The Local Context
Quality Services Directed Towards Community Priorities
District Councils have a duty to provide a
range of services for the local community and visitors, and as a
result much of a District Council’s services are governed by
statute. Although this sets out what the Council must do, there is
often some choice as to how it is done.
For example, the Council has a legal
responsibility to collect refuse, however it can choose how often
it makes collections and the method used.
Each local area or district will have its own
particular needs and so, in addition to its statutory services,
most Councils also provide a range of services that are
discretionary, where it believes the outcomes of providing a
particular discretionary service are worth the inputs in terms of
resources needed.
As part of the development of the Budget and
MTFP, we must ensure that all statutory services are adequately
resourced and that the discretionary services for which funding is
to be provided continue to deliver beneficial outcomes that are
proportional to the cost of providing them.
The services that this Council has identified
as a priority for the medium term, for which resources have been
set aside as part of this Medium Term Financial Plan, are all
presented within the Corporate Plan for 2007 – 11.
The Corporate Plan Framework
The Council’s overarching aims and objectives
are set out in its Corporate Plan against six key themes, or
strategic improvement areas. Co-existing alongside the
Corporate Plan are a number of other service related plans, such as
the HRA Business Plan, the Waste Management Strategy and individual
Service Plans; as well as capital and asset related strategies,
which include the Asset Management Strategy, the Information and
the Computer Technology (ICT) Strategy, the Procurement Strategy
and the HR Strategy.
This Medium Term Financial Plan and the Annual
Budget Report provide a key link between all of these plans.
They underpin all of these other strategic documents, by
translating the plans, actions and non-financial resources into
financial terms so as to evidence their affordability and
sustainability. In addition to presenting the budget
projections of the Council’s plans, these financial strategy
documents cover the planned approach to the financial management
arrangements needed to obtain the maximum value out of the
Council’s assets, which is captured within the Value for Money
Strategy, the Treasury Management Strategy and the Prudential
Indicators.
During 2007 the Council consulted its
communities on their expectations for the Council, the outcomes of
which were used to develop its current Corporate Plan which sets
out its ambitions for Thanet for 2007 to 2011 across six key
themes:
- Improving Thanet’s Economic Prosperity
- Safe Neighbourhoods
- Keeping Thanet Beautiful
- Decent Quality Housing
- Supporting Healthy and Cohesive Communities
- Modern Council
Achievements to Date
Even though the Council has received such
small increases on its general grant from Government, by working
efficiently and by being successful in obtaining a wide range of
funding from other sources, such as grants and private sector
investments, we have been able to make great progress in our plans
to regenerate the area.
The following are a number of notable
achievements that we have made in the last year:
Thanet’s Economy - Working
with SEEDA and Locate in Kent we have developed a grant funding
package for firms seeking to invest in Thanet. Work is also
in progress on the implementation of our vision for Westwood, which
includes supporting the delivery of 2km road improvements to
improve traffic circulation. As part of our efforts to
support the tourist trade, we continue to improve visitor
attraction areas including our beaches and as a result received
seven Blue Flags, which is the most for any District in the
Country.
Safe Neighbourhoods - Crimes
in the night-time economy have reduced by 13% on the previous year
by extending lighting and CCTV coverage, this will be further
extended by an additional eight CCTV cameras that will be sited in
Margate Old Town. We are also using new licensing powers to control
establishments associated with night-time problems.
Beautiful Thanet - Street
cleaning standards have improved with Thanet moving into the top
25% of councils in the Country and domestic recycling rates have
also improved from 17% in 2006/07 to 27% so far in 2007/08.
Work is also ongoing to minimise Thanet’s impact on the environment
by extending and improving existing walk and cycle routes, which
will make some of the best sights of the area even more
accessible.
Quality Housing – We have
extended the Housing Renewal Programme to appropriate areas of
Cliftonville West and Margate Central and we intend to continue to
improve housing conditions and the quality of housing market by
bringing back into use 30 empty properties in these areas. In
addition, 125 private sector homes have been improved or made
decent over the whole District since April 2007. Plans are
now being developed to enable us to use the Council’s assets and
landholding to develop new, quality homes for the residents of
Thanet by preparing a schedule of derelict sites for redevelopment
as quality homes.
Healthy Communities – A Youth
Strategy has been developed with strong local involvement to ensure
that it meets the needs of the community. Much of the work
that we do on this particular theme is supported by a wide range of
partners and to enable us to build further on such partnerships we
have re-launched the Thanet Compact which sets out guiding
principles for the statutory, community and voluntary sector to
work together.
