New Plan sets out Council priorities for next five years
East Ayrshire Council has confirmed its priorities for the next five years, with approval of its Strategic Plan 2022 – 2027.
The new Plan builds on the Council’s strong track record of service delivery and transformation over the past 10 years and continues to put communities at the heart of everything the Council does, making sure that sustainability is embedded in the delivery of all Council services. The Plan is built around six priority themes:
- Building a Fairer Economy
- Tackling Poverty and Inequality
- Improving Community Wellbeing
- Supporting Children and Young People
- Delivering a Clean, Green East Ayrshire
- Financial Sustainability and Ensuring Resilience
Councillor Douglas Reid, Leader of East Ayrshire Council explains: “With a new Council in place, now is a fitting time for us to reaffirm our values as a Council and to set out our priorities for the next five years.
“We are incredibly proud of our role delivering services at the heart of our communities and want to ensure that the services we deliver are affordable, sustainable and meet the needs of those we serve. We remain ambitious for our communities and our Plan recognises the strengths and assets that we have here in East Ayrshire.
“However, the Plan is also written against a backdrop of significant challenges, including increases in the cost of living, Covid-19, Brexit and the war in Ukraine, all of which are impacting on our daily lives and local economy. We know that there are difficult times ahead and many people are already experiencing real hardship.
“It shocks me that the healthy life expectancy of a boy born in East Ayrshire today is just 57.2 years, while for a girl it is only slightly higher at 59.1. Our priorities recognise that poverty, health and wellbeing, education, our environment and jobs and the economy are all interconnected and contribute to our quality of life. The priorities we have agreed will see us taking action across all of these areas to help improve the lives of people in East Ayrshire.
“We will work closely with our communities and partners to address the challenges we face and to build a fairer, kinder and connected East Ayrshire. We have a strong commitment to increasing community power and community led regeneration, which will help us reduce inequalities and make life better.
“The Pandemic demonstrated the importance of partnership working and showed us more clearly than ever before, the value of having local services rooted in local places. The Council, communities and partners all came together as one to deliver the support needed and our relationships were strengthened as a result.
“We know that people want to be more involved in their communities and just yesterday I was hearing that we now have 160 community resilience groups ready to volunteer to help with flooding and winter gritting. This is in addition to the hundreds of people we know are volunteering every day in East Ayrshire, supporting community groups, food larders and other voluntary organisations across East Ayrshire.
“We plan to build on this going forward and over the summer we will be taking forward a review of localities, place making and community power linked to the Council’s new Strategic Plan and look forward to engaging with our communities on this.”
Next steps
Work to align operational service improvement plans to the Strategic Plan and associated action plans will be progressed, with Lead Officers and project sponsors identified to take forward the key priorities, all supported by the introduction of a Programme Management Office.
At the same time, community, employee and partnership consultations will continue to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to contribute to the development of these plans and the achievement of the Council's ambitions and objectives.
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