to achieve and how it will do this and describes the difference it is aiming to make to the residents, businesses and visitors of the district – as well as to the built and natural environments.
A huge amount was achieved in the previous strategy including: supporting our most vulnerable residents; helping 650 young people with mental health issues; giving out £14.5m in community grants, moving to a greener and more efficient headquarters and building a new leisure centre.
And all this was delivered while unprecedented issues were impacting our residents including the pandemic, the cost-of-living crisis, the insecurity of war and continued climate change.
For more information about what was achieved please click the button below:
The new strategy also focuses on continuous performance improvement so progress will be tracked and changes made where needed – and in the future this information will be available to residents.
Cllr Richard Millard, Leader of EHDC, said: “This is a really challenging strategy that is fundamentally about improving quality of life for our residents and it sets out how we will achieve this.
“Sustainability is written right through our plans and we are doing everything we can to be a net zero council by 2025 and a net zero district by 2050 – we can’t do this alone but our approach starts with us and we will set an example that we hope inspires others.
“Thriving communities is about ensuring basic needs are met and increasing the chances of residents living active, healthy and fulfilling lives. We will increase the capability and resilience of our communities, so they have the confidence to do more for themselves.
“To create growth and prosperity we will attract the investors, businesses, builders, developers and infrastructure providers to help create the environment we want.
“We aim to create a council which is modern, cost-effective, accurate, quick, transparent, accessible, reliable, accountable, engaging, affordable and able to deliver continuous improvement in all its activities.
“We have worked extremely hard to get our own house in order and our transformation programme has already delivered huge benefits. We will now take this further so it is even easier for you to get things done, making sure every penny is spent wisely. We’re moving money away from administration and towards services that you value.”
The Council Strategy was scrutinised by the council’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee on Monday 15 July – to watch the meeting and see the discussions please click here - and was considered by Cabinet on Thursday 18 July.