SOLACE communique

here's a link to the SOLACE communique produced at the summit. download here

Solace TV interview

SOLACE webtv from the recent SOLACE Summit

Civic Crowd - have your say

I've just added a link to South Holland's Civic Crowd site. This has been designed by Dave Briggs to encourage views and ideas to elected members on how they use their ward budgets.

Shared Chief Executives

Here's a link to an article by Mike Bennett On his new blog publicinteligence. See it here

Localism and the National Planning Policy Framework

The Government is making some significant changes to the planning system that will affect the responsibilities of all local planning authorities. The intention is to make the planning system one that better supports sustainable economic growth and jobs, underpinned with the principles of localism, with less ‘top-down’ prescription and more ‘bottom up’ involvement.

The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) will set out the Government’s priorities for planning in England. It will replace the current raft of planning policy guidance notes and statements with one document of less than 60 pages. The final version will be published around the end of 2011 or early 2012.

SOLACE in partnership with the LGG and PAS have recently published a brief overview the changes and their implications to which I've contributed the foreword.

You can read and download the document here Localism and NPPF

CIWM conference

I'm speaking at the CIWM conference on Wednesday on what Localism and Big Society mean in the context of sustainable waste and resource management. I'm  part of a panel with CLG under Secretary of State Bob Neill. My few slides that I'm using can be viewed here

Moving on

Ancient words of wisdom say

" unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds."

Sometimes one thing has to be ended in order that something new can be created for the new season. This is how I feel about the changes which are occurring in the management team. It's been great to work with a successful team of people under whose management South Holland moved from "fair" to "excellent". That team is now giving way so that a new team can be formed to take us through the challenges of the new season. Whilst there's a sadness to see the old team break up and people go their own ways it's only by doing so that we can be fruitful in the future.