Chief Executive Blog - November 2013

Dear Colleagues,

Hello – as Hallowe’en and Bonfire Night are now past, and as much as I enjoy them at the time, I am hoping that we have seen the last of the fireworks in the evening for a while and I think my dog would agree.    Sometimes the celebrations in November seem to lead quickly on to the preparations for the next festive break and I become conscious of how much work there is to be done before the end of the year.

I am continuing to work closely with the Area Based Review group and am very pleased to say that they have now drafted a 10 year plan which contains a vision for the future of the Council services and how we work with other public sector services and partner organisations.  The plan sets out specific priorities and while there is still a great deal of work to do to bring the plan to fruition, beginning with obtaining approval at Full Council, the blueprint is now in place.

Alongside this I remain involved in a peer review involving Heads of Service to identify budget savings for the next 4 years.  I am also heading up a review of management structures across the Council.  The outcome will ensure that we have the right structure in place to ensure the 10 year plan and the 4 year programme of savings are implemented to assure the provision of public services to the local community for the long term in Moray.

One of the local events that I attended this month was the Moray College UHI Graduation and Awards Ceremony at Elgin Town Hall.   It was inspiring to see the large number of people who through a myriad of different personal circumstances have achieved success in attaining a wide range of academic and vocational qualifications through our local branch of the UHI.   I also attended Battle of Britain commemorations at RAF Lossiemouth and of course there were many local events to commemorate Remembrance Sunday on 10th November.   

I was delighted to visit Forres Enterprise Park recently to see the new Atos Development and Innovation Centre which has created 50 jobs locally with hopefully more to follow.   

Further afield I attended the Scottish Leaders’ Forum in Clydebank, the Cairngorm National Park Partnership annual review meeting in Boat of Garten and the Convention of Highlands and Islands meeting in Helensburgh.

Well, as the countdown is now on and we race towards the end of the year is it too early to mention …….. actually it is a wee bit early, definitely next month though!