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This week’s edition of Coventry City Council’s news update focuses on a message to all residents from Council Leader Councillor George Duggins on the Council’s priorities for the future.
With city-wide Council elections now over until 2026, I wanted to take the opportunity to outline to residents who subscribe to the Council’s weekly e-newsletter our vision and plans over the next two years and the work Coventry City Council will be doing.
The role of local authorities has never been so important, with the challenges the city and the country face – the ongoing cost-of-living crisis and inflationary pressures to name just two – and more people needing help and support.
The Council is not immune to those pressures, and demand is such that we now spend 75% of our entire budget on social care and housing and homelessness – up from 40% in 2010. We deliver more than 600 services, yet the city receives one of the lowest funding levels per head of population in the country (Coventry £821, England average £910) as well as the lowest in the West Midlands. It is why we continue to fight for fairer funding for all.
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Despite these challenges, Coventry City Council remains committed to supporting those most in need, while helping to support to provide opportunities for all to improve the lives of themselves and their families. Economic growth and prosperity is at the heart of that, as well-paid employment is proven to have clear benefits to people’s housing and wellbeing – both physical and mental. It is why economic prosperity is at the heart of what the Council is trying to achieve.
It is why for more than seven years we have been pursuing our ambition to make what is today known as Greenpower Park a reality. Based on Coventry Airport and with the West Midlands Gigafactory as its anchor tenant, Greenpower Park is designed to foster world-leading collaborations between industry, major academic institutions and stakeholders to drive the UK's ambitions in leading the transition to a cleaner, more sustainable energy future.
After so much work by the Council, it is exciting to see this project so tantalisingly close. It is a game-changer, not only because it will see the city lead the Green Industrial Revolution as it did the Industrial Revolution, but for the benefits the £2.5b inward investment will bring, the 6,000 highly skilled jobs it will create, not to mention the much-needed boost to the wider supply chain.
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 But our economic ambitions are at all levels. The Job Shop is something we remain committed to as it does so much for getting local people into work. The venue has moved from its former location - to allow work to start later this year on the City Centre South development - to a new site at West Orchards Shopping Centre. I am sure this central location will mean the facility can help even more people as the work it does is truly remarkable. Since it opened 10 years ago, it has helped around 60,000 Coventry residents and has directly supported almost 15,000 people into quality employment, as well as helping more than 200 businesses each year to support their recruitment campaigns.
The Job Shop works with partners across the city and its Employer Hub actively works with employers to create opportunities for local people. The team offers support in the search for employment, training, apprenticeships and work placements. I have visited this service many times over the years as Leader and as a councillor and I cannot speak highly enough of the magnificent work that it does which makes such a difference to people living in the city looking for employment.
We will also continue to listen to our residents. That has been a constant theme during my time as Leader of the Council, and hopefully was a reason why we gained three additional seats in the local elections this month. We know bins and roads are so important to people. It is why we are transforming the bin service for it to remain as an in-house one that is best in class. Similarly, we are investing almost £20m in improving roads and pavements during this financial year. This will pay for more than 160 projects that include repairing and maintaining the city's roads and pavements, improving flood protection and investing in road safety schemes to help reduce road collisions.
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Safer streets and reducing the speed of some vehicles on our roads is another issue that residents have told us is so important to them. It is why we continue to roll-out our highly successful Average Speed Cameras programme. These have been installed on the roads that statistically have the most speed-related incidents and any profits made are reinvested to expand the programme elsewhere in the city. There is clear evidence to show, where installed, these measures are effective in reducing the severity and number of personal injury collisions and that is why we receive regular requests from residents for them to be installed where they live.
On the theme of safer streets, commitments over the coming months include a greater emphasis on tackling fly-tipping, with larger penalties and increased enforcement; working with partners to provide more green spaces while planting a tree for every citizen; as well as delivering more affordable housing including larger family homes and bungalows at affordable rents.
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 We will also continue to support our wonderful parks and look to identify appropriate areas across the city that we can re-wild to boost the ecosystem, as well as continue to support the events the city has become famous for such as the Godiva Festival – which celebrates its 25th year this year – and Motorfest.
Delivering all of these things will be tough set in the context of the financial pressures, rising demand and the chronic national underfunding we face but I make no apologies for being ambitious in delivering the best we can for the city.
I will update you on progress over the next 12 months through this newsletter, and as a Council, we are always keen to hear your views.
Cllr George Duggins
Leader, Coventry City Council
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