Chief Executive Blog - January 2014

Dear Colleagues,

Hello everyone and welcome back to work, with batteries suitably recharged I am sure, after the Christmas and New Year break.

I would like to take this opportunity to say a special word of thanks to those members of staff who were on callout or standby duty over the period to ensure that any urgent matters were attended to.

We may only have been back for a short time but the pace seems to have picked up from where it left off before Christmas. For me, this means continuing to work with the Area Based Review working group on the 10-year plan, along with our local community planning partners. The early days of 2014 have also seen me focusing on the four-year programme of savings and on concluding the review of the council’s management structure.

My schedule has not involved much travelling since my last blog but one engagement I did have was an invitation to address Elgin Rotary Club. I entitled my talk ‘Making Significant Change in Uncertain Times’ in which I spoke about the plans for Moray’s public services over the next decade.

I outlined some of the significant changes which require to be managed over that period as well as giving some examples of the improvements which it is envisaged those changes will bring about.

On another topic – but one with which many people in Moray will be able to readily identify – I am sure all our thoughts will have been with those people elsewhere in the UK who have suffered so badly as a result of the horrendous weather conditions and flooding of recent weeks. Thankfully Moray escaped the worst of what Mother Nature threw at other areas but previous experience of flooding in Elgin, Rothes and elsewhere will have given us an all-too-familiar insight into the misery that so many people have had to endure.

I am sure that the dawn of another year will have seen many of us consider what resolutions we might want to carry through 2014. For my part, I am again going with the ‘keep fit and take more exercise’ option. Last year I entered the Glasgow 10k in October to give me a goal to aim for. I have not decided what challenge to set myself this year, but I will let you know next time.