Wednesday 23 October 2013

It’s been a busy couple of weeks so my apologies for not updating my blog sooner. I spent some time out of the office last week as my husband Ron had an operation and my main priority was his care and recovery and I am pleased to say he’s on the mend, although now I need a break!

I did, however, manage to attend a round table discussion with other council leaders and representatives from the LGA to discuss how we rewire and reinvigorate local government. Everyone recognises the need to take action to make local democracy more interesting and important. After all the decisions we take directly impact on local communities and people’s lives and it’s vital that they can influence these and get involved.

I also attended the South West Wiltshire Area Board meeting and was invited to update on the council’s plans for the next four years. I focused on our priorities and key actions including the investment in highways which continues to be a local priority for all area boards and was a key matter for discussion at this week’s cabinet meeting. I also updated on plans to host the Elite Cycle Race in Wilton and the surrounding area next May. This will be a huge opportunity attracting visitors and boosting the local economy and we know these Elite events are supported by national TV. I will update more on this event over the coming months as work is underway to ensure all the key representatives are involved in its delivery. It’s always good to get out to the area boards and listen to what matters to communities. Over the next few months I’m hoping to attend all the board meetings to update on our work to deliver a legacy for Wiltshire.

On the matter of legacy, following consultation with our key sponsors we have decided to reschedule the Legacy Sporting Dinner to Thursday 13 March 2014. The decision to reschedule from the original date of 25 October (next week) allows more time for Wiltshire’s future sporting stars hoping to represent their country at the Olympics and Paralympics in Rio in 2016 to bid for support from the Future Funding scheme and attend this unique event that will connect them to local Wiltshire businesses. Several leading local businesses have already pledged their support through sponsorship and attendance at the dinner. The objective is to generate as much funding as possible to assist future sporting stars in their journey. Even the smallest amount can make a huge difference and the evening will feature rising stars and professional athletes as well as celebrity and motivational guest speakers. The revised date also provides the opportunity for businesses, which were precluded by the timing of the event in October, to attend the rescheduled dinner next March. The evening will take place in the Atrium at County Hall, Trowbridge and promises to be an exceptional event. One-off experiences will be auctioned, as part of the evening, including the opportunity to cycle with Paralympic Gold medallist Mark Colbourne MBE at the velodrome in London and a swimming session with Paralympic Gold medallist Stephanie Millward, plus many other experiences which you just can’t buy. I hope some of you may want to be part of this event and I know many of you will be involved in making it a real success.

From cycling to road improvements – I know how problematic damaged roads can be to cyclists and motorists alike which is why my cabinet and I are determined to ensure our roads are as safe as possible. At Tuesday's (October 22) cabinet meeting  we agreed to invest £52million over the next six years to tackle the backlog in highways maintenance. This is good news and it means we can repair the roads that need it the most. We will be working with communities through the area boards to ensure this funding is prioritised to the most damaged and well-used roads. This investment isn't about fixing individual potholes – that work will continue – along with the work we do to continually monitor and repair the roads throughout the year – it's about major repair works which will improve hundreds of miles of our highways network for the next thirty years.  

At Tuesday’s meeting we also agreed to sign the memorandum of understanding for the university technology college (UTC) in Salisbury. This an important step forward for us and our partners in moving this project forward. The plans would see the police station in Wilton Road relocating and the building transformed into  a UTC, which  would open in 2015 and  specialise in science and engineering. Again, good news for young people - this is a facility which would invest in the future of this county.

And, finally can I just take this opportunity to say thank you and good bye to those staff who are leaving the council having taken voluntary redundancy. Many of them have been with Wiltshire Council and with the former county or district councils for many years and will be missed. Can I just wish them all the very best for their futures and thank them for their hard work and commitment and the huge contribution they made to making Wiltshire a better place.


