The Strategic Plan 2018-21

This plan describes the priorities and direction for our city. It sets out the Council's ambitious goals to help make Colchester and even better place to live, work and visit. We will work with many partners to get the best for our residents.

Our priorities are set out under these four themes:

• Growth - Ensuring all residents benefit from the growth of the city.
• Responsibility - Encouraging everyone to do their bit towards making our city even better.
• Opportunity - Promoting and improving Colchester and its environment.
• Wellbeing - Making Colchester an even better place to live and supporting those who need help most.

To help us decide on these priorities, we invited members of the public to share their thoughts with us. This consultation included an online survey and a series of focus groups with the public, independently selected to make sure we included all sections of our communities.

Residents told us:

• Colchester is a welcoming place and should continue to be so.
• They are positive about Colchester and see it as a good place to live.
• They are proud of the long and prominent history of the town.
• They like the countryside surrounding Colchester and the city's open spaces such as Castle Park.
• They understand the importance of growth for the town and city but want infrastructure to keep pace.
• They want the Council to play its part to maximise the availability of affordable housing and encourage inward investment to maximise job opportunities.
• They want the Council to support the most vulnerable in society, and to help reduce homelessness.

This plan also includes a summary of achievements against the previous Strategic Plan 2015-18.

The Strategic Plan 2018-21 was discussed by Scrutiny Panel and approved by the Cabinet in January 2018, prior to being adopted by the full Council in February 2018 (reports shown below under ‘useful links’).

Action plan

There is also a Strategic Plan action plan which sets out specific actions and outcomes for each priority area. The action plan is presented to the Cabinet twice a year. This is a working document and progress against these actions is reported on a six-monthly basis to the Cabinet and to the Scrutiny Panel from late 2018 onwards.

Useful links and documents