Super Council aims to ‘put people first’

A strategic conference held recently at the Braid entitled ‘Putting People First: Community Planning in Mid and East Antrim’ was designed to bring together representatives of local communities in the new borough and organisations who will be statutory and local partners within the community planning process.

It also gave them the opportunity to review the work completed to date in preparing for the development of the first Community Plan for Mid and East Antrim.

Council will lead the Community Planning process by working with a wide range of partner organisations and local communities to develop a shared vision to improve the social, economic and environmental wellbeing of the council area.

The conference included a wide range of key speakers, recognising that the community planning process requires partner organisations and the local communities to work together to plan and deliver better services for the area and make the best use of resources, thus making a positive difference to people’s lives.

Deputy Mayor, Councillor Timothy Gaston, said: “We very much welcome the new power of Community Planning and we are looking forward to leading the implementation of the first plan for the new Mid and East Antrim Borough Council area.”

Alderman Tommy Nicholl MBE, who closed the conference, commented: “The conference has been organised as a first step in bringing together our community, elected members and the various partner organisations to look at the local emerging themes that have been identified from our early data gathering exercise.”