Column by Toby Savage, leader of South Gloucestershire Council. 

While we are all working hard to do our part to overcome the Covid pandemic, the Council is also planning for the future.

We are all looking forward to a time when we can get back to the things we love doing and once it is safe to do so, putting the coronavirus firmly behind us.

Last year we published our new Council Plan, which sets out our priorities for the future as we put in place the support and investment to do what you told us are important: re-ignite our powerful and innovative economy, and make our places safe, attractive, and sustainable for future generations.

Next month the Council will be asked to approve our Budget, which will allow us to invest in the services we need to make the ambitions in the Council Plan a reality.

Our priorities remain creating the best start in life for our children and young people. To support those most in need and helping people to help themselves. We will promote sustainable and inclusive communities, infrastructure, and growth. And together we will achieve the full potential of everyone and deliver value for money.

We are also clear that our future will be more sustainable as we respond to the climate and ecological emergencies and that we will do more to tackle the inequalities that Covid has further highlighted to us.

The impact of Covid-19 has affected us all and the Council has not escaped the disruption to the way we do things, our income and what we need to spend your money on that you will have all felt too.

As ever, balancing a budget will require some difficult choices as, inevitably, we cannot do everything that we want to as rapidly as we want to, and we will be focussed on helping our communities and residents; businesses, schools and students to fully recover from the past year, which will take time.

But our Council Plan and Budget will show us a way forward. It will build on our strengths and the remarkable resilience that the people of South Gloucestershire have shown over the past year.

We know that each of us will have a different journey back to ‘normal’ post-Covid and we want to support everyone on that journey so, for example, while Council Tax will need to rise reasonably to help us achieve our goals, we will go the extra mile to make sure we’re supporting those who are struggling.

The past year has shown what we can achieve when we work together and the future of South Gloucestershire can be bright for all of us and for future generations, which is something we can all look forward to.