Wokingham Borough Vision

The blueprint to create the Wokingham borough wanted by residents, community groups and businesses went before the council’s executive on March 29.

The Vision for Wokingham Borough, setting out the council’s priorities and underpinning principles, was agreed by council in February. At their meeting last week, members of the council’s executive considered the Interim Corporate Plan, which sets out how these will be delivered, and will drive service planning across the council.

Interim chief executive Andy Couldrick said: “The Interim Corporate Plan provides further information to support the vision and sets out some high level actions during the next three years to deliver on it.

“The intention is for this to form the basis of detailed service planning which will translate into a final corporate plan which we will bring back to executive next year.”

Under the strap line, ‘A great place to live, an even better place to do business,’ the vision has five main priorities:

Improve the educational attainment in our schools, ensuring that all the borough’s children have the opportunity to achieve their potential
Invest in regenerating our towns and villages, supporting economic prosperity, while encouraging business growth
Ensure we have strong sustainable communities that are vibrant and supported by well-designed development; for example through the core strategy and strategic development locations
Tackle traffic congestion, with schemes such as the station link road proposals
Improve the way in which customers can access council services and make it easier to do business with us – whether booking a tennis court or accessing social care services

The vision describes the sort of place the council and residents wish Wokingham Borough to be in 10 to 20 years.

It also details how these priorities will be achieved. They include:

New grass root approaches to working with children, families, communities, schools and colleges to tackle under-achievement
Helping businesses, town and parish councils and residents in borough towns and villages understand and recognise economic opportunities to ensure they make the most of them
Exploring funding to support borough and local aspirations, and engaging with external agencies, partners and other stakeholders
Supporting the development of major transport projects which are crucial to local growth, such as the town centre redevelopment
Creating a fully interactive and transactional website for customers and streamlining council procedures for public enquiries