At last summer has arrived and Wiltshire is even more beautiful when it’s sunny. It’s a reminder as I drive around the county in glorious sunshine just how lucky we are to live and work in such a place. Having spent some time in London this week where the pace and environment couldn’t be more of a contrast to Wiltshire it makes you appreciate what we have to offer. The trip to London was to attend a meeting with Public Health England to discuss the future of their site at Porton Down.
It’s always valuable to meet with national agencies and this week we also met with members of the Local Government Information Unit (LGIU) at County Hall to discuss how we might work more closely with them to influence future national policy and positively challenge central government thinking when the impact is at local level. It was also useful to discuss how we do things in Wiltshire and how, in many ways, we are so different to many other local councils as how our approach to transformation is quite unique and outside the scope of others. We agreed that there is an opportunity to get a round table discussion with the others to explore how we keep local democracy vibrant, engaging and really meaningful. Our approach to being big and efficient whilst delivering locally was seen as a good start point for this debate. I look forward to taking this further!
This week we also had a great response to the launch of a new cycling programme coming to Wiltshire called Sky Ride. This is a national programme which starts later this month. Following the 2012 events we want to create a legacy that keeps people fit and healthy and cycling is the perfect, fun activity to help with that and the sunny weather is a great incentive. Talking of which I am trying to walk as many steps as possible as part of the walking challenge – although I admit to sometimes forgetting to attach my pedometer! We discussed these great initiatives and lots more as this week’s Legacy Steering Board – which is now a huge programme of activity and events. Plans are well underway for the EXPO business event later this month, which is at full capacity attracting businesses to exhibit from across the county. We will be launching the sporting dinner at this event to attract businesses to sign up to a taking a table and support a future Olympian or Paralympian in readiness for Rio. Fingers crossed we will secure a high profile famous speaker for this event as we have a few lined up and are just awaiting confirmation. The dinner will be held in the atrium and be another great opportunity to showcase County Hall and its potential use for future big events of this type.
What became clear at the board meeting was the programme of events into next year and 2015 will have a major impact on communities. Next year marks the commemoration of the First World War and this will be big for us as Wiltshire played a significant role in this War training soldiers. Already a steering group is working with the Imperial War Museum to deliver education programmes and events to mark the commemoration. 2015 marks 800 years since the signing of the Magna Carta in 1215 – and, as many of you will know, a copy of this is displayed in Salisbury Cathedral. Working with June Osbourne, the Dean of the Cathedral we will look at a programme of events to mark democracy through the ages and just how much it has changed. It will be another good opportunity to bring our communities together and to support them with activities and events. Last year proved how vital this is for building networks and relationships and how, by doing this, we can help to improve the quality of life for many people in our local communities.
Enjoy what promises to be a sunny warm weekend,
Jane
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