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Our aims and priorities

Our aims

To recreate a council that’s proactive and responsive to the needs of our residents and businesses in a fast-changing environment, and to build for the future while respecting our heritage.

Our corporate strategy sets out how we will achieve our aims and deliver our priorities. We developed our first strategy in 2020 and have since updated it as we have progressed a number of our projects and the local and national picture has developed. 

You can read our updated Corporate Plan here which also includes information on what we have delivered against our first Corporate Plan:

Our priorities

We will do this by:

  • delivering our services to the highest standards
  • responding to the challenges presented by the climate crisis
  • providing good quality social rented homes
  • presenting a local plan that’s green to the core
  • helping residents and communities access the support they need for good health and wellbeing
  • supporting businesses to grow in a green, sustainable manner, and to provide high value jobs

Our principles

Everything we do will be built on the following principles:

  • rebuilding trust and confidence in the council by promoting a culture of openness and transparency
  • providing value for money for our residents and businesses by using our resources wisely and investing in the district’s fabric and future
  • listening to the needs of our community, and acting on what we hear

Progress on delivering the council’s priorities has been captured in the Council Priority report:

LGA peer review 2022

As a council we are always open to feedback on how we can improve so in October 2022 we asked the Local Government Association to run one of their peer reviews, where councillors and officers from other councils come and visit and give an independent assessment of how the council operates. It is good practice to have one of these reviews every 3-4 years and the report is intended to point out what is working well and also where the council can continue to improve to deliver for local residents. We see this as a valuable exercise to help us do the best we can for the district.

The peer review report was published for the Full Council meeting on 18 January 2023 and we welcomed its findings. The report highlighted a number of areas where we have made good improvements since the last review, and we have developed an action plan to address the areas where they think we can continue to get better.

Monitoring our performance