From a stunning sunset on Monday evening to a boiling sea on Thursday morning, this week the weather is already playing a significant part in the life of our city by the sea.
Walkabout with the transport team
So I was relieved on Tuesday morning that my long planned transport walkabout was not too badly affected by the weather and it allowed me to see a number of service and projects all the way around the city that are led by our transport colleagues.My tour was guided by Mark Prior, head of Transport and along the way we met a series of colleagues starting firstly with Christina Liassides and Jody Easkiovitch in the Pavilion Gardens where we looked at the refurbishment of the lighting there. We are developing a proposition to improve the effectiveness and responsiveness of our lights throughout the city, but for the time being it was good to see the impact of this project.
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| Jody Easkiovitch, Christina Liassides and Mark Prior |
From there we learned about the proposals for the Valley Gardens which will see, over the coming four years, a simplification of the road ways and the enhancement to the quality to the public spaces. This will restore Valley Gardens as the lungs of the city, accompanying its beating heart in the Pavilion Gardens. Jim Mayor and Andy Renaut outlined the proposals and I am following up with Jim to hear more details shortly.
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| Jim Mayor and Andrew Renaut |
From Valley Gardens, it was a short walk to Edward Street to see the improvements that are taking place for walkers and cyclists and the provision of crossing facilities at junctions. It is intended that travelling by bus will become quicker as a result of the changes. It was good to meet Martin Baldwin, managing director of Edburton, the company undertaking the work. I learnt that not only do they recycle and reuse 100% of materials, they also source all their labour within 10 miles of the city.
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| Martin Baldwin, Edburton with David Parker, transport planning |
Leaving Martin and Dave, our senior managers for the project, we headed straight down to the coach park at Pool Valley. There we saw the good work that we have undertaken to improve the area. However, there remains no proper shelter or facilities for the million coach passengers and we are following up with the coach company to see if they will resurrect their dropped plans of a few years ago.
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| Tom Campbell, project manager |
Up at East Street, I heard about the potential walking network and met members of the highways enforcement and maintenance teams, David Fisher and Chris Simmons. I was shown examples of their work and was assured that all streets across the city are inspected at least six monthly to ensure hazards are identified and dealt with.
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| David Fisher, Chris Simmons, Christina Liassides and me |
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| Looking back up East Street |
At the Lanes car park, I was shown around by Austen Hunter and Tracey Wardle. I heard more about the transformation that took place between 2009 and 2011 leading to the award of 'Car Park refurbishment of the Year' in 2011.
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| Austen Hunter and Tracey Wardle with me in the car park |
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| Mike Wright, engineer |
We were joined by Leon Bellis, project manager, who is responsible for the propping for the shelter under the A259 and is looking at the long term plans to secure the seafront arches. Leon has already successfully managed the first phase of arches restoration which has been such a triumph.
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| Leon Bellis, project manager |
Management development
I have spoken before about our culture change and performance management programme Living our values, every day. This week, I had the privilege of giving the short opening address to Cohort 13 of the programme. |
| Cohort 13 of the management development programme |
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| Cohort 13 of the programme |
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| Richard Dunstan, programme facilitator |
Already I have heard from a couple of managers within that group who are eagerly looking forward to the benefits of this programme, and I can’t emphasis too much the importance of equipping managers to lead of the delivery of change and improve performance. We will make progress, with our values driving their behaviours and their work objectives, demonstrating clearly that they are accountable, delivering, working together and having a positive personal impact. This programme is just one of our actions to address last year’s staff survey whose high level feedback was that management capability, internal communications and personal resilience should all be addressed through the year.
Roadshows
The roadshows that are running across the council are another example of action following feedback. I very much hope that you get the opportunity to attend a roadshow and to contribute to conversations about what we stop, start and change. This is part of our response to the challenging financial situation and the need to adapt to the digital world, as we meet needs and play our leadership role in the city. One of the highlights of the roadshows is the celebration of achievements and it’s been gratifying to hear of the range of examples that have been described.Question evening
On Tuesday evening, I chaired a question time session at University of Brighton, hosted by the Royal Society of Arts (RSA). It was a follow up to a session in February I participated in on ‘How women lead’.This time the question was: What contribution can men make to enabling more women to be leaders? It is unusual for me to be happy to hear an all-male panel and the reason was that the last time it was an all-female panel (with a male chair). We were very lucky to attract a good range of speakers; Michael Edwards, CEO of Albion in the Community; Richard Upton, CEO Cathedral Group; Giles York, Chief Constable of Sussex; James Rowlands, BHCC Commissioner of Services for Women and Girls affected by Violence; and Simon Fanshaw, broadcaster and trainer.
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| The panel |
A lively mixed audience threw all sorts of questions to the panel and the events were recorded, for those who are interested (I'll add a link when it's available). Interestingly, a dominant theme emerging from the discussions was the importance of an open organisational culture, driven by behaviours that respect everybody and which value diversity and in which women want to work and progress. That brings me back to Living our values, every day and the importance of us all demonstrating our commitment to collaboration, efficiency, customer focus, creativity, openness and respect.
Award-winning legal services
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| Our prestigious award |
Industrial action
And while next week’s national strike on the 14th October has been called off, I am very sorry to say that we are in for three more days of strike action from Refuse and Recycling driver chargehands. This is despite a positive proposal for a review and redesign of the service, and us explaining the clear position that we cannot unilaterally increase the pay of one group of workers without a change and increase in role; nor can we afford a re-grade across the organisation. I am truly sorry that residents will suffer further inconvenience and a further loss of confidence in the service and the council. What we want is a reliable, high performing refuse and recycling service which can win more business and advance us as a clean, sustainable city.Let’s end with the spirited attitude of one of our street sweepers, Stella, battling the stormy weather this week, sweeping leaf filled drains and cheerfully telling me that nothing is impossible as she got soaked and blown. She was indefatigable.
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| Stella hard at work |
All the best
Penny
PS I'm just back from the Housing Centre where I presented Institute of Customer Service awards. Well done to everyone and their coaches.
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| Well done to everyone |
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