East Cambridgeshire District Council’s new ‘Vision for the Future’ was given the seal of approval at this month’s Full Council meeting, which was held on 5th October.

The document, which outlines the promises, commitments and actions of the Council between 2017 and 2019 was met with enthusiastic support by Councillors.

Based around six priorities, the plan details how the Council will improve the lives of local people and businesses across the District, building on the achievements of the last two years. The commitments fall into the following categories:

• Delivering a financially sound and well managed Council
• Genuinely affordable housing
• A fantastic place to live
• Improving local transport
• Improving infrastructure
• New Jobs and Funding

Cllr Chares Roberts, Leader of the Council said: “We are committed to ensuring that East Cambridgeshire continues to be a district where people want to live, work and visit and we are delivering on those promises.
“We are making real progress in skills delivery, we are going to work hard to increase Apprenticeships and jobs, whilst continuing to promote inward investment into our flagship Enterprise Zone at Lancaster Way.
“The Cinema complex is open and people are enjoying it. Council Tax will be frozen again. The new Leisure Centre is making speedy progress and we are increasing accessible car parking across the Council. CLTs will continue to be a focus as we look at making homes genuinely affordable. Our homelessness rate is one of the lowest in the Country which is an incredible achievement. This really is a document to be proud of.”

Deputy Leader of the Council, Cllr Anna Bailey added: “We have a can-do attitude and culture here at East Cambridgeshire of which we are extremely proud. The pace of delivery is unrecognisable in comparison to some other Local Authorities. More is to come in the next two years; the new plan is an exciting document. We like to set ourselves targets in East Cambridgeshire – goals which challenge us all to do better for the benefit of the communities, residents and businesses in the district.”

Some of the specific promises made in the document include delivering a tourism strategy for the district, improving Sixth form provision, establishing eight ECDC supported Apprenticeships, securing a new rail station for Soham and working closely with the Combined Authority on public transport and modular housing.

View the full corporate plan.