I am pleased to be able to introduce the new Corporate Plan for Charnwood Borough Council. The Plan sets out what the Council and our partners will be delivering in the next few years and what our priorities are during this time. We will use the Corporate Plan to shape and deliver the services provided directly by the Council as well as those we provide in partnership with others.

Our vision for Charnwood is as follows:“Charnwood must be prosperous, progressive and innovative and a place of choice to live, work and visit.”

We want Charnwood to be a place where people are proud to live, work and enjoy leisure time. We will continue to strive for excellence in everything we do and provide. The key priorities through which we shall make this vision a reality for residents focus on four areas:

• The People of Charnwood
• Our Prosperity
• Our Place
• The Environment

With this focus we can deliver important projects including elements of the Climate Change Action Plan, the Council’s Waste Strategy, achieving the Decent Homes standard, investment in the South Charnwood Leisure Centre, the regeneration of east Loughborough, improving community safety and securing affordable housing to address homelessness issues in the Borough and meeting future needs.

These four areas will be supported by two Council improvement and development programmes aimed at improving our services and developing our own staff to work well together, deliver excellent customer service and reinforce our strong sense of pride in our Borough.

We have consulted widely during the preparation of this Plan and we have taken all the comments received into account. We want to make a real difference for all residents of Charnwood, local businesses, visitors and students.

To those who gave feedback or ideas, thank you for your help in creating this Plan. We hope that if you were not able to contribute this time you will still find the Plan informative and clear about what we aim to achieve to make Charnwood a location of choice and to fulfil our ambitions for the Borough.

Leader of the Council