11 – Corporate Strategy 2018
”All out for a better Newmarket”
Corporate strategy 2017-2020
Foreword
Welcome to Newmarket Town Council’s first Corporate Strategy. It sets out our vision for the future of the town and our aims and priorities over the next three years to help take it in that direction. As you would expect, it builds on the Newmarket Vision 2013 and the emerging Newmarket Neighbourhood Development Plan and supports the aims of “Love Newmarket”, the Business Improvement District for the Town Centre.
In this document, we have firmly nailed our direction of travel by highlighting the role of the Town Council in achieving our Vision for the Town. In doing so, we acknowledge it will take a strong partnership of a number of organisations to attain our goals. As the local authority closest to the people of the town, we are uniquely situated to best represent the views of our communities and to coordinate the actions of those who can deliver improvement. “All out for a better Newmarket” is the recognition of where we are and what needs doing. It is a commitment to tackle the issues identified with vigour, over a reasonable period of time. The Council will be careful with public money but will not be afraid to invest in the future. We are backing this up by reviewing our governance, increasing transparency in our decision making and recruiting a new officer team to implement our strategy.
We have deliberately kept the Strategy simple, it is summarised on one page. We will supplement this with our Business Plan, which will add the “how” we are going to deliver our Strategy and give more detail about the many actions we will take to achieve our aims. This will be accompanied by a 5-year financial plan to identify the longer term fiscal implications of our decisions. We will report back to you regularly on progress
We of course have a number of statutory duties and services to administer and intend to centre “quality” into our ethos, to ensure we fulfil our role in the most efficient and cost-effective way. This has commenced by outsourcing the delivery of burial services and grounds maintenance, which will enable us to channel the cost savings in to the other priorities.
Newmarket has a number of distinctive features which makes it attractive and unique, a strong heritage and most importantly a friendly community that enjoy the benefits the Town offers. Great as our Town is, there are a number of issues which require attention if it is to truly benefit from its global recognition. The planned growth of the Town will bring benefits but will also provide challenges.
We now feel able to shape Newmarket as a place which homogenises and meets the expectations of its residents, businesses and community organisations.
Councillor A Drummond Mayor 2016 – 2018
Councillor R Hood Reviewed August 2018
Mayor 2018 –
Our vision:
Our Town will savour and capitalise on its history, heritage and global identity by becoming an
affluent, vibrant and elegant place with a proud, engaged and empowered community. It will seek to become more a master of its own destiny through localised planning and decisive stakeholder action to develop in to a thoroughly modern town which protects its environment and amenities.
Our purpose:
To exploit the wealth generating capacity of the town by coordinating the efforts of the key stake holders to commit to it and invest in it. We will endeavor to promote community cohesion and to ensure that all our communities and citizens derive benefits prioritised by both need and choice. We will do this by facilitation, direct delivery, working collaboratively and becoming an effective advocate.
Our Core Values
Newmarket Town Council promise to be transparent, trustworthy and diligent; providing value for money whilst empowering, listening to and working with the community to achieve success for all.
Our Priorities
Our Main Priorities are: Outward facing:
• Promoting and maintaining the unique character of the town.
• Building a single engaged and empowered Newmarket community.
• Sustaining, developing and promoting the Town’s economy and employment
• Protecting and enhancing the town’s environment
Inward facing:
• Developing the potential of the Council, increasing efficiency and financial control to enable it to tackle local issues, deliver better services and provide effective leadership.
Mission Statement
Our Mission is to:
Fulfil our legal responsibilities and uphold the democratic process.
Strive to improve the quality of life of the people of Newmarket, through the provision of services, activities and events.
To encourage and support community cohesion
Newmarket Town Council is committed to:
Supporting the economic vibrancy of the town as a whole.
Providing a forum for discussion and decision making, and a platform to represent the interests of the people of Newmarket.
Promoting environmentally friendly policies.
The continued professional development of the Councillors and Officers.
About Newmarket Town Council and other government
Newmarket is a Suffolk market town approximately 65 miles (105 kilometres) north of London. It is generally considered the birthplace and global centre of thoroughbred horse racing. It is a major local business cluster, with annual investment rivalling that of the Cambridge Science Park. It had a mid 2015 population of 20,936.
