Havant Borough Council has unveiled its new Corporate Strategy, with the views and needs of residents firmly at its core.
At last night’s full council meeting (25 September), members voted to adopt the 2024 – 2028 strategy, agreeing the authority’s priority areas of action and investment for the coming years.
The strategy maintains the established key themes of Wellbeing, Pride in Place and Growth, but in direct response to feedback in this year’s Residents’ Survey, the theme ‘A Responsive Council’ has been introduced.
Within each theme, the council has outlined its aspirations (what it wants to achieve), its initiatives (the work it will do to achieve the aspirations) and the expected impact (how it will know it’s achieved its aspiration).
The Wellbeing targets include developing and delivering a Local Plan, including the prioritisation of affordable housing, along with other measures to reduce homelessness and increase the supply of affordable housing and social rent homes in the borough.
In the Residents’ Survey, the number one concern and priority for respondents was access to quality health services. Although the council does not directly deliver health services, it has committed in its strategy to support residents to be more active and to improve their wellbeing. The council will do this by continuing to invest in its playparks, by reviewing leisure, arts, and allotment provision and by working with partners to tackle inactivity and obesity levels.
Within Pride in Place, the council has recognised concerns from residents about safety, cleanliness and economic prosperity and has pledged to invest in the regeneration in our town centres, improve services to tackle waste, increase recycling, cut the number of vacant shops and work with partners to reduce crime and antisocial behaviour.
In addition, there will be a strong focus on protecting the natural environment within the borough by maximising the quality of green spaces, continuing coastal protection and management schemes, and working to improve air and water quality.
The Growth section of the strategy outlines how the council will continue to work with young people via its Youth Hub to support them into training and employment, at the same time helping local businesses to grow and recruit. Sustainable development of new homes, businesses and infrastructure is a key priority, and the council will aim to ensure that brownfield sites are earmarked for development first and that developments will be as environmentally friendly as possible.
Havant Borough Council’s Leader, Cllr Phil Munday, said: “We have been working since the local election in May to produce a strategy that not only reflects the scale of our ambitions for Havant borough, but also contains the detail of how we will achieve them.
“It was important to all of us to create something that would not just be a tick box exercise or document to file away and forget, but something that would serve as a blueprint for how we work going forward and provide a shared understanding of what we want to achieve.
“It was also vital to us that we focused on what residents have told us they want, and I thank everyone who took the time to take part in the Residents’ Survey this summer as their views have shaped this strategy and guided our plans.
“Three of the four themes within the strategy are quite well established, but the fourth theme – A Responsive Council – has been included as a direct result of feedback from residents that they don’t always feel that the council engages and communicates as well as it could.
“We have taken that onboard, and when I became Leader, I pledged to lead a completely open and transparent coalition. We will communicate and engage more, be more accessible and respond to feedback.
“These are challenging times - locally, regionally and nationally – but we will work hard on your behalf to deliver the positive changes that this borough wants and deserves.”