Strategic Objectives

The Vision

The vision is to reverse the decline in employment of the past and to develop a more sustainable economy with a better mix of job types, including more highly skilled and better paid jobs. Whilst manufacturing will continue to play an important role in Chard, other sectors should be actively encouraged. The vision encompasses:

• Skills:  Chard would be a town of multi-skilled, literate, numerate and motivated people who will reach their full potential
• Transport:  Chard will be the hub of a fully integrated, environmentally friendly transport network.
• Apprenticeship opportunities:   Chard would facilitate equal  opportunities for training and retraining in a wide range of job related skills.

Strategic Objectives

The objectives for the strategy are to:

1. Encourage a more diverse range of businesses in Chard, either locally grown or through inward investment;
2. Exploit the town's underlying strengths which include a loyal workforce (experienced in production work), location in relation to the strategic road network and regional airport at Exeter and the area's lifestyle advantages;
3. Exploit the tourism potential of the town - drawn on its urban character, the town's history, the surrounding countryside and places of interest, its proximity to the coast and it's proximity to the SUSTRANS cycleway network;
4. Identify and develop niche market opportunities - local crafts and food production and products, sustainable construction techniques, environmental technologies and specialist manufacturing could be examples of this.
5. Identify and develop employment opportunities in the care sector;
6. Increase the basic skills of those workers who have poor literacy and numeracy and IT skills and generally update workforce skills;
7. Respond to the employment opportunities which the house building programme will generate;
8. Improve the town's self sufficiency in terms of providing the services and facilities which local residents and workers need; and
9. Strengthen the business community and partnership working between the business community and public sector agencies.