Well it’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas...seeing the Christmas tree in the atrium at County Hall and singing carols with many of you and members of the public at the first carol service held in this great community space on Wednesday lunchtime reminded me that Christmas is only just over two weeks away!
I’d like to say that things are winding down as we run up to the seasonal break, but it feels like anything but as this week has been another busy one and again so varied.
I started the week talking to new staff at our regular induction sessions. I always enjoy these as they provide a great opportunity to talk to people who have chosen to work for our council and to discuss not just what we do but, how we do things. These sessions are always uplifting and there were some great questions about working in a council and a political environment. It was also good to see more than 160 of you at the final session, in this autumn round of manager and staff forums, in Devizes. I find the forums provide me with a great insight into how things are for you and how we are doing, and I am always keen to ensure that plenty of time is allocated for questions and comments. We do record all your questions, comments and ideas as these are valuable in helping the organisation to move forward. I understand that these will be published soon and that the corporate leadership team will consider actions and progressing ideas based on your feedback. In my view this is vital to moving the council forward and I hope those of you who attended the forums found them useful and informative. In such a large organisation it is a challenge to keep everyone informed and involved and I welcome your views and ideas on what more we can do.
I am looking forward to seeing the teams at the Chippenham and Salisbury depots in the next two weeks and hearing how things are for them.
We’re almost at the end of an extraordinary year, which was such a success for our communities and county. I have always said that the focus now has to be creating a lasting legacy that keeps this year’s momentum alive and I am pleased to say that we have had early conversations regarding the possibility of the Tour De France coming to Wiltshire in 2017. This will be a major event and will mean a huge amount of planning and partnership working, but following this year we now have a template to follow and we have built strong relationships with our key partners so we are keen to see if we can make this happen. I will keep you updated on the progress on this...
And talking of building great partnerships; this year has been a good one for working with Salisbury City and I was so pleased to be invited to attend the Mayor’s Christmas reception on Wednesday evening, along with many local business representatives. The reception provided an opportunity for the Mayor to talk about events next year and he highlighted our support for the Big Business event which will host Karen Brady (from The Apprentice) as the key note speaker. We need to keep boosting the local economy and I am delighted that we will partner the City Council on this event.
Yesterday I spent most of the day talking economy and growth as I attended the LEP (Local Enterprise Partnership) held at Knorr Bremse in Melksham, one of the successful Wiltshire companies providing braking systems for the global rail industry. I enjoyed a short tour of the building after the meeting; it’s always good to see the economy in action. Later I also attended a reception at Hartham Park to hear about the Bath University’s plans in Corsham. This will be a great boost to the county and will encourage business growth for the future.
I’m also looking forward to the Wiltshire Assembly next week, which is focused on inspiring
young people. We have some great speakers lined up and a full day including our key note
speaker Debbie Flood, Olympic silver medallist and World Championship gold medallist
rower. More about the Assembly in next week’s blog.
Jane.
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