Modern Council – The
District’s Gateway Plus opened to the public in January 2008, which
is a new one-stop shop for people to access both public and
voluntary sector services alongside the Margate Library. As
part of our commitment to improve community engagement we have also
implemented a new complaints system allowing complaints to be
closely monitored until resolution; we next plan to publish a
‘Resident’s Charter’ which will set out service standards which
people can expect from the Council. We have also began a
programme to relocate 70% of the Council’s staff to the main
council offices in Margate to enable more efficient use of office
accommodation and thus reduce costs over the medium term.
Our Commitments and Priorities for Improvement and
Investment
As part of the Budget Consultation for 2008/09
the Council undertook its own spending review to determine which of
its planned areas for improvement were a priority. A total of ten
new commitments were identified as being key to delivering the aims
and aspirations of the Council and its communities, as indicated by
the feedback of previous consultations.
TSR/01 – Investing in the economy and
jobs
The Council’s new Economic Development and
Regeneration Strategy sets out the major economic opportunities for
Thanet. This focuses on key projects that have the potential
to transform the local economy:
- Turner Contemporary and the regeneration of
Margate Old Town
- Future of the Dreamland site in Margate
- Potential for Wind-farm development in the
Thames Estuary and the associated potential for the Port of
Ramsgate
- Realising the potential of land at Manston
and Eurokent
- These projects will all help to bring inward
investment into the area and create jobs. The Council is
continuing to invest heavily in these areas and is committing £249k
new money to this priority in 2008/09.
TSR02 – Funding a Thanet
festival
Events have proved to be an excellent way of
helping to attract visitors to the area and are popular with local
people. Building on the success of previous years, the
Council will be committing funding to a three year festival
package, with around 20 events for residents and attracting
visitors to spend time and money in Thanet. This commitment
will enable partners and community groups to plan, organise and
commit to working with us on this exciting programme.
TSR03 – Increase domestic recycling
levels to 40%
We all know that we must recycle more – so we
will be laying on additional recycling rounds to make it easy for
us to recycle household waste that would otherwise go to
landfill.
TSR04 - Improve cleaning
standards
Whilst cleanliness has improved since we
returned the service to direct council control, we still need to do
more if we are to meet our target of being in the cleanest 25% of
councils in the country. Thanet is beautiful and we want to
make sure we all see it at its best. Alongside this, we are
increasing enforcement action against those who spoil the streets
for others.
TSR05 – A standard for our town
centres
We want to agree a ‘Gold Flag’ standard for
our town centres with businesses and residents. This will set
out what standards can be expected in our town centres in terms of
street cleaning and street services.
TSR06 – Investment for our
parks
Our parks and green spaces add to the quality
of our daily lives, offering opportunities for fun, exercise and
relaxation. By investing in the standard of our parks, we aim
to achieve national recognition by achieving two Green Flags each
year.
TSR07 – Programmes for Young
People
Our surveys tell us that local people see
activities for young people as a priority. This money will be spent
on ensuring that there are relevant and well publicised programmes
available for young people, particularly during the Easter and
summer holidays.
TSR08 – Better sport and play
facilities
Local people have highlighted that sports and
play facilities need improving in Thanet and the Council is aware
that the area suffers from poor health. We want to make it
easy for everyone to take part in sport and play as part of an
active and balanced lifestyle. Our key projects
include:
- The Marlowe Athletics Track
- Developing and improving play areas in
Margate and Ramsgate
- Improving our swimming pools and associated
leisure facilities
- Running at least two campaigns a year on
health related issues
TSR09 – Supporting a new Parish
Council in Ramsgate
We have listened to local residents and will
do our bit to help the formation of a new Parish Council. We
will run the election for the fledgling Council and help support
the newly elected Council during its first year of
operation.
TSR10 – Community Wardens and
CCTV
Residents told us that reducing crime is a
priority for them so we will continue to work with the police to
make Thanet a safer place. We will provide community wardens
at additional times and we will increase our CCTV coverage to keep
an eye out for anti-social behaviour.
It is essential that each of the commitments
set out in the Corporate Plan are adequately planned for and
resourced. The budgetary growth that has been identified as
being needed to make the progress planned for 2008/09 is outlined
in detail below. Within the Medium Term Financial Plan costs
have also been provided for future years based on draft plans and
spending projections for each initiative.