Mental health, especially that of children and young people, and better provision for youngsters with special educational needs, have moved up the priorities for Swindon Borough Council.

That’s after one of the authority’s largest ever consultation exercises saw hundreds of residents tell the council that’s what they wanted to see improved.

The two areas are now key planks in the Swindon Plan, an ambitious document setting out not only what the council wants to do, and achieve, in the next three years, but how it will do it.

Council leader Jim Robbins will present the plan to his Labour cabinet colleagues next week, and if they approve it, it will go to the full council towards the end of July for final ratification.

Councillor Robbins said: “When we started work on this last year, and when we took a draft out to public consultation in January and February I said I would be disappointed if it didn’t change.

“We had comments, ideas and feedback from more than 700 residents, staff and partners, and it has changed.

“Mental health is something we had in the plan but it’s become a higher priority after the consultation.”

The plan’s delivery table sets out 12 things the council aims to do by 2027 to improve mental health, such as an audit of services targeting the mental health of men and boys, a working group with the NHS partners of self-harm, and continued help for those affected by suicide.

It all aims to cut the number of admissions to hospital with mental health problems and to cut the number of suicides.

Cllr Robbins added: “We also want to address children’s oral health and access to dentistry, we are an outlier in the South West and the South West isn’t great nationally fort that, and childhood obesity.

“We have set objectives to improve things in the more deprived areas of Swindon. It’s clear that many people in those areas feel left behind and it’s our job to bring hope  and a different feeling back.”

These are just some of the targets under the renamed mission Building a Fairer Swindon, the new name for ‘Combatting Inequality’, to go alongside Building a Better Swindon and Building a Greener Swindon, replacing ‘Achieving Net Zero.”

Cllr Robbins said: ”That’s something else which comes from the consultation, so we will be doing some rebranding of the missions.”

Among other objectives set out are to increase Swindon’s rate of domestic recycling to 40 per cent. Cllr Robbins said: “Despite encouraging initial figures, we want to get more people using the food waste collection service, which  brings us some money and avoids us having to pay to put it in landfill.

“We are also concentrating on active travel and helping people be active in their everyday life.”

Big infrastructure projects are also on the list of objectives where Cllr Robbins wants to see significant progress: “We are supporting he developer-led plan to rebuild and re-open the Oasis Centre.

“The Fleming Way Bus Boulevard is making progress after something of a delay.”

Cllr Robbins added: “We can tick one thing off the list already, we’ve just opened Museum & Art Swindon, and we are still working on a new entertainment venue fo the centre of Swindon.

“If we want  to be on the list for the biggest touring shows and artists 1200 seats  seems to be the important figure, which is twice the size of the Wyvern Theatre.”

Cllr Robbins said a report on the venue will be made to cabinet before the end of the year.

The final Swindon Plan will be discussed by cabinet on Wednesday, July 17.