It's the small things that are the most pleasing.

Posted By: Keith Swift
Date Posted: 06/02/2007

The last week or so have been very busy with the first Liberal Democrat Budget being finalised.  It has meant extra meetings with Officers to decide whether we could put this or that in ,must we really leave that out, can we find more money from this Budget heading and use it in that Budget heading? Decisions, desicions.

Then we had meetings with the Liberal Democrat group to ensure that everyone understood the limitations we were working within, and how we had arrived at the finished article.

Then the Cabinet met to agree the proposal before it goes to full Council.

Then Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Committee had to agree the proposal too. 

At times like this you seem to be never away from Council business.

In the Voluntary Sector we were able to fund for the first time six groups which had proved, through a new points system, that they were contributing to Rochdale’s priorities set out in Aiming High, give other groups an increase in funding, and will be working with other groups to get them increased funding with the help of a new council officer group tasked to maximise the inward funding into the Borough.

I have also been working with our Performance and Development Manager to finalise the plans for a new “Investment in Excellence” project.  In response to a Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Working Party, that I was a member of last municipal year, which looked at the professional development and leadership qualities of our staff it became clear that Rochdale MBC are badly lagging behind other Local Authorities and the private sector in the investment we put into staff development.  The Liberal Democrats are keen to make the best of the staff we have, and make working for local government more attractive to young people by showing that we are a go ahead Council, and working with Rochdale MBC does improve the life experiences of all the people of the Borough.

Our new Borough Solicitor has set out her aims for improvements in Legal and Democratic Services in her first Service Plan to which I made a small contribution.

My Corporate Management Portfolio is proving anything but boring with the Liberal Democrats determined to make many improvements aimed at turning Rochdale into the "Excellent" rated council that our Tax Payers deserve. 

However, along with all this corporate business, perhaps the most pleasing thing to happen in the last few weeks, was to get the Beresford Street, Newhey, garage site surfaced with tarmac after years for trying. It has been a success for a joint effort with the garage users sending in a petition to Rochdale Boroughwide Housing and me raising the matter yet again at Pennines Township last month.  It is one of those comparatively small schemes that will make a vast difference to the garage users and improve the aspect of Newhey village centre and nothing at all to do with my daughters married name being Beresford.