WHITEHILL Town Council has formally agreed to adopt a strategic plan which outlines the council’s key priorities for the future.

The evolving document adapts over time to act as a one-stop shop for everything the council is doing.

Henry Pavey, director of The Collaboration Man Ltd, was commissioned to work with councillors to produce the document, which sets out actions the council needs to take and rates them either low, medium or high priorities.

At a town council meeting on Monday, Mr Pavey explained that, with the council listing 34 key projects and an additional 16 relationship-management initiatives, the council essentially had 50 things to be worked on.

“The important thing, I think, is when you look at it, it captures everything you’re currently doing,” Mr Pavey said.

The “beauty” of the plan is its rolling nature and the ease with which councillors can reference the “totality of your work programme”.

Town council leader Tony Muldoon described the process of producing the document as “very enlightening” and thanked Mr Pavey for making things “so easy to understand”.

The document breaks down the council’s work into five sections: policy and resources committee workstream, amenities committee workstream, planning and highways committee workstream, maximising opportunities workstream, and relationship-management workstream.

Within the strategic plan, each workstream includes a number of key projects and initiatives, each with: a priority ranking; named members and officers responsible for each project; the activities (over four quarterly periods) for each project, and the risks involved.

Key projects with a high priority rating include: the appointment of a town clerk; a review of the structures and processes in response to the increasing workload associated with Whitehill and Bordon’s regeneration; a review of the council’s standing orders; a review of the council’s investment policy; planning for any East Hampshire District Council support-grant reductions for 2017-2018, and creating a budget for the Bordon Inclosure SANG (Suitable Alternative Natural Greenspace) that is separate from the council’s main budget. The town council manages the SANG.

Planning and highways projects with a high-priority rating include: implementing a training plan so councillors know what to look for when considering planning applications, particularly large ones; ensuring the council is involved in sports and leisure opportunities, specifically the playing-pitches strategy, and taking an active role in revising the Budds Lane skatepark and youth cafe proposals put forward by Prince Philip Barracks developer the Whitehill and Bordon Regeneration Company.

Projects with a medium-priority rating include: developing a new council communications, marketing and events strategy; improving the paths at Firgrove Playground, and considering options for reducing costs associated with deterring antisocial behaviour and vandalism.

In introducing the strategy, the town council described itself as “an ambitious council” that seeks “not only to commission and deliver high-quality local services”, but also “to play a full and active role in the significant place-making transformation of Whitehill and Bordon from garrison town to green town”.

But with its workload increasing, the council has found understanding the human-resourcing requirements challenging. This, it said, had been compounded by “the lack of a single overarching strategic plan” that covers all activities.

As such, it teamed up with Mr Pavey and this week voted in favour of adopting the resulting plan.