We Asked, You Said, We Did

We asked for your views on the draft Strategy and Action Plan.

There was a range of views: Many people agreed that there should be open and constructive discussions about what people with protected characteristics need.  Some people felt it would be enought to treat all people the same, with respect, and efficiently. Some people expressed that this was a waste of money. Some people asked for specific extra actions. Some felt that labels can sometimes be over-used to define people and create divisions and the aim should be to treat people as people, and bring people together. Thankyou for all these comments. 

All the views have been considered and a new version of the Strategy and Action Plan is now going forward for approval at the Council's Cabinet on 29th March. The Action plan will now last for a single year during which time the Council will consult in more detail with groups to ensure the Council understands better the needs of people with protected characteristics. The Action Plan has more specific actions and times of when the action will be completed. The Council is legally bound to pay particular attention to equal opportunities and fostering good relations as set out in the Strategy, and there may be areas where the Council has a role to go further to ensure that equality of opportunity is genuine and not assumed. (This is known as positive action and permitted in law, as opposed to positive discrimination which is not.) However the Strategy does now reflect the comments about not dividing people into different groups.