Friday 9 August 2013

I seem to recall that some years ago August was always a quiet month when the council had a recess period with virtually no meetings arranged – how times have changed! We’re only a week into August and there’s a lot happening. I spent Tuesday morning in Salisbury with around thirty new staff attending the induction course. I always thoroughly enjoy these sessions and welcome the questions and comments about the council and how we work. This week’s session was really interesting as we discussed how services will be delivered in the future in community campuses and how we can integrate leisure, police services, health, youth and other key services to benefit local communities. It was good to have input from three police staff who transferred into the programme office in April and hear their views on how policing is about being part of the community. We know that co-locating with the police makes sense and we have seen the positive impact of this at our Monkton Park offices.

In the afternoon I met Bill Browne, the editor of the Salisbury Journal for a regular catch up and to talk through how we can continue to work together. We discussed Purple Flag week which takes place 21-27 September and marks the first anniversary of the flag being awarded to Salisbury for it’s safe and successful night time economy. The week will see us co-hosting a number of activities with the city council,  including a vintage market in the newly refurbished Guildhall Square with live entertainment and a reception for local businesses. We also talked about the huge programme of activities and events scheduled as part of creating a legacy for Wiltshire. Bill was interested in the forthcoming business sports dinner and the elite cycle race that will take place in Wilton next May (2014). We agreed to look at how we can work together on new projects with local communities; more about this as we develop these...

On Wednesday, I met the High Sheriff, William Wyldebore-Smith and was pleased that he would like to use the atrium to host an event on his year’s including work with the public and voluntary sector how we can all best support disadvantaged  children next February. He was impressed with the recent Wiltshire Assembly and how well the atrium space worked for this type of event. I have asked our events team to look at how we can support this event.


Have a great weekend everyone!

Jane