Portfolio Local Government Interview
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Man from the council
Kate Shannon Local Government Correspondent
The new chairman of the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives and Senior Managers (SOLACE) Scotland knows there are tough times ahead for local authorities
David Martin is chief executive of Renfrewshire Council, a role he has held for over five years, and last month he took over the helm of SOLACE from Ronnie Hinds. We meet in his Paisley office on 29 November, on the eve of the biggest public sector strike in 30 years. However, when I ask if he is daunted by the task he faces leading SOLACE for the next year, he is emphatic. “It is not daunting, it is a privilege. Tis is a team game, at the end of the day in SOLACE
Beyond the headlines Rubbish politics
A row broke out in the City of Edinburgh Council after SNP, Labour and Green councillors voted against plans to change environmental services in the capital. Councillors were expected to vote through plans to
award a contract to a private company last month but the vote was called off to allow councillors more time to consider their options. However, the SNP councillors, who run the local
authority with the Liberal Democrats, decided to vote against their coalition partners. One Lib Dem councillor, Gary Peacock, also voted against the plans. The Conservative group joined the Liberal
Democrats to vote for the plans, but were outnumbered. The council spent two years investigating the
possibility of contracting the job to a private company. Firm Enterprise had been chosen by officials to take control of recycling, bin collection, road cleaning
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www.holyrood.com 12 December 2011 David Martin
we have portfolio holders and part of my role is to ensure I encourage and support everyone to get involved in discharging those portfolios,” he said.
SOLACE Scotland is the Scottish branch of
SOLACE (UK) and has over 100 members. While being a component of the UK framework, the branch operates largely independently as the representative body for senior managers working within local government. Te society’s members are drawn from a variety of backgrounds, and
and ground maintenance in Edinburgh for the next seven years. The council said it would save the local authority over £70m over that period. The council will now implement an in-house improvement plan for environment services. Following the vote, council leader Jenny Dawe
branded Labour, SNP and Green councillors “irresponsible”. She said: “This is a totally irresponsible decision. Councillors are required to take account of Best Value in reaching decisions. This means keeping an open mind and basing decisions on evidence. I cannot understand how anyone could possibly assess the internal public sector comparator as offering best value compared to the Enterprise proposals reached after a long period of competitive dialogue. Any objective consideration of the mass of information provided would find that a partnership with Enterprise represented best value on every count, guaranteeing environmental, cleanliness and recycling benefits and delivering £27m more contractually underpinned savings than the public sector comparator. These savings would have been available in future years to deliver on our council priorities of protecting our most vulnerable residents
while engaging with all major players in Scottish governance at both local and national level, SOLACE Scotland has a unique role to play in offering a corporate view of local government. Martin, with a wealth of experience working in the public sector, has a refreshing enthusiasm about his role within his own council. He said: “It is the best job in the world. Te reason for that is it is so varied and you get to work with inspiring people all the time. Some of them in the community, some inspiring politicians and many inspiring employees and officers. I find that part of public service a consistent theme, it is amazing how much commitment, energy and innovation there is in Scottish local authorities. When we are at our best, we are as good as any other part of Scottish public life or the private sector. Tat is not to say we’re always like that but it is certainly true that when councils are at their best, they can be first class.” However, he knows there are challenges to come, both for SOLACE and for individual local authorities. He added: “Councils need to be at their best to successfully tackle the challenges and issues we are facing. We have major long-term structural challenges in the funding of the public sector in general and local government in particular. When Ronnie Hinds spoke to Holyrood last year he made the point that although it is a big challenge, it is not raining meteorites. It is difficult but we can get through it, we have to get through it and part of
and ensuring that every young person in Edinburgh has an equal opportunity to reach their full potential. “A partnership with Enterprise would not have
meant privatisation. The council would have retained control over strategy and statutory responsibilities. There were strong clauses written into the proposal that would have entailed heavy penalties on Enterprise if targets and quality of service standards were not met. “At the start of this process in 2009, I believed
that, in most circumstances, public services were best provided by public sector workers. However, the budget decision inherited from the previous Labour administration and the impact of global recession meant we had to look at whether we could provide services more efficiently by other means. Our budget consultations showed that residents want high quality services and are not hung up on who delivers them. Indeed, many of our services are already delivered with and by external partners. However, I believed that it was only if there was a proven and compelling case to look outside the council for delivery of services that I would have accepted this was the right way forward.”
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