New leisure centres, roadside collection of recyclable goods and free compost bins are all being planned this year by Coventry City Council.

The cabinet will today create history when it meets for the first time.

Members of the public are being encouraged to come to the meeting at St Mary’s Guildhall in Bayley Lane, where they will be able to put questions to councillors

Each of the ten cabinet members, appointed following political restructuring of the council, will outline their aims for the portfolio they hold.

Highlights of the plans include looking at ways to build new leisure centres in Canley and Tile Hill, and in the north of Coventry.

There are also pledges to develop one-stop centres where people can report problems and get a solution.

Problems including surplus school places and social services’ place on the Government’s special measures list are to be tackled.

Pilot schemes include roadside collection of recyclable goods, 5,000 free compost bins to encourage home composting and a £200,000 pioneering school travel plan to dissuade people from using the car on the school run.

Council leader Nick Nolan and his deputy John Mutton will outline their proposals later today.

Other cabinet members have already pledged to do the following:

Cllr Kevin Maton, Social Services

• re-establish the government’s confidence in our child protection services to the point that Coventry is taken off the list of authorities in special measures
• strengthen the in-house fostering service to be able to offer local high quality family placements
• develop council members role as Corporate Parent
• continue the New Homes for Old Strategy, replacing old-style residential homes for older people with purpose built accommodation.
• ensure successful Best Value Reviews in Child Protection, Children’s Placements and for services for the over 65s.
• strengthening work with other agencies in the statutory voluntary and independent sectors, as well as with Primary Care groups.
• greater social inclusion for all

Cllr Tom White, Community Well-being

• to help relieve poverty by completing the welfare benefits review and find effective ways of ensuring Coventry people get the national benefits they are entitled to
• ensure close working with the health services to provide support for Coventry’s vulnerable people
• increase our efforts to reduce crime by working with the police and other agencies, implementing and extending gating schemes and matching locally raised money with city council money.
• continue the commitment to work in partnership with voluntary organisations
• begin consultation over community care charges
• make social inclusion a reality by continuing to bid for government money for community schemes and initiatives

Cllr Jack Harrison, Community Services

• to continue the improvement in financial performance and delivery of service in Coventry Contract Services.
• to draw from lessons learned from restructuring the refuse collection contract, particularly applying best value principles across all services provided by CCS and Client Agency
• develop area based services matching the needs of the community where possible and listening to what people want
• look into the possibility of developing call-centre facilities which provides a one-stop centre where people can report problems and where they can be told how and when they will be resolved.
• to encourage the use of information technology in the workforce to maximise potential
• to build upon the successful Information and Communication Technology strategy in schools; ensure our overall ICT strategy makes sense when working with partners across the sub-region; allow information to be available to the public, making us more in touch with our citizens.

Cllr George Duggins, Education and Library Services

• to maximise our influence on service changes to deliver our goal on life-long learning. These changes include; the integration of the library service into education; the transition to the Local Learning and Skills Council; the Post 16 review and the advent of Curriculum 2000.
• to address the problem of surplus places in schools and review the provision of Special School Places
• accelerate the rate of attainment in primary schools
• increase the number of pupils who attain five A-C GCSEs
• to ensure a successful LEA Inspection and respond to the Inspection Action plan.
• reduce class sizes for five, six and seven year olds to 30 by 2001.
• develop and grow the Early Years Excellence centre in Hillfields
• to provide every child in Coventry with the best education opportunities possible

Cllr Joan Wright, Cultural and Leisure Services

• to develop a local cultural strategy based on what local people want. This will be through questionnaires distributed through cultural and leisure venues asking for people’s views on what they want.
• to have commitments for the future from all organisations who provide cultural opportunities within the city.
• to draw up long term development plans over the next year for the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum; the Museum of British Road Transport; Coventry Sports and Leisure Centre; the Belgrade Theatre and the SkyDome.
• to build on plans for new leisure centres in the north of Coventry and in Canley/Tile Hill
• to carry out more leisure outreach work  with young people in the community
• to pilot a new programme called Active Communities in the north-east of the city, working alongside the Education Action Zone.
• update the Passport to Leisure and Learning scheme to ensure more cultural opportunities are accessible.

Cllr John McNicholas, Environmental Services

• to listen to the views of the public and respond to petitions handed in by members of the public.
• to build on the success of the new refuse collection service, which alleviates the problems faced by residents over missed bank holiday collections
• to continue encouraging recycling by piloting a kerbside collection scheme which will encourage householders to pick out their recyclables and we will pick up from their doorstep.
• to run a pilot project to encourage 5,000 people to try out home composting by giving free compost bins
• work with partners to ensure all Coventry citizens have access to a choice of Coventry housing that is affordable and well-maintained
• to take a strategic view of need across all housing – both public and private and develop a housing strategy
• to respond to the Government’s transport agenda and develop a sustainable transport network to meet local requirements
• to invest an extra £200,000 to kick-start a pioneering school-travel plan to reduce the use of the car for the school run, expanding safer routes to schools and increasing safety measures around our schools.

Cllr Bob Waugh, Development and Renewal

• to create a socially inclusive, vibrant city where all benefit from success and make a real contribution to their own and the city’s future – a city that inspires!
• to listen throughout our planning process and explain ideas as they are developed
• to continue the £150m investment in the city centre
• to put vibrancy, life, safety and enjoyment back on the agenda as part of a comprehensive regeneration of the city centre.
• to continue our commitment to the lowering of the unemployment rate which is now at its lowest since 1975 at 3.9%
• to provide support and money to local communities, working on local regeneration plans.
• to continue working with partnerships, in the private, public and voluntary sector

Cllr Phil Townshend, Service Co-ordination

• to ensure all the council’s services achieve best value for the people of Coventry, requiring us to ensuring they improve year on year.
• to ensure our services are clearly responding to the needs and views of the communities we serve
• to root out and tackle poor performance and demonstrate to the electorate that our services are among the best in the country.
• to review all our services in depth over the next five years
• to enable Area Co-ordination to work with all our high priority neighbourhoods to attack problems people face together with local people
• to keep Coventry at the forefront of Neighbourhood Renewal developments.
• to build on the success of Area Co-ordination by involving more and more people in its approach to improve services and the quality of life of many more citizens in Coventry.
• to build on the work of the Citizens Panel, and the manner in which it contributes to informing the council, as one element of the city-wide implementation of the council’s consultation strategy.