Mohammed Mehmet - Denbighshire County Council

April 2013

denbighshirecountycouncil — Tue, 07 May 2013 13:05:38 +0000

At the start of the month I had afternoon tea with staff at Cysgod y Gaer in Corwen. This is a residential care home for elderly residents where council staff are doing a great job. The youngest resident was 83 compared with 67 only a few years ago: a clear sign that we are living and remaining fitter for longer.

I had an interesting meeting with our secondary school head teachers to discuss education matters. I think it’s important for our schools to know that the whole of the council is behind our drive to raise standards and I was able to convey this message and also hear about some of the excellent work of our schools in the county.

I was delighted to meet with a large number of Denbighshire Council apprentices and encouraged to see so many young people taking up important positions within the council’s (ageing) workforce. These highly articulate colleagues are the future of the council and we should be encouraging them to influence policy and innovative ideas.

It was the Chairman’s Charity Dinner this month to mark the end of a very successful year for Cllr Jeanette Chamberlain-Jones. There was a comedian entertainer at the dinner, but his jokes are not repeatable here.

Mohammed

March 2013

denbighshirecountycouncil — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 15:28:08 +0000

I represent North Wales on the Public Sector Leadership Group which is chaired by the Minister for Local Government and Communities and provides leadership for the whole of the public service in important areas like managing service change and collaboration. It meets every couple of months and the papers can be found here for those interested.

I was delighted to have been involved in the appointment of Huw Foster Evans, currently the Head of Ysgol Morgan LLwyd in Wrexham, as the new chief officer for our regional school improvement service. This appointment will ensure that the implementation of the regional service will now gather pace.

Sian Owen who is a Project Manager in our corporate project team and I are the reigning champions of the first Rhyl pancake race, a highly competitive and nationally recognised event. We beat a number of strong competitors to bring the trophy to Denbighshire.

I have started cycling to work (one day a week) as my contribution to reducing our carbon footprint, not to mention becoming slightly fitter and setting a good example to staff and members.

We have started experimenting with Youtube as a way of communicating with staff and I would be interested to have some feedback as to whether it is effective.

February 2013

denbighshirecountycouncil — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 13:44:08 +0000

Many residents’ lives are beginning to return to normal after the awful floods of late November. We are still supporting people who haven’t returned to their homes and also turning our attention to investigating what happened, learning lessons and counting the financial costs.

The budget setting for 2013/14 is almost complete. I’m particularly pleased that our proposals do not cut important services to the public and in fact recommend further investment of £1m for our priorities. The council tax increase has also been kept low and is likely to be one of the lowest in Wales.

The council’s efficiency drive is now beginning to deliver good results. Over the last three years we have reduced our business mileage so much that we could have driven to the Moon with the saving. Instead we put the money into front line services. We’ve managed this because we are beginning to make use of technology and challenge the culture of meetings.

Consultations on the Health services review was concluded in January. There is no doubt that health services must change just as there’s no doubt that change will be controversial. I have spent some time working with colleagues within the council, other councils and the health service to try to work through our concerns with some aspects of the proposals. We haven’t managed it yet.

I went to see the film Lincoln at the Prestatyn Scala. A great reminder that politics is the art of the possible.’

December 2012

denbighshirecountycouncil — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 12:56:02 +0000

The floods affected nearly 500 residential properties, 80 commercial properties, three dual use properties and one place of worship in St Asaph. More that 30 of our own staff were also directly affected and tragically there was a fatality. The reality of a major flood cannot be appreciated by reading about it. It’s when you visit and see the devastation it causes that you realise what it means for people, and appreciate that many will not return to normal life for several months.

Our first priority is to work with everyone in the community to help those affected. Hundreds of this council’s staff have become involved with this effort; many volunteering to work well beyond normal hours and sometimes deep into the night. The community spirit that has been so evident in our county will, I’m sure, continue throughout the recovery period. We must also investigate why the floods happened, what, if anything, could have been done to prevent them and what can now be done to try to avoid them in the future. The council will play a leading role in finding answers.

On another, less tragic but very important matter, the council has had problems with its wheelie bin roll out programme. We have apologised to the residents affected by this and I do so again here. We will work flat out to fix things as soon as possible and, again, learn lessons. To make matters worse and despite pinning the new refuse collection dates on my kitchen wall, I actually forgot to put out my bins on the new dates!

To cap it all I was caught speeding and was ‘invited’ by the Chief Constable to attend a ‘Speed Awareness’ course. What did I learn? What I already new: concentrate when driving and allow a few extra minutes for journeys.

November 2012

denbighshirecountycouncil — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 15:19:24 +0000

There was an exciting start and finish to October. The council launched its new corporate plan for the next five years and it was good to see positive reporting of our plans in the media. I am really pleased that our elected councillors are ambitious and optimistic about the future, even when the general financial outlook is pretty bleak. As they say, a financial crisis can be the mother of innovation and creativity and there is recognition in Denbighshire that difficult financial settlements from Government should not stifle our commitment to improve things.

At the end of the month I hosted our Excellence Denbighshire Awards, an annual celebration and acknowledgement of staff who have been nominated by their colleagues for recognition in one of eight categories, including the ABCD award (Above and Beyond the Call of Duty) and, for the first time, the Bright Idea of the Year award. The event took place in the Scala in Prestatyn and the whole afternoon was brilliantly organised by our own staff.

Well we said we were going to tackle the nuisance of littering and dog fouling and we have started. During this month alone XFOR have served over 200 Fixed Penalty Notices to offenders. XFOR has been instructed to be polite and courteous but to take a zero tolerance, no excuses approach. Also the penalty payments are shared between the council and XFOR so the activity of improving our environment is actually raising money too.

Oh and I went to see the new James Bond movie. I’m not really a 007 man myself, preferring dramas and thrillers, but this one is really good. It’s even funny. In one part Albert Finney’s character calls ‘M’, Emma, thinking that must be her full name. I thought it was funny anyway. Have you noticed that Istanbul seems to feature in a number of films recently (Taken 2, no haven’t seen it, just the trailer). The problem is that only bad things seem to happen there: kidnapping, murder etc. It’s not like that really.

October 2012

denbighshirecountycouncil — Fri, 05 Oct 2012 09:42:32 +0000

I was involved in promoting two important campaigns during September: ‘Love Food,Hate Waste’ and ‘Smarter Driving’. I cooked a delicious meal, with a professional cook, using food that we usually consider as waste. I’ve learned a lot and I’m now more aware of the amazing amount of good food we throw away. My efficiency score on the Driving Simulator wasn’t very high!

I was delighted to present awards to the winners of Wales in Bloom. Prestatyn and Rhyl were amongst the top three towns across the country. Our own staff in Environment Services have done a brilliant job in both towns. This national event was hosted in the Rhyl Town Hall and it was a credit to the county.

The local economy is a top priority for the council and working with local businesses is key. The Leader of the Council and I met with representatives of the Federation of Small Businesses in Denbighshire. The businesses are reporting that our education system is not always preparing young people for the world of work. We have decided to look into this in more detail in order to better understand what the business concerns are and how we can respond.

I was pleased (relieved) to pass my Welsh exam. My target for the Autumn is to start and finish all the meetings I chair in Welsh and be able to talk about my work for three minutes!