ON APRIL 1 this year, Kent County Council brought together eight teams under the umbrella of Communities to work to strengthen communities across this large and diverse county.

We recognise there are differences both geographically and in needs between coastal towns like Margate, for example, and Wealden towns like Tenterden.

Yet look at the services and activities being offered in libraries, or by youth workers in both areas, and you will see how Communities teams are working with a range of people across Kent.

By bringing units including Libraries, Sports Development, Cultural Development, Adult Education, Kent Volunteers, the Youth Service, the Registration Service, Community Safety, Kent Drug & Alcohol Action Team and the Youth Offending Team together in one directorate, the aim is to deliver facilities, funding and services more effectively, when and where people want to access them.

Ultimately, this will mean benefits for residents and one example of this is through the work already underway for the 2012 Olympic & Paralympic Games. The Kent 2012 campaign, led by our Sports Development Unit, aims to make sure the county draws maximum benefit from the Games as a major event and for many years afterwards as a long term legacy.

This approach is based not just on location but on the many facilities and opportunities throughout the county that will attract business investment, international interest and raise the profile of the county as a whole.

The Sports Development team is working closely with KCC’s Cultural Development Unit on a cultural approach to the Olympics, and with Kent Volunteers to encourage volunteering by local people at the Games and preparation camps. Sports Development officers are working with colleagues across KCC, and with other authorities, businesses and voluntary associations, to ensure that the whole county makes the most of all the opportunities offered by the Games and can reap the benefits.

In July KCC, advised by a panel of stakeholders, appointed David Chipperfield Architects to design and build a major art gallery in Margate as part of the Turner Contemporary project, which is being led by a team within KCC Communities.

It is hoped that the opening of the gallery will make a vital contribution to the regeneration of Margate and East Kent. We are already working to develop the area’s cultural opportunities and community involvement in the arts.

The Turner Contemporary team presents exhibitions, talks and events of local, national and international interest at Droit House.

KCC also backs successful cultural events in East Kent such as the Broadstairs and Canterbury Festivals.

Links are made between the arts and education through work in schools with Creative Partnerships, and along with Creative Partnerships and Thanet District Council, KCC is supporting the presentation by Artangel and Channel 4 of the ‘Margate Exodus’ in September, in which local people will be actively involved.

We are making Kent’s libraries centres for the whole community that offer much more than just a book-lending service.

Our libraries and mobile libraries provide information about KCC services, places to meet and the chance to share ideas through reader groups. They have successfully become focal points for the local community geographically and encourage communities of shared interests.

Some of our libraries act as venues for adult education classes and after-school clubs and KCC’s Libraries and Registration services are looking to see how they could usefully share information and locations.

Finally, our Community Safety team and our Youth Service work hard to try to bring people of all ages together in environments where residents feel safe and have pride in their community.

Our youth workers and community wardens offer young people positive activities and reassure the wider public about anti-social behaviour, often perceived to be caused mainly by young people.

The benefits of this approach for everyone in Kent are obvious.

The essential challenge is to make sure that facilities and initiatives are really responsive to the needs and wishes of the people of Kent.

I am confident the carefully focused approach of the new Communities directorate will make it easier to pick up on those needs and wishes, and for everyone to work together more closely together to create a safer, more vibrant and enjoyable county.