Our first Community Strategy, published in 2003, focussed on tackling community priorities. These were identified through a comprehensive progamme of engagement which included feedback from a wide range of previous consultation exercises, a series of focus groups, a young persons citizens jury, and a quality of life questionnaire through Leicestershire’s Voice (the Citizens Panel for Leicestershire).

These community priorities were used to develop the section titled “The people of Leicestershire Want”. Alongside this were some facts and figures to provide the context e.g. how Leicestershire compares to the rest of the country in relation to a specific issue. The final section is headed “We Will” and sets out a series of actions that Leicestershire Together and its partners undertook to implement to tackle the key issues facing the County. Two key priorities were identified; young people and service delivery issues.

The first Community Strategy was an overarching document that incorporated strategic elements of other public service strategies and documents, such as the Local Agenda 21 Strategy and the Leicestershire Rural Strategy.

The review of the strategy, published in July 2005, was informed by the following consultations;

• A follow up quality of life survey to Leicestershire Voice, the Citizen's Panel
• A survey of Parish Councils and meetings
• Four focus groups for young and older people, businesses and people living in rural areas
• The results of the Disabled Persons Citizens Jury

These showed that levels of crime and traffic congestion were key priorities for improvement. Road safety, condition or roads and pavements, pollution and access to health services were also seen as priorities. These priorities are set out in the Community Strategy summary leaflet. A sub group of the Leicestershire Together Board carried out a rural and sustainability appraisal of the document which led to various improvements.

All actions contained within the Strategy are monitored and reviewed annually and a progress report presented to the Leicestershire Together Board who receive a more regular quarterly update on the priority actions.

A progress report on all actions can be found in the annual review table, presented to the Leicestershire Together Board at its November 2006 meeting.

We welcome your feedback on the Leicestershire Community Strategy.