Newmarket has three different tiers of local government, each democratically elected, independent of each other and with very different functions. Newmarket Town Council is known as a “local council” and is the tier of government closest to the people. It was established 1999 however the Town had not had its own council since the 1974 Local Government reorgansation had resulted in a merger of Newmarket Urban District and Mildenhall Rural District. The historic town had previously been at the centre of local government from 1894 to 1974, through the former Newmarket Urban District Council. The Town Council is uniquely placed to build a close relationship with residents, businesses and voluntary sector, to represent and lead the local community and provide services which are needed and desired in the town.
The Town Council is responsible for a number of community facilities throughout the town, including the public office at the King Edward VII Memorial Hall, 2 closed church yards, sponsored roundabouts, various flower beds, play areas, public toilets and allotments. It also maintains the Town Clock Tower, war memorials, a number of bus shelters, street benches, Birdcage Walk, the Cooper Memorial, Bill Tutte Memorial and the statue of The Queen with mare and foal as well as street planters and hanging baskets. It administers the Newmarket Cemetery and Chapel, the Severals grass area and Memorial Hall Grounds, as well as two venues-The Memorial Hall and the Severals Pavillion. It is involved in the promotion of the Town across various media and both running and facilitating events & festivals. The Council is also responsible for a number of street lighting columns.
Newmarket Town Council comprises 18 elected Councillors, who represent four different wards in the town, Studlands Park, St. Mary’s, Severals and All Saints. Council elections take place in May every 4 years, when a new council is elected. The most recent ordinary election was held in May 2015. The terms of office of councillors is four years starting on the fourth day after being elected and finishing on the fourth day after the date of the regular election four years later. The overriding duty of councillors is to the whole community, but they have a special duty to their ward constituents, including those who did not vote for them.
All councillors meet together as the full council on the fourth Monday each month (except December when it is held earlier in the month, or if the date should fall on a bank holiday), including the annual council meeting in May. Here councillors decide the Council’s overall policies, set the budget each year and deal directly with the more major issues. The Council has four principal committees with separate responsibilities: Finance & Policy, Development & Planning, Community Services and Leisure Services. It also has a Human Resources Committee and an Appeals Committee which meet as necessary.
The Town Council has a staff establishment of Town Council Manager, Finance Manager, Events Manager, Administrators, Town Keeper and Caretaker.
Further information about how the Town Council operates and makes decisions is available in our Constitution which you will find on our website www.newmarket.gov.uk.
Suffolk County Council is the administrative authority for the county of Suffolk. It is responsible for major services including trading standards, education, waste disposal, archaeological services, archives, fire and rescue service, registration services, social care, transport, highways and rights of way. The County Council has responsibility for mineral, waste and its own development planning. There are two county councillors who represent the town. The second “principal authority” having responsibilities for Newmarket is Forest Heath District Council. Based in Mildenhall, it provides many of its services together with St Edmundsbury Borough Council as West Suffolk. District Council functions include planning and building control, environmental health, benefits, refuse collection and street cleansing, leisure, strategic housing and council tax and business rates collection. There are eight district councilors who represent Newmarket. Newmarket is within the West Suffolk parliamentary Constituency and the East of England European Parliament constituency.
In 2017, Newmarket Town Council commissioned an independent review of how it compared with best practice. The headline conclusion in the Situation Analysis by LCS Ltd was of “of a local council in administrative crisis, with a great many strategic, operational and legal issues to address, but also of councillors who recognise this position and a tremendous desire to improve rapidly. There is a lack of a real strategic direction, but certain policy decisions have been taken recently which help to point to the future”
The Council has responded to this by undertaking facilitated strategic planning and producing this, its first corporate strategy. It has reviewed and revised the majority of its governance documents, decided on its staffing structure, commenced recruitment of staff and adopted a number of policies to add detail to its strategy. The Council has also instigated a programme of increased transparency.
Future direction
Newmarket Town Council’s Corporate Strategy sets out initial priorities over a three-year period in which it will lay down the foundations to achieve a longer-term vision of the town. The Town Council intends to do this through four outward facing and one inward facing priority areas:
Each of these priorities will be delivered through one or more projects for which action plans will be developed within our annual business plans.
Priority 1: Promoting and maintaining the unique character of the town
a) Preserve and build on the unique history and heritage of the town and ensure its special features are properly maintained.
b) Support proactive management of the town’s conservation area and ensure listed buildings remain used and maintained.
c) Use the Neighbourhood Plan and planning process to ensure new buildings are sympathetic to the character of the town.
d) To support Discover Newmarket
e) To work with Forest Heath to restore the Weekly Market to a prominent site.
f) Facilitate a Town Museum to communicate our heritage and compliment the National Horseracing Museum; and support organisations which develop the knowledge of our local history.
g) Lobby for the Shop Front Policy to be enforced.
