A NEW five-year vision for Worcestershire has been revealed - including extra spending to ease congestion, more children securing their first choice school and help to tackle flooding.

Worcestershire County Council has produced a new blueprint for the years 2017-2022 after months of detailed work.

The plan is called 'Shaping Worcestershire's Future' and includes at least 20 key targets, such as:

- Making sure the "average salary" for a job in Worcestershire catches up with and even overtakes rival counties

- Better school place planning so there is an improved "first choice success rate" for anxious parents

- Throwing less waste to landfill, maintaining the county's number of green recreational spaces and protecting more homes from flooding

- Treating the entire public sector across Worcestershire as "a single workforce" numbering 27,000 people, to work together more closely and save cash

The dossier, which spans 15 pages, has been created by the Conservative leadership and is in draft form until a vote at the next full council meeting in November.

It is designed to replace the old five-year plan called 'Future Fit', which was drawn up in 2011 and will expire in 2017 after an era of massive change and job losses.

Councillor Simon Geraghty, the leader, outlined the fresh document at County Hall today by saying he was "optimistic about the future".

He also insisted he wanted to move away from years of cuts by allowing the council to become more self-sufficient to "fill the gap" in the budget.

We revealed last year how the council is expecting to have to save a record £34 million in 2017/18.

The new plan sticks to the main four existing themes of 'open for business', 'the environment', 'children and families' and 'health and wellbeing' but cites new ways in which the council can take each area forward.

"We've got a changing landscape, a new Prime Minister and to an extent a new Government, and we also knew our old Future Fit plan was coming to an end," said Councillor Geraghty.

"This very much paints a picture of what we want Worcestershire to look like and I'm optimistic of the future.

"It's a refresh, rather than a wholesale change because all the feedback we've had suggests the priorities we had before are what people want, we've just re-energised them."

On the open for business theme it cites better broadband coverage, building on the existing Superfast project, as a key aim.

It also talks of bettering the current GVA (Gross Value Added) of the economy and "reduced journey times" to what it calls "key" areas in the county.

On children and families, it is targeting reducing the amount of time children spend in care and better school place planning so more parents get their first choice option.

The environment section aims to reduce waste, which will be achieved through the Hartlebury incinerator due to open in 2017, maintaining green spaces and a decrease in the number of homes classed as 'at risk' of flooding.

They also want roads and footpaths to be in a better condition when council workers do their survey work using national guidelines.

The health section cites increasing the number of county people exercising for 30 minutes a day, better life expectancy and more pensioners living independently as opposed to care institutions.

The current Future Fit plan was given a refresh in 2013 but will come to an end next year, after some a controversial few years of huge organisational change.

The administration at County Hall says the reforms will carry on but they are setting a a target of becoming 'self-sufficient' by 2022, relying on its own income streams like council tax and retention of business rates rather than at the mercy of Government grants.

At the moment the council spends around £322 million a year and some 70 per cent is from the rates, with Councillor Geraghty saying they are "not far away".

"If you've got to save money you can either make cuts, or grow your income base to fill the gap," he said.

"That's a different message you may have been used to hearing over the last few years but that's what we are aiming to do."

It will be debated in a scrutiny meeting next Wednesday, before it goes to the Tory cabinet the next day.

All 57 councillors will get to vote on the draft dossier in November before it becomes a live, working document guiding future spending priorities, with the blueprint sure to be a big area of debate.