News-People urged to have their say on our priorities

We are seeking views to help us update our Council Plan - a document in which we set out how we plan to work and how we will deliver services over the following four years.

We are carrying out consultation as part of our annual review of the plan, with a view to it covering the four years from 2025 to 2029.

Cllr Amanda Hopgood, our Leader, said: "Our Council Plan is a really important document as it sets out what our key priorities are in terms of the services residents rely on, and how we will deliver them over the next four years.

"Our current plan sets out how we use an annual budget of around £1.3 billion to provide more than 800 different services to more than 522,100 people in County Durham.

"We want people to take part in the consultation and have their say on the current plan and on our priorities for the next four years.

"Specifically, we want to know if people think the current priorities are right, if there's anything missing and if there's too many. We want people to help us identify and understand local need, any gaps in our service delivery or any areas requiring improvement.

"All responses will be carefully considered before our officers review the plan and bring it before councillors for approval."

The Council Plan is our main corporate planning document. It is supported by a series of corporate strategies and service plans which detail the actions, major projects and improvements we are undertaking to deliver our priorities.

The plan is structured around the following five ambitions:

• Our economy
• Our environment
• Our people
• Our communities
• Our council

Under each ambition, the council has set out: 

• Its priorities 
• Its achievements 
• The issues to be addressed 
• What its contribution is in this area  
• What its future approach will be  
• What major projects it will be undertaking 
• Its 'key performance indicators' for the delivery of key services which are used to measure progress towards the authority's ambitions

We have also, in line with the Equality Act 2010, included equality objectives, which it reviews every three years.

Our progress towards achieving out ambitions is tracked through key performance indicators as well as data from Office for Local Government's Local Authority Data Explorer. This is used to develop our quarterly performance reports.

The plan is currently scheduled to be discussed at Cabinet in January 2025, before going to Full Council the following month.