Knowsley Council is planning a “radical” strategy to transform the borough by 2030.
But one councillor has warned the local authority and its partners “need to be realistic” about what they can do to address problems in a borough that is still the second most deprived in England.
At a meeting on Wednesday morning, representatives from the council, businesses, emergency services, education and the voluntary sector agreed five broad aims for the borough’s 10-year Knowsley 2030 strategy.
These include creating “a thriving economy with opportunities for everyone”, ensuring residents are “active and healthy”, making the borough’s neighbourhoods “vibrant and welcoming” and allowing people of all ages to achieve their potential.
The group, meeting as the Knowsley Better Together Board, also agreed to prioritise improving skills and mental wellbeing in the borough and raising aspirations among young people in the early years of the plan.
Cllr Maggie Harvey said it would be particularly important to make sure Knowsley residents were being given the skills they needed to be employed in local industries.
"When we visited Knowsley Business Park just last week, we were looking at businesses where our young people weren't gaining employment," she said.
"There's a job to be done in linking what we are doing in education with what's required and what's wanted so we don't look at this situation in 10 years' time and find we've got an even broader skills gap."
But while the meeting stressed the need to be positive, Cllr Steff O’Keefe said it was important to recognise the borough’s current levels of deprivation and the fact many problems could be attributed to national factors beyond the council’s control.
“We need to be realistic about what we can achieve as a borough,” Cllr O’Keefe said, “It’s no point us setting out to jump Knowsley right to the top.”
Figures released by the government in September showed Knowsley was still the second most deprived borough in England, as it had been when the previous deprivation statistics were compiled in 2015.
Debbie Loughlin, the council’s head of policy and performance, agreed, saying: “These are things that have been around for a long time, and I accept that we are not in control of all of the factors.”
However, she added, the council should still “take a proper, considered look at radical solutions” to address the borough’s long-standing problems.
The details of those radical solutions are still to be worked out between the council and its partners on the Knowsley Better Together Board, with the final plan being launched in spring 2020.
