Having lived in Waltham Abbey for 9 years I am in my first term as a District Councillor on Epping Forest District Council for my local ward.

Joining a successful conservative administration in tough but interesting times is proving to be exciting and rewarding.

Here are my views on work, life and politics.




Thursday 29 July 2010

Opportunities Galore

Last week was an interesting one for all those who follow local politics in Epping Forest. Peter Haywood Chief Executive of Epping Forest District Council retired after 32 years working for the authority and 42 years in local government.

In a country where change has become the by word for the everyday this turn of events has placed Epping Forest in a potentially groundbreaking position. We now have the opportunity to review and challenge the process by with a traditional Local Authority can be led.

The new secretary of state for local government Mr Eric Pickles has some very particular views of Chief Executives, amongst other things. It is clear that he would prefer to put the day to day control of Local Councils in the hands of full time councillors. In the absence of councillors being able to fulfil this role he has posed some very interesting suggestions about sharing senior management roles across public sector bodies.

Local Authorities are not stand alone principalities and in some instances share roles and aims with Primary Care Trusts, Hospital Trusts, local Colleges and many other public sector bodies. It is not surprising therefore and perhaps it is necessary then we should consider making this crossover more streamlined and productive in this new age of austerity.

As a public servants I feel we are obliged to spend the public’s taxes wisely. We need to seriously be considering the sharing of resources across public sector organisations where there are opportunities to benefit not just our own constituents but the wider economy.

The retirement of Epping Forest District Council’s Chief Executive gives the local authority the opportunity to be firmly in the driving seat to seriously take forward a shared services agenda.

It also presents the opportunity to consider reviewing they way in which we reward such high profile positions. The opportunity to instigate challenging targets and to have performance and remuneration measured and set against achieving those targets can only be a positive approach for any organisation in adding value.

I am convinced that the Council has been given the opportunity to show the residents of Epping Forest that we are not only committed to delivering outstanding value for money but are willing to think outside of the box to solve financial and managerial problems.

Tuesday 13 July 2010

Local Democracy

OC 217/5 - REGULATORY REFORM (FIRE SAFETY) ORDER 2005, FIRE (SCOTLAND) ACT 2005, GENERAL ENFORCEMENT GUIDANCE AND ADVICE

Over 200 members of the public crammed themselves into Epping Forest Council Offices last night. So much was the local interest in the Call In of the cabinet decision on Licensing of Mobile Home Parks that offices had to set up Web links in the main hall as the council chamber could not accommodate everyone.

And what a night it turned out to be. I was personally moved by the passion and feeling with which the representatives of each Park Home spoke, each eager to convey the impact that they perceived the proposed revised licence would have on their communities.

I sat listening to each speaker in turn trying to conceal my joy at seeing local democracy at work and feeling just a little proud that I am elected to represent these people.

It was clear to me from the outset that the felling of the committee was very clearly with those expressed in Councillor Webster’s call in. Indeed the committee duly referred the decision back to Cabinet by way of the Housing Scrutiny Panel to rapturous applause from the gallery and massed ranks in the foyer.

It was suggested to me during the progress of the meeting that this decision was open to comment from councillors not on the cabinet from February of this year and that this was a valid reason why the decision should stand.

I have to admit that I am slightly concerned by the attitude of “if it doesn’t get noticed then it is ok”. Never one to shirk a challenge though I shall be doing a lot more reading of all committee papers from now on. And possibly making the odd comment………..

Friday 9 July 2010

more training........



I have to admit that being pretty computer literate I was feeling a little irritated by the prospect of a three hour training session after a full day at work and the joys of commuting on the central line. Last night was the Committee Management System training session for new members however and after the first half an hour I was pleasantly surprised.

While the mechanics of the system are fairly straight forward the real eye opener for me was the sheer amount of information that is available through the system to me as a councillor! The prospect of blog pages and personal websites for councillors, which will hopefully be up and running after the summer, was equally exciting.

The whole system reflects the fantastic work that the Democratic Services and IT teams have been doing to keep Epping Forest District Council at the forefront of EDemocracy.

In fact our web casting project is being showcased to officers from Harlow Town Council during the coming weeks and rightly so!

While web casting meetings may keep the pressure on us councillors to behave in the chamber and really think before we speak, or risk our faux pas being immortalised forever, it gives a fantastic opportunity for members of the public to actually engage with the great work the council continues to do and we should be duly proud of this.

Quite whether I feel that way after the coming Overview and Scrutiny Committee on Monday is another question.

We will be debating the revised licensing of mobile home sites in Epping Forest on which I put my name to Cllr Liz Webster’s call in. I am looking forward to healthy debate in front of what should be an unusually large crowd for an O & S Committee meeting. Perhaps a good one for those Web casting archives too……..