Corporate Plan Update - April 2024 to March 2025 p2

Key Achievements

Some of our key achievements over the last year have included:

1. Pop-up Shop opportunities utilised by 57 community groups, entrepreneurs and events.
2. 50 town centre events and activities held across Ballymena, Carrickfergus and Larne.
3. 271 dynamic and engaging museum & heritage events delivered.
4. Almost 370k trees planted or distributed across the borough via our Tree and Woodland Management Strategy.
5. Almost 6,600 people participated in 144 outdoor recreation activities.
6. Over 4,700 people engaged in enterprise and employability outreach activities.
7. Over 97k visitors welcomed at strategic visitor attractions.
8. Winner of the ‘Local Government Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion Award’ at the 2025 NILGA Awards for our Autism-Friendly Borough Initiative.
9. 82 community arts events delivered across the borough.
10. 1,500 pairs of glasses collected for reuse through our Spectacle Reuse Scheme.
11. Completed the second-year delivery of our Equality and Disability Action Plans.
12. Fields Good, Northern Ireland’s first regenerative agriculture festival, held in September.
13. Over 11 tonnes of food (32,655 meals) collected through Community Fridges.
14. 5% increase in the number of MEA schools awarded a Green Flag through the Eco-Schools programme.
15. Over £7m invested across 19 key capital projects, including playparks, MUGAs and community centres. 

In the Spotlight: Championing Biodiversity Across Mid and East Antrim

We are proud to be championing biodiversity across Mid and East Antrim, restoring habitats, empowering communities, and inspiring future generations.

From town woodlands to family events, our efforts are helping ecosystems recover and flourish through practical conservation and local collaboration.

Our communities are at the heart of our work.

In Ballymena, the Friends of ECOS have long led the way in habitat management and citizen science.

From creating a new hazel walk to restoring wildflower meadows, their work supports pollinators and other species.

Furthermore, this year alone, the group have planted almost 6,000 trees to help address ecological imbalances, and their butterfly monitoring partnership with Butterfly Conservation NI is a model of local environmental action.

In Carrickfergus, the Friends of Bashfordland Wood are restoring balance in woodland and meadow areas.

Traditional techniques like tree thinning and glade creation are bringing light and life back into the woodlands, while the removal of invasive species, such as bamboo and salmonberry, is encouraging the return of native flora and fauna.

To inspire and educate the next generation, our Biodiversity University continues to grow.

Delivered each year in August across Larne, Carrickfergus, and Ballymena, the programme reaches over 250 families in each area.

Through fun, hands-on activities and wildlife experiences, children and parents are building lasting connections with nature and developing the skills to care for it.

Building on these successes, our most recent initiative in Larne Town Park is beginning to take shape as the pilot site for our new Nature Recovery Plan.

Here, we’re combining habitat restoration with community action.

Volunteers and local schools have created a thriving community orchard and introduced new wildflower planting, while grassland areas are being left uncut in summer to benefit pollinators and small wildlife.

Woodland edges are being carefully restored by gradually removing invasive species and planting native trees to support long-term ecological health.

Plans are also underway to develop a looped nature trail, making the park even more accessible for people to experience nature up close.

Once the pilot is complete, the Nature Recovery Plan will go to public consultation ensuring that our long-term vision for biodiversity is shaped by those who use and care for these spaces most.

Our Plan

In striving to achieve our vision, we are delivering our Corporate Plan under the 4 key pillars of People, Place, Planet and Performance.

Performance Summary

We use a series of key performance indicators to help us track our success in the delivery of our strategic objectives.

We refer to these as measures.

Our performance against our 61 measures across the year is summarised below:

• 75% were achieved or on track. (46 of 61 measures)
• 15% are delayed but progressing. (9 of 61 measures)
• 10% were not achieved. (6 of 61 measures)

Detailed performance updates, by pillar, are provided throughout the remainder of this report.

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