Over 700 people who live and work in Sutton Coldfield shared their views on Royal Sutton Coldfield Town Council’s draft Strategic Plan for 2020-2023.

Ten questions set out in an online and printed survey attracted 728 responses and almost 900 additional comments – the biggest response yet to a public consultation since the Town Council was formed in 2016.

The public consultation ran for six weeks and was promoted through social media, pop-up events, e-newsletter, community events, local media, ward meetings and paid-for advertising.

The majority of respondents said they strongly agreed that the Town Council should play a leading role in regenerating the town centre (74 per cent), protecting and enhancing Sutton Park, engaging with residents to ensure effective use of resources (both 69 per cent), improving local services for a cleaner, greener, safer Sutton Coldfield (67 per cent) and representing the town’s interest in major development projects (65 per cent).

Lower, but still significant numbers of respondents also strongly agreed that the Town Council should ‘Promote Sutton Coldfield and its heritage’ (56 per cent) and ‘Work with partners to develop programmes to promote health and wellbeing’ (46 per cent).

Regeneration of the town centre was a key concern too.

The most important factor among respondents was increasing the number of independent retailers.

The Town Council is currently playing a leading role in the Sutton Coldfield Town Centre Regeneration Partnership (TCRP) and has contributed £45,000 towards the development of a £150,000 masterplan, setting out a new vision for the town centre.

Leader of Royal Sutton Coldfield Town Council, Cllr Simon Ward (pictured), said: “We are very grateful to the hundreds of people who shared their views during the consultation period and took the time to tell us what really matters to them.

It came through in spades that the town centre is what our residents are most concerned about.

“I’ve spoken in length about Sutton Park too, it is the lungs of our town and it needs to be looked after by the people who understand it.

"We don’t expect residents to be turning cartwheels with everything the Town Council does but these results are very positive in terms of our direction of travel. The views of the residents are brilliant and we will listen to them.”

Royal Sutton Coldfield Town Council (RSCTC) adopted its first Strategic Plan in July 2017.

The process of creating the 2020-2023 Strategic Plan began in Autumn 2018 with a survey of residents, community groups and local businesses who were asked to rank the priorities identified in the Strategic Plan for 2017-2019 – 711 completed that survey