"Well hasn’t January flown by! February starts at
the weekend and the days are getting noticeably longer. Roll on spring…
Yesterday we published the detail of the 2015-16
budget online. This is available to everybody in the county as this week we
start the formal consultation on the proposals made. As I have said before, we
have to save £30m next year and the budget proposes some radical recommendations
to do that. I would encourage all staff to spend a few minutes reading those
proposals and to give us your feedback. It’s important that we hear the views
of staff.
Last night we held the first budget consultation
meeting in Chippenham. There were about 60 members of the public in attendance
(it was good to see some young people there too) and I was reassured from the
extensive question and answer session that most people recognise how tough it
is right now in the public sector; balancing the opposing requirements of
increased demand and need (particularly in services covering adults, children,
waste and highways) with significant central government grant reductions of 13%
plus next year. Also of interest was the view that Wiltshire Council was very
open and transparent about these pressures. Nobody in the audience came up with
any radically different views about how to meet this challenge and all the
proposals seem to be supported by most. We move on to Trowbridge tonight, Devizes
and Salisbury next week so do please come along.
Over the last week or so I have met several hundred staff
from many different services. I like this part of my job the most. I attended
the Planning & Economic Development knowledge series last week which brings
together over 100 staff from across those services to explore how they can
support other services in delivering their objectives. The staff induction
event was well attended by over 70 staff too, where the leader and I discussed
the organisation, how we work together and the objectives in the business plan.
Yesterday I spoke at the Highways and Transport managers and team leaders
session where they spent a day developing their strategic & delivery plans
for the next year. It was inspiring to hear the views, opinions and questions
from across the organisation.
I continue to train on my bike every day for my first road
time trial on May 13. It seems a long way off but it will be here before I know
it…
Speak again soon. For daily updates, discussion, personal
opinion, comment or just to connect or keep in touch you can follow me on
Twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/drcarltonbrand.
Carlton”
Carlton”
