Making a difference.

With the portent of more cuts to our grants from government to be announced this week, it was reassuring to see that the overall direction of CBC in respect of the new growth agenda was unanimously passed by the Resources committee. This following considerable pressure from Group to ensure that we get a better understanding of our growth opportunities and the support given to that direction by the Peer challenge team from the Local Government Authority. All credit to our senior officer team as they have embraced this move with great enthusiasm as did our partners at East Dorset. This does mean a reorganisation designed to increase our commercial skill base so that we can better seek opportunities and explore the relationship between our local plan and the need to increase revenue in light of governments funding objectives. The ability to retain some part of the business Council tax is obviously a key issue as is the ability to develop schemes which would be acceptable to the Local Enterprise Partnership who the government sees as the coordinator and financial driver of growth projects. This partnership combines private business, local authorities County and central government in a plan for growth for the whole of Dorset. The City Deal, which is part of the project embraces the Bournemouth conurbation which includes Christchurch, more of that later in the year. With the potential of something in the region of 10,000 new jobs at the airport industrial park over the next twenty years issues such as transport infra-structure development will have to be considered and the resultant effect on housing provision. Big issues requiring big decisions and Christchurch Borough Council are at the heart of it!