Six co-operative neighbourhood teams will be established in Stevenage later this year, which the council says should provide more joined up services and quicker responses to residents’ enquiries.

From October, the six new teams – formed of council staff from different areas – will help address localised issues.

The team will also be able to support residents’ activites and communities who are improving their areas.

Each neighbourhood will be formed of two or three existing wards. They will be:

• Bedwell and Pin Green,

• Chells and Manor,

• Longmeadow and Roebuck,

• Old Town, Symonds Green and Woodfield,

• Shephall and Bandley Hill,

• St Nicks and Martins Wood

Cllr Rob Broom, SBC’s member for neighbourhoods and co-operative working, said: “Co-operative Neighbourhood teams are about staff, ward councillors and residents working together to improve our town.

“We’re building on the lessons we have learned during the pandemic to continue building on the strengths of communities, whilst ensuring that the most vulnerable are supported.

“We know that community means different things to different people, so the teams will respond to what matters the most to local residents and will find ways to support ideas they have and activities they’re involved in that make their neighbourhood a better place to live.”