Working hard for local people

Our Annual Review in short films

We’re a small but highly ambitious council, employing around 400 people, and we get through a lot in the space of a year. When residents pay their Council Tax bills to us, we have to pass on almost 90 per cent of the money to Surrey County Council and the Police.

That leaves us about 10 per cent of people’s bills, or around ￡3.50 per week for a Band D home to pay for all the services we provide, including the salaries of the people who run them.

Every year we publish a written annual report, giving residents highlights of everything we have achieved on their behalf, or provided to help improve quality of life. This year, for the first time, we have produced a more concise Annual Review document and now we're also explaining the work in these short films

Scroll down to watch our films.

Both the review and films focus on how the Council operates and the work we have done in support of our five priority areas as set out in our Corporate Business Plan.

The vision we set out in October 2022 in our Corporate Business Plan was:

?To be a community leader, providing high quality services, enhancing the environment and advocating for our community’s interests.

The priority areas are:

1.??? Climate Change

2.??? Health and Wellbeing

3.??? Empowering our Communities

4.??? Economic Development

5.??? Organisational Development

How the Council works

This film sets the context of our work and explains how the Council operates, the way we budget and how much we spend.

You can find out about many of the services we provide including environmental health, managing parks, providing social housing and dealing with hundreds of planning submissions every year.

Dealing with climate change

Climate change, and how we deal with it is central to the Council's work and permeates our whole organisation. Watch this film to see what we're doing and how we're encouraging the community to do what they can as well.

Supporting people's health and wellbeing

Creating the conditions and environment to help people live healthy and independent lives is key to the support we provide to residents. This includes older people, the vulnerable, or those who need a bit more help.

Empowering our communities

The people who live in Runnymede have a strong sense of community, thanks to our small towns and villages. There is an enormous amount of pride and commitment to this historic area and our empowering communities work aims to support individuals and organisations to own and develop initiatives.

Support for businessses

Our economic development work aims to ensure Runnymede remains a leading economy in the south east. We do so whilst acknowledging that the impacts of Covid, Brexit and the cost of living crisis is yet to be fully felt.

Developing as an organisation

Our people and the systems we use are key to the delivery of services to our residents and businesses. Our work in this area is about developing our organisation in a changing changing landscape to ensure the Council is considered an employer of choice in terms of culture, career opportunities and training. It also ensures efficient and effective processes and procedures, using digital platforms.

Reviewing our key projects

Each year a number of specific projects are carried out across the Council. Some are to improve the way we operate internally, others are public-facing. During the year these have included updating our telephony system and collating data on vulnerable people so we can better help them in the event of an emergency. We have also expanded our CCTV network and updated our Council Tax support scheme.

Our Project Management Office keeps track of progress of these projects to ensure they are on target. Staff also monitor performance indicators across Council services.

In addition to the work we have carried out in these priority areas, our staff have been busy on many other programmes of work.

We have delivered new homes, administered grants totalling nearly ￡1m to support the cost of living, processed hundreds of planning submissions, carried out hundreds of thousands of bin collections and continued to run important services like meals at home and environmental health inspections.

The launch of our Civic Awards was a wonderful occasion, demonstrating the immense range of activity, support and culture which exists in Runnymede.

The publication of our Corporate Business Plan was a significant step, setting out our direction of travel and priorities. It is vital helping us realise the ambition that Runnymede is considered the best borough in the country to live, work, visit or study. It brings structure and vision to how we will respond to climate change and support the health and wellbeing of our residents, their ability to effect change locally and the economic prosperity of our Borough.

The final word goes to Cllr Tom Gracey, Leader of the Council, who had this to say in his introduction to our printed annual review:

I am proud to say your local council has continued to deliver, despite another challenging year: together we saw off Covid-19 only to be confronted with a cost of living crisis. The commitment of councillors and staff across the Council continues to impress me, and I thank everyone for their considerable efforts.

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