Every November the Council hosts ‘Excellence Denbighshire’. An event to celebrate staff who have achieved beyond what can reasonably be expected. These staff are nominated by their peers and their achievements are assessed by an independent panel. The event was held in the Scala in Prestatyn and it was brilliant. I was delighted to present the winners and runners up with their awards and certificates.
In November the Leader and I continued our programme of meetings with local businesses. We met with business owners in Denbigh and Corwen and agreed to take action, where possible, to help businesses in the run up to the Christmas period and beyond. The direct engagement with businesses is vitally important because we are able to receive their messages and concerns first hand and discuss what, if anything, we can do together in difficult economic times.
The planning for the council elections in May 2012 is progressing well and I have begun to turn my attention to the council’s priorities for the period 2012-2015. I have led consultation sessions with staff and we are about to do the same with the current councillors. We are also using information from the recent resident’s surveys and the meetings, such as the ones I’ve talked about above, to inform our thinking. My hope is to present the newly elected councillors with a reasonable draft of our top priorities soon after they are elected so that we can agree them quickly and proceed to implement them as soon as we can.
According to my Welsh tutor, the group I’m in is particularly strong (honest). We were expecting ESTYN inspectors to come in November so we prepared and rehearsed and even dressed more smartly than usual, all ready to show off our skills. They didn’t turn up. Our tutor was obviously disappointed and I couldn’t help feeling disappointed too, mainly because she was. I never thought I’d be sorry not to be inspected.
