Chief Executive Blog - July 2016
Hello everyone,
As a council we have a responsibility to consult with our customers – the public – on a wide range of issues and over the past few years we have established a good track record in terms of community engagement.
Various methods have been used to obtain people’s views and opinions, including the citizens’ panel, public meetings, drop-in sessions and online surveys.
Not all of these have generated the volume of feedback that we would have hoped and we have constantly been trying to find new ways of reaching those whose comments might help us shape council services and how they are delivered.
With the many challenges that lie in wait and with council finances under unprecedented pressure, it is more important than ever that we employ every method at our disposal to gather in the views of those we serve.
Enter social media. Since mid-May we have been hosting Wednesday evening online chat sessions in conjunction with our community planning partners on a range of topics such as affordable housing, anti-social behaviour, care and carers, early years.
Each of the sessions has been prompted by a short film, following which members of the public have been encouraged to engage online with a panel of specialists drawn from within the ranks of the council and our community planning partners.
It is an exercise which has proved very successful, with one of the films being viewed by no fewer than 17,000 people, and is precisely the sort of innovative move that we need if we are to reach our target audience – the Moray public.
There is no question that social media will be a key player over the next few months as we engage with the public during our budget deliberations and seek their input ahead of the many difficult financial decisions that will have to be made.
Inward investment is and will continue to be a key driver of economic growth in Moray and I was involved in a hugely encouraging meeting with the Scottish Futures Trust about a City Deal which would have the potential to attract massive investment in the years ahead.
Of course it is very early days but what I heard during the course of that meeting, which was also attended by Highlands and Islands Enterprise, gave me reason to be cautiously optimistic and I will keep you posted as the situation develops.
Meanwhile, I am looking forward to welcoming Kevin Stewart, the minister for local government and housing, to Moray later this month. He will spend the entire day meeting people from a number of organisations, including the council and its community planning partners, and seeing many of the exciting things that are going on in Moray.
I am sure some of you will have seen that the First Minister presented Her Majesty the Queen with a commemorative bench as a 90th birthday present from the people of Scotland. What may have escaped attention was that the stone came from the Clashach Quarry near Hopeman and that the stone was crafted by modern apprenticeship stonemasons based in Elgin. Yet another string to Moray’s bow.
Meetings and discussions I have been involved in over the past month have been many and varied and have included a briefing on superfast broadband by the chief executive of BT, the council’s leadership forum of directors and heads of service and a teleconference with my opposite numbers in Highland, Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire and Argyll and Bute.
It is not every day that you get to meet a high flier from the banking sector so I was more than pleased to welcome William Dowson to Moray. He is a Bank of England agent based in Edinburgh from where he represents the bank’s interests north of the border.
Talking of Edinburgh, another of my engagements over the past few weeks was the quarterly COSLA convention which is attended by chief executives, council leaders and group leaders from all the Scottish local authorities. It took place the day after the EU referendum and those present had to be prised away from the television sets as the result was confirmed and the political landscape began to change in front of their eyes.
At a more local level, I enjoyed the Motorfun at the Cooper Park in Elgin, as did the thousands of other who turned out, and I was also pleased to accept an invitation to the annual reception at Kinloss Barracks. It was also a privilege as ever to take part in the council’s latest long service awards ceremony at Elgin Town Hall.
Finally, we are into the holiday season and I know that many of you will be looking forward to a well-deserved break, whether at home or in some sun-soaked resort overseas. Wherever you choose to be, I hope you have an enjoyable time.