Councillor Jones outlined his key themes for the year ahead at the authority’s full meeting held at County Hall in Lewes this week.
“I believe we have a very good agenda and that our priorities will continue to make a positive difference to our residents, said Councillor Jones.
“We want to carry on and extend the vitally important economic regeneration work in the county. Real progress has been achieved at Bexhill and Hastings and there is a big push to help Newhaven. We have also been working with our colleagues in Eastbourne Borough Council, Wealden District Council and the South East England Development Agency (SEEDA) to pull together a major new project in the centre of the County which should attract millions of pounds of investment.”
Raising standards in schools – particularly in English and Maths is another main priority. Councillor Jones said: “This area is absolutely vital and the challenge is to attract and retain top quality teachers to teach in East Sussex. I am convinced that recruiting new and retaining existing high calibre, expert teaching staff in the County is key to helping our children to reach their full potential.”
The Council will also explore the possibility of sharing some services with other councils, to bring efficiency savings and improvements. Peter Jones said: ”Councils could improve local services and boost their budgets by sharing not only ‘back office’ but also some ‘frontline’ services as well. We will be looking at this opportunity with similar sized neighbouring authorities such as Brighton & Hove.”
Councillor Jones also outlined other themes for the coming year including continuing the good work to improve services for older people, carrying out a review of bus subsidies and looking at ways of continuing to improve the Council’s nature reserves.
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