Leicester mayor Sir Peter Soulsby has unveiled 100 ways that the council plans to improve life for residents within 100 days.

The pledges, which he outlined at his first cabinet meeting since he was elected last month, aim to improve business prospects, transport, health, the environment and culture, all in the first three months of his term of office.

They include bringing back free swimming for young people, carrying out extra bin collections in student areas at the end of term and creating car parking spaces around the city.

Sir Peter said: "At the end of this 100-day period I'll come back to cabinet to explain which pledges the council has met and which, if any, we've failed to achieve and why.

"It's more than 40 days since I took office, so some of these will already have been achieved.

"But there is a lot to do over the coming weeks."

Deputy mayor Rory Palmer said: "We've published our aims and people can hold us to them.

"Many of these targets are a continuation of things the previous Labour administration – from 2007 to 2011 – put into place and which we're proud of."

Senior officers, councillors and members of the public crowded into the town hall's Oak Room for yesterday's cabinet meeting.

For the first time, members of the public, council and press were allowed to ask questions during a meeting of the cabinet.

Sir Peter said he was keen to include the public in the decision-making process, but a show of hands at the meeting revealed that just 10 of the 40 or so people present were members of the public.

The rest were councillors and officers. Sir Peter said: "It's a start."

Decisions that the mayor and his seven-strong cabinet are considering are now raised at the meeting before they go through the council's scrutiny process.

In the past, they would have arrived at the powerful committee once, for a final decision.

One of the decisions announced yesterday – all of which are set to be signed off on July 4 after being scrutinised by other councillors – was a plan to roll out a new recycling scheme to all city residents.

Other decisions included investing in a job-creating innovation centre and tackling potential flooding in the city.

Sir Peter said: "In the past, people would only discover that major decisions were about to be made when the cabinet agenda was published a week before the meeting.

"Now we're giving the public plenty of advance notice of big decisions which could affect them so they have a chance to have a say and influence them."

He also announced that a consultation process on the future of eight city council-run old people's homes would be extended by three months.

Age Concern Leicester Shire and Rutland executive director Tony Donovan said following the meeting: "I'm pleased that the consultation process is being extended.

"I hope lots of people get involved and give their views and, hopefully, some of these care homes will stay open."

Selected pledges

Some of the pledges include:

Repair 1,000 potholes across the city within the 100 days and 5,000 over the next year.

Bring back free swimming for young people - aged 16 and under – in the city at council leisure centres. This will run for this year’s summer holidays and the October half-term.

Create extra evening on-street car parking beginning with new spaces for 100 cars to support the night time economy in the city centre.

Announce a programme for Meet the Mayor events across Leicester’s neighbourhoods, including the city centre.

Hold a summit meeting with businesses, the Job Centre, trade unions and others to draw up plans to get more people into work.

Bring in additional ‘end of term’ refuse and waste collections in areas with large numbers of student houses.

Announce a rolling calendar of community clean-up days across the city to tackle grotspots and improve neighbourhoods. One targeted clean up has already taken place in Market Street in the city centre

Begin the development of a new Leicester Heritage and History Walk smartphone app to encourage residents and visitors to explore and enjoy our city’s unique heritage and history.

Begin consulting with councillors and residents on the introduction of 20mph zones near schools, community facilities and in residential areas.

Reach a decision on the future of New Walk Centre – which architects say is structurally unsound.

Launch a public transport smartcard scheme.

At the end of the first 100 days publish a full report detailing the progress and delivery of each of these commitments.

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