Priority 2: Building a single engaged and empowered Newmarket community
a) Become an influential participant in dealing with others, working with and holding to account partners and coordinating the activities of stakeholders, to create a shared agenda, manage and improve local services.
b) Recognise the diversity of our communities of place, origin or interest, and proactively engage with them, ensuring they are consulted, and represented. Promote connectivity between neighbourhoods
c) Develop a Neighbourhood Plan and use it to assert more control over local planning issues and to provide an effective voice for the town in planning decisions.
d) Work with other public bodies to eradicate homelessness in our town.
e) Lobby for a mix of housing to meet the whole-life needs of our residents and workforce, particularly affordable housing for the young and accommodation to allow others to downsize.
f) Lobby for adequate infrastructure and social infrastructure to serve the level of development for the town.
g) Seek to engage with the future generation and cater better for their needs in the town. Establish a Town Council Youth Committee.
h) Support community and voluntary organisations which forward the aims of the Council, help them work better together and encourage multi-interest, cross-community groups such as Newmarket Vision.
i) Encourage more people to take an active interest in and become engaged with the town, its local council and voluntary sector.
j) Work with local education establishments to increase engagement with the Town Council and support the improved education in the Town.
k) Strive to make our Town safer.
l) Promote and support events which build community cohesiveness or promote the town.
Priority 3: Sustaining, developing and promoting the Town’s economy and employment
a) Engage with trade groups, local businesses, Newmarket BIDS and others to develop the town’s economy and create high value jobs.
b) Build economic development on the uniqueness and value of the Horseracing Industry, prioritising clusters, supportive services and digital industries.
c) Encourage the retention or replacement of employment sites and ensure provision for starter businesses.
d) Ensure sufficient infrastructure and utilities to support business developments.
e) Ensure that the town centre is vibrant, and attractive with a niche offer and a night time economy which caters for a wide mix of people.
f) To facilitate a coherent town centre parking strategy.
g) Ensure there is no net loss in town centre parking and that new housing and business development provides for adequate parking within the site.
h) Encourage sustainable modes of transport and facilitate a multi-modal transport plan for the town.
Priority 4: Protecting and enhancing the Town’s environment
a) Protect and enhance our local environment by preserving the natural environment, biodiversity and important landscapes.
b) Be an exemplar of sustainability by setting ourselves high environmental standards and audit our impact on the environment.
c) Work with like-minded organisations to make the town sustainable and will investigate the “transition town” approach.
d) To seek additional public open space and green areas in locations with an identified deficit.
e) To raise the standard of the public realm by tackling litter, fouling, graffiti and neglected or aesthetically displeasing areas.
f) Encourage and facilitate walking and cycling in and around the town.
g) To lobby for and facilitate a range of additional recreation and leisure facilities.
Priority 5: Develop the potential of the Council, increasing efficiently and financial control to enable it to tackle local issues, deliver better services and effective leadership.
a) Develop the capacity and diverse skill base within the council.
b) Deliver excellent services directly or in partnership, according to both need and consumer choice.
c) Have forward-looking governance and robust processes and controls.
d) Take an integrated approach to management and be transparent in our dealings.
How it will be delivered
Newmarket Town Council recognises that is does not have either the legal powers or resources to bring
about all of its goals on its own. It will partner and support all organisations and projects which share its vision and aims. The Princes Foundation report which led to Newmarket Vision suggested the need for the three tiers of councils to have common goals and one could add to this, other strong players such as Newmarket BIDs, the Horse Racing industry, Newmarket Vision Steering Group, Discover Newmarket etc. They have many shared visions as would be expected, but somehow this does not seem to be sufficiently coordinated to bring about swift delivery. It is this coordination and driving role that the Town Council sees necessary for itself. There will be a vital role here for the Town Manager.
The Town Council will therefore provide a voice for the town and argue strongly for others to contribute towards its vision for Newmarket. It will help fill gaps in provision, using its unique position to coordinate effort from all stakeholders and key drivers.
It will use its business plan to translate its strategy into actions, providing details of how it will achieve and fund its aims and specify targets against which its progress can be judged. Performance data will be collected regularly and reported to councillors and the public, together with financial management information.
The Council will robustly and with flair and vigour, tackle the challenges which lie ahead.