Foreword
Proudly serving the Cherwell district for 50 years: 1974 to 2024
Your district council is hard at work making north Oxfordshire a great place to live, work and play.
Every year we offer you this snapshot of how key public services are running in your area, and of the progress we're making towards our long term strategic goals for the district. We run services including waste collection, street cleansing services, housing, planning, and enforcement. It's no secret that councils everywhere are operating in challenging financial circumstances, impacted by inflation and the increased cost of living.
But we are a prudent and well run council and have maintained a high level of performance for north Oxfordshire residents, while navigating these challenges with a balanced budget.
We are determined to deliver housing to meet the community's needs, and our recent successes include the launch of a tenants' charter, the delivery of grant funding to improve the condition of privately rented homes, and the start of work on site at Town Centre House, which is being refurbished for use as social housing. Cherwell supports environmental sustainability, and the year just gone saw extraordinary success as coffee loving residents embraced a new coffee pod recycling scheme, the business waste service continued to grow, and we won funding to plant new, carbon sequestering woodlands.
Our work to support the district's economy and urban centres reached some crucial milestones in the past year. Our work revitalising Bicester Market Square is underway, and we ran a key survey on the future of Banbury town centre, seeing a massive response from the public. We also had a fantastic response to a survey of local businesses, helping steer our plans for future economic growth.
I am also really pleased that, even against a challenging financial backdrop, the council is sticking to its vision of doing more for you, leading the way with initiatives designed to make Cherwell a district where it's easy to make healthy lifestyle choices.
We have continued to invest in the health and wellbeing of your communities; we cast a wide net with a series of investments and leisure programmes that offers something for people at all stages of life.
For youngsters we delivered scores of new bikes to bike libraries at primary schools in the district. And our Move Together programme is a standout example of best practice, with the highest take-up in the county on this programme which offers tailored exercise programmes to people with long-term health conditions.
Read on for more information about the good work we are doing with your council tax money and to learn more about the real impact our work is having in your area.
Gordon Stewart, Chief Eecutive Officer