Key Future Plans to IMPROVE

Involving and leading our communities

We will work more closely with parish and town councils to build upon the excellent relationships forged during, and following, the floods of 2007. In 2008/9 we will be working to ensure that communities across the district have emergency plans in place so that they are prepared for emergency situations and have ready access to the support they need.  

Managing our performance

We will work much closer with our key partners to ensure that the services we deliver with them continue to benefit our residents.  

We will provide better information to the residents of the District about what this Council achieves and how it performs.  We shall make performance information regularly available on our website, include our major achievements and performance highlights in the Council’s magazine; View from the Hills, which is distributed free to all households.

Planning services improvements

We shall continue on our path of improvement in planning services and maintain the quality of the built environment by making fair and considerate planning decisions.  We also plan to considerably reduce the proportion of planning appeals that are allowed.

We shall continue to play a leading role in the South Worcestershire Joint Core Strategy (see “Working with partners”)

Realising our priorities

Behind each of our new priorities is a detailed action plan, which will be regularly monitored to ensure that we deliver what has been promised.  Details can be found in “What we will do over the next three years”

Organisational capacity & Value for money and efficient services

We shall continue to work closely in partnership to seek more efficient ways of working and delivering services to our residents (see “Working with partners).   A key element of delivering efficient working is our continued investment in the training and development of staff.

We will also develop and publish a regular assessment of the value for money this Council provides in comparison with other local councils.

Equalities and diversity and focussing on our customers

We will continue to work with members of different community groups (such as ethnic minority groups and disabled persons) to gain a better understanding of how our services could be improved to meet the needs of all of our residents.