Wokingham

Wokingham Borough Council’s long-term vision to work with its partners to make the borough ‘a great place to live and work, where residents feel valued and the council promotes economic growth with good quality of life and opportunity for all’, is set to be given the green light by the decision-making executive next week.

At their meeting on Thursday February 21, the executive members will also consider the high level priorities that the council will need to pursue with its partners in order to turn the vision describing the sort of place it wants the Wokingham Borough to be in 10 to 20 years’ time into reality.

The proposed Wokingham priorities are:

· Sound finances and value for money
· Excellent children’s services and skills for all
· Better health for all and support for vulnerable people
· A cleaner and greener local environment
· Keeping the borough moving
· Sustainable, quality development
· Safer and stronger communities
· Keeping the customer satisfied

Wokingham Chief executive Susan Law said: “Much has been written about the importance of a powerful organisational vision and the way in which it can inspire high performance and help to recruit and retain key members of staff. The vision is a high level document and has been written to reflect the council’s role in delivering with our partners on the emerging Community Strategy and new Local Area Agreement. The themes within the vision will also provide a framework for the council’s strategic financial and service planning and provide clarity for members, officers and key stakeholders about the challenges we face and the action we will take to improve the quality of life of all our residents.

Mrs Law added: “It is very important for the council to be clear about its direction and what we want the Wokingham Borough to be like in the future. We are not going to manage to be all things to all people and we cannot do everything. But through discussion with our partners and previous general consultations we believe that the priorities set to be agreed next week by the executive are the most important for our residents.

“Once agreed, we will be able to channel our energy and resources into achieving these priorities which will guide our work into the future. And over the coming years, residents will be able to see appreciable progress on each and every one of these priorities.”

Council leader Wokingham Cllr Frank Browne said: “Successful organisations in the public and private sectors invariably have a clear long-term vision which is shared by all the key stakeholders. The council’s proposed vision sets out the sort of place we want the borough to evolve into and how we will tackle the key challenges facing us over the next 10 to 20 years. It will be a key step in the development and modernisation of the council.”

Wokingham Borough Council