South Lanarkshire's Community Plan

South Lanarkshire's Community Plan Stronger Together was officially launched in December 2000 with the first meeting of the Community Plan Partnership.

The Community Plan sets out a 'vision' for South Lanarkshire for the next five to ten years and was produced the Community Plan Partnership of South Lanarkshire Council, Lanarkshire and Greater Glasgow Health Boards, Scottish Enterprise Lanarkshire, Scottish Homes and Strathclyde Police as part of the Community Planning process.

The Community Plan launch took place at South Lanarkshire Council's headquarters in Almada Street, Hamilton and was attended by representatives from all the partners, elected members, public agency board members, voluntary and community sectors, the priva private sector and the South Lanarkshire Youth Council.

Councillor Eddie McAvoy, leader of South Lanarkshire Council, said: "The Plan sets out how the partners want to make Lanarkshire a better place in which to work and live by better planning and delivery of services to meet the needs and aspirations of the communities. We can't do this alone which is why we are encouraging both residential and business communities to work with us and help us achieve this.

The vision is simple. It sets out how the major public agencies will work together to deliver better and more integrated services to meet the needs and aspirations of South Lanarkshire's communities.

It aims to do this by building:

• Successful and Inclusive Communities - promoting social inclusion, revitalising our urban areas and developing our rural areas
• Safe and Healthy Communities - promoting community safety and tackling crime; improving health and social care; protecting and enhancing the environment
• Working and Learning Communities - building and attracting businesses; providing high quality learning opportunities and education services; increasing communication; and creating opportunities for jobs, business and learning.

To implement the vision, a wider South Lanarkshire Community Plan Partnership was set up. It will be responsible for guiding direction and overseeing progress made. Targets have been set to maintain the proportion of people in work above the Scottish aver average; reduce the unemployment rate to nearer the Scottish average; and place South Lanarkshire amongst the top five areas in Scotland on skills.

It also wants to:

• improve the mortality rates from heart disease and cancers relative to Scotland
• reduce recorded crime to 66% of its 1995 level increase the re-use of vacant and derelict land
• reduce the differential in the quality of life between communities
• increase the proportion of people saying their local area and 'community spirit' are very good
• increase the proportion of people who are involved in learningl safety and employment prospects are very good

David Ennis, chair of Scottish Enterprise Lanarkshire, said: "Community Planning is a key business area for Scottish Enterprise Lanarkshire which has always recongised the benefits of working closely with local partners. In fact, partnership working already takes place in many different ways, from jointly developing strategies to working on specific projects.

"We look forwad to working with our partners to build on our existing work."

For more information or to obtain a copy of the Community Plan, contact: Jim McCaffer, head of Strategic Services, Enterprise Resources, South Lanarkshire Council, Montrose House, 154 Montrose Crescent, Hamilton ML3 6LL. Telephone: 01698 453813, Fax: 01698 454376, e-mail: jim.mccaffer@southlanarkshire.gov.uk

Business South Lanarkshire - Winter 2001

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