"A great place to live, an even better place to do business" is the new strap line for Wokingham Borough Council’s vision for the future of the borough.

To be launched at its council meeting on February 23, the borough council’s vision identifies the outcomes it’s aiming to achieve in the medium and long term.  These outcomes include regeneration of its towns and communities; creating an environment which drives economic growth; having the best schools; delivering well designed development; providing effective services that demonstrate value for money and helping its more vulnerable residents to maintain their independence. 

Leader of the council Cllr David Lee said: "Our residents have told us that they want an efficient refuse collection system and clean streets; great country parks and leisure attractions; roads and transport links that are of high quality and without congestion; top quality schools and local libraries. 

Despite being the lowest funded unitary authority in the country we have already been working hard to put these priorities into practice. We are investing £26 million in our schools, have opened a library in Finchampstead, a new mobile children’s centre, extra care housing at Alexandra Place and shortly at Beeches Manor and we are about to launch a new waste collection scheme, which will maintain the weekly refuse collection and increase recycling from fortnightly to weekly.

Cllr Lee added: "We need to build upon the good work already started and that is why we have five key priorities developed through consultation with our residents, partners, staff and councillors. These are the areas we believe we need to both invest in and focus our efforts on in the coming months and years."

These priorities are to:

• Improve the educational attainment in our schools, ensuring that all the borough’s children have the opportunity to achieve their potential;
• Invest in regenerating our towns and villages, supporting economic prosperity, whilst encouraging business growth;
• Ensure we have strong sustainable communities that are vibrant and supported by well designed development, for example through the core strategy and strategic development locations;
• Tackle traffic congestion, with schemes like the station link road proposals;
• Improve the way in which our customers can access council services and make it easier to do business with us – whether booking a tennis court or accessing social care services. 

Cllr Lee concluded: "We are excited about our future and truly believe that together we can make Wokingham Borough a great place to live and an even better place to do business."