CORPORATE STRATEGY

• Major improvement to appearance of both town centres.  Nantwich wins national Silver Medal for Britain in Bloom.
• In surveys, twice as many people say that dog fouling, litter etc has improved since the community wardens were introduced than say it has got worse.
• Town Centre car parks resurfaced and re-signed with new ticket machines installed.  Two more have gained Secure Car Park status.
• Both towns given the Safer Shopping Award first in Cheshire.
• Burglary down by 23% and vehicle crime down by 28% compared with previous year first quartile.
• Major enhancement works to the Nantwich Road shopping corridor.
• Farmers' market opened in Crewe.
• Nantwich Market Towns health check in progress.
• Public consulted on new designs for Crewe's two main squares and decision taken to proceed.
• Kerbside collection of garden waste extended to 30,000 homes.
• Facilities for the collection of additional materials at 20 sites.

• 9 neighbourhood clean-up days in priority neighbourhoods and 6 community fun days.
• Quality play area and multi-games area and skateboard park installed and 60 days of playschemes.
• Street football leagues developed.
• Over 200 new homes built, 300 more approved, together with a new health centre as part of the West End physical renewal programme.
• Twenty homes brought back into use in the priority neighbourhoods, together with twenty houses in multiple occupations improved.
• Home Safety Co-ordinator appointed and funded by LSP partners.
• Neighbour mediation service introduced.
• 3 alley gating schemes installed to reduce crime with a further 5 in preparation.
• Health related activity has grown substantially in the year with Healthwalk participants growing from 50 to 270 per month, and exercise class participants increasing from 90 to 320 per week.  Alternative exercise sessions for children have reached 900 during the year.  Almost 2,000 residents have accessed Healthy Living Centre services.
• 2 new neighbourhood forums created.

• 438 net additional jobs created in the Borough.
• Unemployment fell from 1.6% to 1.3%.
• Annual earnings increased by 4.3% (GB = 2.4%)
• 29 acres of land brought into employment use, and Master Plan produced for the development of Crewe's South East Quadrant.
• Ambitious programme of festivals held in Nantwich.  Food and Drink festival designed to support rural economy attracted 25,000.
• New subsidised bus service linking the West End residents to employment areas.
• Special programme to allocate jobs at B&Q to long-term unemployed 25 jobs to date.
• Crewe area said to have largest proportion of companies exporting in the UK (Expedia).

• Theatre box office converted to mini town hall for evening and weekend payments etc.
• Expansion of on-line payments service.
• New website launched together with new content management system and designed to meet AA accessibility standard.
• Disabled access improvements to public buildings.
• Planning application process speeded up.
• Planning and Environmental Health enquiries now in one 'shop' and telephone answering improved.
• Open Doors weekend for people to look behind the scenes at what Council does.
• Text messaging service available.
• Simplification of housing benefit application process.
• Pension advice service available.
• One of the best 5 websites in the Northwest for business information (ODPM/SOCITM Study)