Our Talk of the Towns consultation highlighted that many local people want to see improvements in the range and quality of shops in their town centres; we recognise that this is vital for the future vitality of the towns.

Improving skills and creating training opportunities both appeared in the top priorities for local people in our District-wide surveys. We have been working closely with our partners to create more opportunities for people to improve their basic skills and benefit from an increased range of vocational training courses.

As our District grows, the infrastructure has to improve to make growth sustainable. We will continue to lobby the decision-making bodies to secure a start date for improvements to the A120 between Braintree and Marks Tey and to ensure a commitment to the construction of a passing loop on the branch railway line between Braintree and Witham.

Highlights from 2010/11

Events,such as our Continental Markets, were held to encourage over 7000 additional people into the district, including support for Witham Puppet Festival.

Our Loving your High Street awards attracted over 2000 votes from members of the public keen to tell us about the shops, restaurants  and services they most loved in their local high streets.  Over 200 businesses received votes and an awards ceremony took place at the Town Hall, Braintree.  

We supported Business Development Services with a grant of £40,000 to help it continue to support businesses in the districts.