by political editor Paul Francis

Residents will be encouraged to bid and run Kent County Council's services under a radical plan published today.

The idea is among dozens set out in the authority’s new four-year plan, "Bold Steps for Kent,".

It says KCC must rethink everything it does and question which services it should continue to provide.

While the masterplan makes clear that others will be urged to take on the job of running services in line with the government's "Big Society" theme, it stops short of proposing wholesale out-sourcing and privatisation of every single services.

Setting out the authority’s aims, county council leader Paul Carter states: "The council must choose to either ‘make’, ‘buy’ or ‘sell’ services.

"In other words, should we continue to provide the service in-house or is it more cost effective to buy in services from other bodies, and should we sell services to other organisations both within Kent and beyond?"

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The document acknowledges the challenge of a major shake-up at a time when the council needs to save £330m over the plan’s lifetime.

A key aim will be a move to allow others to do KCC’s job.

Staff will have the "right to bid" for services, taking them over in management-style buyouts and creating new arms-length trading companies which KCC would then commission services from.

Residents and voluntary groups will be encouraged to do the same for other local services with the council establishing a "Big Society" fund to provide start-up grants.

The four-year blueprint also calls on the government to give Kent "city region" status, allowing it more powers over issues like housing, transport and planning – in the same way as places like Leeds and Manchester.

The document states: "Kent has the opportunity to deliver greater economic growth than many UK cities given our position as the Gateway to Europe as well as the opportunities that exist within the Thames Gateway and the regeneration of our coastal towns."

Cllr Carter said the plan recognized that the balance of power was shifting absolutely towards the citizen and that unless KCC recognized that, it risked being seen as outdated and irrelevant.

"To meet these huge challenges we cannot stay as we are. We need to take big, bold steps to rethink what we do as a county council and how we do it."

Other key proposals:

*Make Kent financially self-sufficient by allowing it to keep money raised by business rates

*Create a commercial or mutual company to provide school support services

*Press for a third Thames crossing to ease traffic congestion

*Lobby for a Kent-Essex partnership to drive forward investment

On schools, the plan makes clear that KCC will continue to push for higher standards and will step in where schools are considered to be working against the county’s broader interests.

Public consultation on the four-year plan will be held until November 12. The full document can be seen atwww.kent.gov.uk