Leader's New Year message - get involved in 2011
Published 4 January 2011
A message from the leader of the council, councillor Peter John.
"I want to start 2011 with a call to action. Let this be the year that we all really get involved in our community.
Last July the Council's cabinet agreed a vision for the borough, where everyone should be able to take advantage of the opportunities that come from living in the centre of London. We know that the only way to make this a reality is for the council to work closely with residents, businesses and local groups to find the innovative solutions for Southwark.
In 2010 residents helped us reach some major milestones. Plans for Elephant and Castle began to take shape; we started reforming council meetings to make decision making more open and accessible; we agreed a new violent crime strategy and it was another record-breaking year for schools results in Southwark.
In each case residents were involved every step of the way.
We need more of the same this year. Online and through community councils residents have given us their innovative money saving ideas and their views on spending priorities and on 25 January the cabinet will look at proposals to save more than £30m.
But we are not going to give up on our ambitions.
The Olympics are coming. So 2011 has to be the year that Southwark gets into shape for the games.
In a major step forward in the fight against childhood obesity and underachievement, we are working with schools to launch a Free Healthy School meals pilot this month.
An independent teenage pregnancy commission will bring together the public sector and local groups to find innovative ways to tackle the issue.
The 27 March 2011 UK census is now less than 12 weeks away. Our understanding of who lives in Southwark and the funding we get from government, depend on the results of the census. We should all therefore work closely together with our residents, our voluntary sector partners and the Office for National Statistics to get a complete and accurate census result for our population.
There is plenty to look forward to. But we will also have to make some tough decisions, and there will be some bad news.
We finally received our settlement from government in December. The cuts are at the upper end of our expectations, they are frontloaded and leave us with very little room to manoeuvre. It is going to be very difficult to protect services in the coming years.
But I believe that 2011 will be the year when the borough comes together to meet the challenge of providing the quality services Southwark needs to deliver a fairer future for all.