Jane

Thursday 10 October 2013

At the end of last week we celebrated the huge success of our Wiltshire Apprenticeship scheme.  Wiltshire apprentices and the businesses that provided them with the opportunity to kick-start or re-start their careers were invited to a special business breakfast in Salisbury. Former winner of The Apprentice, Tim Campbell was the key note speaker sharing his personal experiences. He was a real inspiration and great orator keeping over a hundred people engaged and captivated by sharing his vision and message that we need to invest in young people – all young people including those not in education, employment or training – as everyone has something to offer and can make a real difference to the local economy. I am passionate about helping young people to access training, work and the help they need to get them started and the apprenticeships have been key to helping with this. In July last year working with the National Apprenticeship Service, Wiltshire College and a number of other training providers and business representative groups, we pledged to create 1,000 new or additional apprenticeships in Wiltshire and I am delighted that we have surpassed this figure and show no sign of stopping! By 31st of July we had reached well over the 1,000 target with 1,130 apprenticeship starts.

Wiltshire is currently in the top five areas nationally for business investment and we want to ensure that we can offer the skills needed for current and future businesses so that they can grow and thrive.  We need to make sure that we have the right education and training in the county. The new university technology college, which will be located in Salisbury, will specialise in science and engineering helping to skill young people for work opportunities at places such as the new Porton Down science park.  The new college, which is due to open in 2015, will be discussed at this month’s cabinet meeting, when we are updated on its progress. Next Tuesday the local media are invited to a pre-cabinet briefing where I will talk through the reports that cabinet will consider on 22 October. As well as progress on the new university technical college, cabinet will discuss proposals for investment into our roads. This is one of 12 key actions in the new business plan and is always a key priority for local people.

Yesterday and today (9/10 October) I’m participating in a major incident training exercise, which aims to test our major incident plan and how we work with our partners should a major incident occur in Wiltshire.  These training days are always a good opportunity to see how we would respond in the event of a major incident and how we would manage the media and, in particular, social media. It’s frightening the speed that news becomes public these days. We all know that any incident is likely to hit the news literally minutes after it’s happened and that there is an expectation that we (all partners) will respond and update and know what’s happening!

Next week I’ve been invited to join a round table discussion with other council leaders and LGC to discuss how we rewire and reinvigorate local government to make it interesting and engaging to the public as well as sustainable into the future; the decreasing funding combined with the increasing demand makes this a big challenge! This is a huge topic and one that I am really keen to be involved in. We need to radically change how local democracy is seen and how we can build trust with local communities and tax payers. If we want communities to do more for themselves we have to build stronger relationships and work together to achieve this. We need to look at how we stimulate people to get involved and to care about what happens in their local area. Whilst we have built some strong foundations I’m keen to explore what more we can do and to hear how others view this. More on the round table discussion next week…

And finally, in my blog last week I talked about the 28 Wiltshire veterans who were invited to County Hall last Friday afternoon to recognise their service on the Arctic Convoys and those who served as aircrew of Bomber Command in World War Two to receive their Arctic Star medal or Bomber Command Clasp as a mark of their valour, gallantry and contribution to their country. I apologise if the way this was worded last week caused any confusion. The ceremony was long overdue and I was delighted to be part of honouring these brave and gallant gentlemen.

Chair of the council, Christine Crisp, presented medals to veterans

Jane

Thursday 3 October 2013

I had fully intended to update my blog last week, publishing it on Monday with a focus on the week ahead. My best laid plans, however, were totally derailed due to last week being one of the busiest I can recall in a while – I know every week is busy but last week really was an exception!

Early Monday morning we welcomed the peer review team to County Hall to assess how we do things and where we can continue to make improvements in the future. Their focus was on how we empower communities to do more for themselves; what more we can do working with our key partners and our plans to manage change and transformation over the next four years. I know many of you took part in meetings and forums to feedback your views on how we work now and what we plan to do in the future. I would just like to say thank you for your contribution as this really helped the team to build a picture of our organisation and our culture.  Whilst the final report will be sent shortly, which will help us to agree actions to deliver improvements, their initial feedback was very positive and the reviewers were struck by our can-do approach and how well we work with our partners and communities. I will talk more about their feedback in future blogs as there is a lot to cover and the whole process was extremely useful. It’s always good to gain an external view of how we’re doing.

