The future is bright in the Borders
Thursday, June 26 2008
Major steps have been taken in providing a bright future for the Borders, councillors heard at a meeting of Scottish Borders Council today (Thursday).
The ‘Bright Future for the Borders’ plan was produced in May 2007, setting out the new Administration’s priorities and action programme for the Council – designed to improve the quality of life for all communities and people in the Scottish Borders.
Councillors agreed to accept the contents of the report on progress over the past year after hearing about major achievements including: a zero council tax increase; maintenance of prudent financial reserves; the establishment of an Affordable Housing Task Force; the protection of rural schools, improved road safety measures and a campaign against dog fouling.
The Bright Futures document set out many priorities under the headings of Governance; Housing; Education and Young People; Enterprise and Economy; Caring and Health; Environment; Communities and Transport.
Thursday’s report explained what progress had been made so far and highlighted the actions still to come. The Council will receive regular progress reports over the next three years.
Council Leader David Parker said: “Great progress has been made in achieving our priorities for the Borders and I was very pleased to see this positive report being accepted by Council today. There is still work to be done but firm plans are in place to ensure that all these priorities are met within the next three years of the Bright Futures programme.”
Among the achievements set out in the report were continuing delivery of major projects including the Waverley Railway; the thee High Schools project, which has seen new schools in Duns, Earlston and Eyemouth nearing completion; the Primary Schools project which will see six new or refurbished primary schools built at Clovenfords, Kingsland, Halyrude, West Linton, Lauder and Denholm; the Heart of Hawick Project which has won awards for excellence in national competitions; the South of Scotland Broadband Project which is nearing completion and is providing fast, high capacity communication facilities to our schools and communities and the Customer First Project which has seen a redesigned one-stop-shop at the contact centre in Hawick – a plan which will be rolled out to all Council contact centres.
The Council had also made significant progress in the areas of maintaining sound financial management; addressing affordable homes needs; raising building design standards; providing support to businesses and tourism; improving joint working with the NHS; launching a war on dog fouling; reviewing procurement policy with a view to purchasing more local produce; introducing more road safety measures and making the Council more accessible to the public.
Depute Council Leader Neil Calvert said: “This is a hugely positive report. These priorities were set with the best interests of everyone in the Borders in mind and the fact that the Council has made some very impressive progress is good news all round. We have also made a commitment to keep driving forward these priorities and giving regular updates on progress. In addition it is proposed to add some fresh items to the list of objectives later in the autumn.”
Catriona Bhatia, Executive Member for Education, said: “It was a privilege to be able to bring this report to Council as it set down in black and white the hard work that is being done to improve services and support all sections of our communities. As Executive Member for Education, I was particularly pleased to highlight the progress made in improving our primary and secondary schools.”
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