Paul Outlines Liberal Democrat Council 3 Year Vision for Sheffield

12.00.00am GMT Thu 30th Oct 2008

Cllr Paul Scriven

"In May Sheffield people elected the Liberal Democrats to power on the promise of a programme for change. I hope that local people can see that we have already made some short term changes for the better in the City. Things like providing green waste sacks for free, putting an extra 15 police community support officers on the streets and undertaking the biggest road and street sign renewal Sheffield has ever seen.

These actions, and others like them, have started to have a positive impact. However, although these actions are delivering for Sheffield, our programme is much bigger and more ambitious then these relatively 'quick wins'.

We want Sheffield to become a 'City of Opportunity', where people have a voice and the power to improve their own lives. We are about giving local residents control because they know the issues and solutions for their own area. We want to move away from a 'one size fits all' approach, with the Council imposing decisions on local communities and individuals. We have a vision of communities and people having the opportunity to do things for themselves, with the Council playing a key supporting role. This is clearly a very different approach from the previous Labour administration.

Therefore I'm delighted that we are set to agree a three year action plan which sets out our vision for Sheffield, including how the Council will deliver on what you asked us to do. This includes some ambitious aims like Sheffield becoming the best cities to set up a successful business and our city to become a top destination for short stay tourism.

The Council's vision is for Sheffield "to be a modern, vibrant, green city where people choose to live, invest and work" and "to be a city where everyone can achieve their full potential". We also set out our vision for the Council "to be a Council that gets things right first time for our customers".

We want to be open and honest about decisions and consultation. We are clear that the Council should admit to mistakes when we get things wrong, which is something that hasn't happened in the past. We want local communities to be given the power to make their own lives better, getting away from the 'Town Hall knows best' attitude. We also want to focus on day to day issues in neighbourhoods rather than concentrating everything in the city centre. We want to bring about nothing short of a sea-change.

But our plan also sets out the tangible things that we aim to deliver for local people. Things like reducing Sheffield's carbon footprint and increasing recycling opportunities, making it easier to do business to boost the economy and starting to genuinely tackle poor pupil attainment levels so that our young people will have a better start in life.

But there will also be more radical action. We will introduce 'Community Assemblies' so that local people and their councillors have the power to make decisions and improve local services such as street cleaning, libraries and parks. We will setup 'Community Justice Panels' so that local people can influence how offenders make amends for low level crime and anti-social behaviour. We will allow local people to develop their own 'citizens targets' for the Council, so that they directly influence the Council's priorities for investment.

I know that this will be a massive challenge and things won't happen overnight. No doubt we will make mistakes along the way, but as long as we keep on listening to local people I'm confident that we can deliver our long term vision so that Sheffield becomes a 'City of Opportunity' and a place where everyone matters."

Councillor Paul Scriven, Liberal Democrat Leader of Sheffield City Council.