Cabinet met on Tuesday and launched the new Business Plan in a user friendly public version, and  a young people's version as well as a keepsake bookmark that sets out our vision, priorities and 12 key actions for the next four years. The bookmark will be inserted into Your Wiltshire magazine, which will be distributed to all households in November.  The Public Health Annual Report  was also presented at the meeting and for the first time the average life expectancy of men in Wiltshire is over 80 years and almost 83 years for women. This can present opportunities for our communities as many older people want to be active, either by volunteering or organising local events and activities, and we can help them to do this.

On the subject of volunteering, on Tuesday evening we hosted the Wiltshire and Swindon Sports Awards in the atrium to recognise and celebrate the many volunteers who give their time to coach or run clubs helping to develop sporting skills across the county. The centre piece for this event was a round stage with runways up to it and a huge backdrop screen. The layout was perfect for demonstrations by Laura Halford the current British champion in rhythmic gymnastics. One of the highlights of the evening was the guest speaker Mark Colbourne, Silver and a Gold medallist at the London 2012 Paralympic Games for cycling.  Mark broke his back in a near fatal paragliding accident in 2009 and he took us on his rollercoaster ride to become the successful athlete that he is. His talk was one of the most inspirational and motivational that I have ever heard. He had  such a positive impact on everyone attending, especially our future Wiltshire Olympians and Paralympians, and I really hope that I have the opportunity to hear him speak again. At the end of the evening he presented me with a wonderful picture that will have pride of place in the atrium at County Hall for everyone to enjoy.

We certainly have a wealth of talent and people who actively contribute to make a difference to the communities in Wiltshire. Over the last few weeks we have celebrated and recognised those who give up their time and share their enthusiasm to make our county a better place. The adult care awards showcased the huge amount of work being carried out to support older people and to improve the quality of life for so many. Last night the community and voluntary awards celebrated local community groups which are taking action to improve where they live and both the volunteer and young volunteer of the year, who carry out amazing work insert link to find out more.

Back to updating you on the events of last week which was  National Purple Flag week. We’re very proud to have a purple flag in Salisbury, which was awarded to the city a year ago. The flag is in recognition of the safe night time economy and sends a positive message to visitors and tourists to the city. To celebrate we co-hosted with Salisbury City Council a vintage market on the newly refurbished Guildhall Square, which included live music into the evening, encouraging people to stay in the centre. The event was a huge success and highlighted the potential for making full use of the Market Place to boost tourism and the local economy by staging events.

And finally, 28 Wiltshire veterans who served on the arctic convoys Bomber Command 70 years ago were invited to County Hall last Friday afternoon to receive their Arctic Star medals as a mark of their valour, gallantry and contribution to their country. The journey they undertook demanded huge bravery and courage and Winston Churchill called it ‘the worst journey in the world’. Their resilience and determination is an example to us all and should never be forgotten and I was honoured to be part of this unique ceremony. The medals, which have been well publicised, were presented by the local Wiltshire MPs. The Lord Lieutenant for Wiltshire and representative from the Russian Embassy also attended the event. Following the medal presentation, the veteran sailors were invited to splice the mainbrace with a tot of rum, which they all participated in!

By the end of last week I too was ready to splice the mainbrace!

On that note; I fully appreciate how busy this year has been – and it’s only October! You all continue to deliver a huge amount of work whilst staff structures are reviewed, and in some cases, reduced. Your commitment to making Wiltshire a better place is evident and has also been recognised by the peer review team. As a token of appreciation and as a thank you, I have agreed that the council offices will be closed all day on Christmas Eve (Tuesday 24 December 2013). I realise that some front line staff will be providing vital services over the Christmas period and it has been agreed that they will be able to take an alternative day off in recognition of their contribution. Thank you everyone for all that you do – it is very much appreciated.

Jane