Friday 11 January 2013

It’s been a great week. I spent today with Maggie and Carolyn plus all the service directors and some heads of service practicing our emergency response plan. It is very important that we do this regularly to ensure our preparedness for any major incident that occurs. The scenario was a major flooding incident in one of our major towns displacing 4,000 people which given the weather over the last few months was very apt. It was an excellent opportunity to network with colleagues and learn together. It was great to hear from the Public Health team – they told me that they’re settling onto the organisation and building quickly which I’m pleased to hear.

Yesterday I spent the afternoon at Longleat meeting with the CEO, David Bradley. He is delivering a major new vision and development on the estate to grow the business. It is vital that the council supports this because successful and growing business means a thriving local community with jobs and opportunities for many. He has been and continues to be a big supporter of our planning team – telling me how proactive and can-do they are in supporting the objectives of the development. This was great to hear and I’d like to thank the team involved, particularly Mike and Russell who deal with Longleat.

Earlier this week the corporate directors put together the final elements of the ’13-14 budget with Michael Hudson. It is good to get to a balanced position early so that there is plenty of time for elected members to challenge, question and amend this. We will be going out to all of our communities over the next few weeks to consult on their priorities and hear their views so that these can be incorporated into the final budget plan which will go to Council next month.

Next week I have half a day scheduled with the election team. We will be starting the detailed planning and rehearsing for the May 2 unitary and parish elections. As Returning Officer I have to ensure these elections are conducted properly and fairly and to promote democracy widely. As an election junky I relish this role. More on this anon.
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Thanks for reading and we’ll talk again in a week or so.
Carlton