Friday 31 May 2013

Hello everyone

I hope you all enjoyed the bank holiday weekend and wasn’t it so good to see some sunshine after all! As well as council business this week I’ve also been shearing sheep – it’s a busy time of year for farmers up and down the country.

Last week I mentioned that we had a visit from Guardian journalist Peter Hetherington. It was an interesting interview and I must admit I was shocked to see just how big the piece was in the paper. His article talks about our plans for the future as well as the benefits of becoming a unitary. I’ve been interviewed countless times over the years by reporters but it’s always interesting to read their take on things and our transformation plans have been well portrayed in this article.

The Councillor Induction Programme 2013 is drawing to a close and on Wednesday we had a really interesting session that focussed on the roles and responsibilities around public health. It included a film, case studies and details of who holds statutory responsibilities within the council. The session, which was very well attended, generated lots of lively discussion and interesting questions and ideas. Councillors were very interested to talk to members of the public health team and a number took the opportunity to have a health check, and I’m pleased to say that all had a clean bill of health!

While I’m on the subject of health I’ve signed up to the Wiltshire Challenge.   I’ve chosen to take part in the Walking Challenge which starts on June 1 – you can also choose the sports challenge and the swimming challenge if walking isn’t your cup of tea. I need to walk more than 224 000 steps by July 27 and I’ll be making sure I’ll always have my pedometer attached to make sure every step counts!

Today the Wiltshire Online team and I will meet representatives from BT to discuss the roll out of Superfast broadband. This is an incredibly important ongoing project for Wiltshire that will help to boost the local economy – as a rural county many companies depend on the internet to sell their products alongside running their businesses from shops on our high streets. It’s also important for people in our very rural communities, who use the internet and rely on a speedy connection, to keep in touch with people and access services. All of Wiltshire’s MPs have also been invited to the meeting so that they are up to date on the progress of the roll out.

On the subject of boosting the economy, it was great that Hitachi Capital started work on its  new £7 million HQ in Trowbridge yesterday. This will create a further 60 jobs at the site and is a real boost for the county's economy.  On a smaller but still vital scale, I hope some of you had the opportunity to visit the Wealth of Wiltshire market in the atrium yesterday, and purchased some local products including the delicious and popular cup cakes and homemade fudge. This market was the second one held in the atrium – following the successful Christmas fayre – providing an opportunity for small local suppliers to promote and sell their products. We made a commitment to continue to build on the success of last year and boost the local economy. These markets are proving extremely popular and more are planned throughout the year.

I’m going to start walking this weekend and clock up some of the steps towards my challenge target...update you on how I get on next week.

Jane