Malvern Hills District Council has adopted a five-point plan of priorities for the coming months.

Providing local homes for local people, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, improving access to open spaces, supporting children and young people and encouraging the rural economy will be its main aims.

A meeting of the full council has agreed to the five areas that are laid out in the draft council plan for 2007.

However, the priorities will only be interim.

Councillors will review them and consult with the public and partner organisations later in the year.

Council leader Serena Croad said: "We are a new administration and the plan was drafted before we were elected. We are adopting the five areas as interim priorities. We have currently got a budget review going on and we are going to review the priorities in the local plan.

"Our aim is to take the priorities out to consultation with the public and our partners. We have got to gather evidence of how the priorities fit in with what the people are asking for and how they match our resources.

"The priorities have to be achievable. We want to have new priorities in place by October."

Mrs Croad said that, following the consultation and any adjustments, the plan would form the backbone of the council's operations during the four-year term of the current administration.

Malvern Hills council produces a plan each year which contains information about the authority's past performance and achievements, feedback from members of the public about what they think of the council's services to date, priority areas for improvements and how it intends to tackle those tasks.

In his report to the full council, district council operations manager David Rolls said: "The council plan is a fundamental platform that brings together the achievements and aspirations of the council and its partners in a single document and acts as a source of information for the next year."

He said it is a working document for staff, councillors and the council's partners, but also incorporates the requirements of a Best Value Performance Plan prescribed by law.