RSS Press releases

Dumfries and Galloway Council today (Tuesday 28 February) agreed a five-year plan that sets out the vision and strategic outcomes the Council wants to achieve for the region.

The Council Plan 2023–2028 will guide activity across the local authority and centres on how it will deliver better outcomes for the citizens and communities in Dumfries and Galloway.

The agreed Council Vision for 2023–2028 is:

“To be a successful region, with a growing economy, based on fairness, opportunity and quality public services, where all citizens prosper. Working in partnership, with connected, healthy and sustainable communities. The region will be the natural place to live, work, visit and invest.”

There are four new Themes in the Plan: Economy; Transport, Connectivity and Infrastructure; Education and Learning; and Health and Wellbeing.

Dumfries and Galloway Council Chief Executive Dawn Roberts said: “At Full Council today our elected members came to a unanimous decision and agreed our shared Vision and Plan for the next five years.

“With this Council Plan we aim to address a wide range of priorities that are important to our local communities. We carried out a public, staff and stakeholder consultation throughout January and feedback from this has been incorporated into the final plan.

“Members were keen to thank everyone who contributed.

“The Council will now produce a yearly action plan that sets out how we intend to achieve our strategic outcomes and we will review our performance against the annual plan.”

Elected Members will consider the Council Plan annual deliverables for 2023/2024 at Full Council on 30 March.

The Council’s Vision is supported by four Principles:

Safeguard our future:

• Address the climate emergency: urgently respond to climate change and transition to a carbon neutral region.
• Protect our natural capital: protecting and enhancing our region’s natural capital and habitats through conservation and sustainable development.

Support our citizens:

• Put customers at the heart of services: provide responsive and reliable services that achieve high standards of customer care.
• Address inequalities: assess the impact of change to ensure inclusivity, accessibility, celebrate diversity and secure social benefits of change.
• Support the most vulnerable and in need: target resources to have a positive impact for the most vulnerable, people in need and those who are disadvantaged.
• Offer digital services: embrace the opportunities and potential of digital technologies to improve outcomes and services for citizens and staff.

Support our communities:

• Empowering communities and individuals: empower customers, communities and staff and build skills and confidence to enable people and communities to achieve their ambitions.
• Work in partnership: ensure that service delivery is achieved, working alongside communities and with local, regional and national partners.
• Focus on local and place: use places, wards and school clusters as the basis of local planning and delivery; and embrace the creativity and resilience of our places and people.
• Invest to enable change: encourage and attract inward investment to deliver the ambitions of communities and local people.

Be a responsive Council:

• Communicate openly: share ideas and invite contribution to decision making.
• Maintain sustainable finances: balance spending and income to ensure finances are sustainable over the longer term and budgets are spent on achieving the Council Plan.
• Be organised to deliver: be creative and responsive, organising services and workforce to ensure we deliver our Council Plan’s strategic outcomes.
• Maintain high standards: ensure transparency in decision-making and treat others with kindness and respect.
• Make best use of resources: ensure that there is good governance and effective management of resources, with a focus on improvement, to deliver the best outcomes for local people.

To read the full report and Council Plan go to Item 6:

https://dumfriesgalloway.moderngov.co.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=137&MId=5680