We also encouraged people to check on any
vulnerable friends, relatives and neighbours to make sure they could cope with
the heat. Our teams who work with vulnerable people raised awareness of the importance of taking care in
the warmer weather and whilst we have an important public health role to play, isn’t
it great to see the sunshine and feel the warmth and it certainly seems to
lifts everyone’s mood.
This was evident at recent events across the
county at the summer solstice and the Armed Forces Weekend, which is always a
real joy and a great opportunity to celebrate the dedication both of our current
service men and women as well as our distinguished veterans. We have plenty to
be proud of when it comes to our connections to the military in this county.
Last week I attended the Local Government
Association’s annual conference in a very hot Harrogate. This is an important
date in the local government calendar, and provides a great opportunity to
network with other authorities and hear directly from government ministers.
This year the focus was on devolution and how local councils move towards
self-sustainability; particularly given the continuing reduction in grant
funding. All local authorities are being encouraged to look at where they can create
a combined authority. This will focus on combining with other councils and/or
public sector partners. As we have already combined five authorities into one,
our focus in Wiltshire will be how we are sharing premises and resources with
the police, fire and health partners to deliver better services and save money.
The government is likely to incentivize the creation of a combined authority
with one-off funding. My aim is to have a bid for Wiltshire submitted prior to
the summer recess. I will keep you all updated on this…
On a
separate note, could I just say a huge thank you to all of you who took part
and made our second curry and quiz night in aid
of Hope for Tomorrow such
a big success and so much fun. The event, which was held at City Hall in Salisbury,
included an auction, raffle and a curry supper provided by the award-winning
Hox Brasserie.
The winning team was ‘TBC’ (Ian Garrod, Surriya Subramaniam, Gary Tomsett
and Jo McClay). Congratulations to them, and thank you to everyone who helped
to raise more than £1,300 (this included the dress down day held earlier last
month). The money raised will help to provide
mobile chemotherapy units across Wiltshire helping to provide treatment to
cancer patients living in rural communities.
We have another opportunity to
raise money for Hope for Tomorrow when the second Big Walk takes
place on Saturday, 12 September. Two routes have been
planned for this year’s walk; one starting in central Bath and the other in
Pewsey, all participants will end the walk with well-earned tea and cake at
County Hall in Trowbridge. Money raised will also support the Young Melksham
charity – a local charity working with children, young people and their
families in the Melksham Community Area.
As well as raising much-needed sponsorship for these two very worthy
causes, the Big Walk is great for
getting active, seeing our beautiful countryside and spending time catching up
with friends and colleagues – what more could you want!
