A well managed plan demonstrates that the council has thought carefully about what it should be doing and what its ratepayers, residents and others expect. It needs the ownership, support and interest of each councillor, every staff member and also the local community. Otherwise the plan will be time consuming, expensive and even meaningless.
Challenges to be addressed call for sound productive relationships amongst everyone involved. These relationships enhance the plan’s credibilty, its proximity to the people and its reputation.
Local government ‘s capacity to act ultimately in unity is one of its distinguishing features. A single plan, covering all its operations, provides the best opportunity to achieve a sense of purpose and direction.
It provides one of the best opportunities for local government to operate as both an efficient provider of services to the public and a strong democratic local institution.
A plan regularly quoted by the community at large – not only by councillors and staff - is on the way to being translated into reality. In the final wash up, community satisfaction will judge reality by results. Those results could be anything from a quieter garbage service to cleaner streets,safer roads ,bicycle tracks and public transport improvement. Results will be enhanced when planning addresses fully the council’s priorities. They will be augmented even further if everyone understands what is expected .
The test is always the extent , the degree, to which the plan is translated into reality.
People in local government must be able to demonstrate their council’s plan and its results without looking in their notebook for an answer.