Multitasking and energy management

I’m writing this blog while in the Audit Committee (who said men can’t multitask). The committee is receiving its final accounts for 2014-15 which the members have just approved – two months ahead of the statutory deadline. Thank you and well done to the finance team for achieving this earlier in the year than ever before. The chief accountant says they are a “riveting read”. They are too.

I have just noticed that Australia are 38-3 on the first day of the third test at Edgbaston. This is seriously good news. I watched the second test and whenever I do that we get hammered badly.

I’ve been spending a lot of time recently at Monkton Park and Bourne Hill. I’m very impressed with the new shared customer service and revenues & benefits space in the city. It’s great to see that building open to the public for front line service provision which creates a real buzz about the place, enabling the sort of culture change we seek to maintain across the organisation. It was good to see some old friends and colleagues too. 

I am delighted the council has had a very positive annual audit of our Energy Management System which demonstrates that we are making good progress in controlling our energy use and enables us to retain our ISO50001 accreditation for another year. We have also filed our annual return for the Carbon Reduction Commitment, which showed that in 2014/15 the council emitted 22,600 tonnes of CO2 and we are therefore having to pay £360,000 in ‘carbon tax’.  This certainly focuses the mind on the need to continually reduce our carbon emissions as an organisation, as we have to pay for every tonne emitted, on top of the gas and electricity costs.

For those of you about to go on holiday, thank you for all your hard work and have a great time with your families and friends. For those of you who have returned, welcome back.

For daily updates, discussion, personal opinion, comment or just to connect or keep in touch you can follow me on Twitter.

Carlton

North, east, south and west Wiltshire

The last week or two I seem to have been all over the county; Salisbury first for Magna Carta and then working with the city council, Chippenham with the customer services team and Local Enterprise Partnership, Devizes to present to the town council, Trowbridge to meet the waste team to catch up on service issues and Swindon with our joint working with the borough council. It has been refreshing to catch up with so many staff and partners.

I learned a lot with the customer team listening to calls. Most of these related to the new garden waste service which went live on June 15. Our teams in both waste and customer services have been working tremendously hard to launch this service very quickly and I would like to record my thanks to each and every member of staff for their commitment, hard work and late nights (and some weekends). It’s a great example of both teams going the extra mile. We have also learned a lot about our customers’ expectations of us and how we can fulfil these.

The HR team was nominated for this weeks’ HR Excellence Awards 2015 in the “Best HR Team: Public Sector” category where they won highly commended. This award recognises public sector HR teams for their work within the function and their business partnering with other parts of the organisation. The entry can include specific projects and also demonstrate the collaborative approach and ability to attract and develop excellent HR people. Judges were looking for innovation, impact within the business and evidence of success. Our team from Wiltshire demonstrated all three admirably. Well done to all those involved.

My blossoming time-trialling career is improving with my time for 10 miles now down into the 26 minute somethings. I’m now wondering if a 25 minute something might be possible or do I need to shed another stone and / or buy a new bike… probably both. Not sure Mrs B will support either option.

Speak again soon. 

For daily updates, discussion, personal opinion, comment or just to connect or keep in touch you can follow me on Twitter.

Carlton