Tag Archives: Deborah Cadman

Whats happening at SCC: town council report January 2012

This month’s report deals mainly with the future of Suffolk Libraries, but also mentions the official appointment of the new Chief Executive, potential changes to Suffolk’s schools admissions policies, the forthcoming Budget for 2012-13 and  the dangers of heavy objects being thrown onto the A12/A14:

Happy New Year!

Chief Executive   Having been officially confirmed in her post at full council, Deborah Cadman began her role as Chief Executive in the last week of December. I look forward to working with her. One of her first acts has been to address the issue of long-term ‘interim directors’ at the top of the council. As both the Directors of Children and Young People and Adult and Community Services are interim appointments, a recruitment process is now under way to appoint permanent postholders on fixed salaries.

Libraries  Full Council also covered the administration’s decision to change the structure of the Libraries so that the current library provision will be transferred  to an Industrial and Provident Society for the benefit of the community. This means that local libraries will be run by local “community groups”, who may be voting members of the IPS.  The IPS, as the overarching organisation, will be run by an elected board, responsible for managing the grant funding from the Council.  Local libraries are expected to make 5% of savings through a number of means – IT provision, maintenance contracts, use of volunteers and fundraising. 

The opposition are concerned that there are still many issues which remain unanswered. The future of the Libraries is supposedly secure for 10 years yet the funding is only guaranteed for two years. There are continuing uncertainties about the fate of the smaller libraries. There is also concern about over- reliance on volunteers – not only to run the Libraries but also the home library service, which will no doubt see an increase in use after the reduction of the mobile library service.

You can read further details about my concerns  in my blog, here.  Full details of the Council papers,  are here  

2012-2013 Budget  January’s Cabinet will take place on the 24th of January at 11am in Mildenhall at the Forest Heath District Council Offices. Can I remind you that members of the public are welcome both as spectators and  to ask pre-booked questions in the usual way.

This is a very important Cabinet meeting as it is the first real look at the budget papers, which provide greater detail on what the Council is intending to do for the next financial year.    The final vote on the budget for 2012/13 will   take place at the  next Full Council meeting (9th of February). 

A12/A14 – incidents involving objects being thrown from bridges   There have been a number of  occasionss on the A12/A14 where objects have been thrown from bridges onto traffic below.  This started with an incident in Essex but seems to have spread to south Suffolk as a copycat activity.

SCC, the Police, Fire and Rescue and partners are extremely concerned and taking all possible action to stop these extremely dangerous and irresponsible happenings.  A senior detective has been appointed to lead a team dedicated to catching the individual(s) responsible.

We need to ensure that everybody knows that if they do see any suspicious activity on or near a road bridge,  they must call 999.

Winter – Are you prepared?  SCC is finally expecting colder weather. We may at last get use from those grit bins!

Admissions to Suffolk schools in 2013/14  Suffolk County Council has launched a consultation about their policies for admission to schools next year. It includes the admissions policy for community, voluntary controlled, voluntary aided, foundation/trust schools academies and free schools in Suffolk. As Farlingaye has recently become an academy, and there is a proposal that a new Transcendental Meditation Free School should start locally, this may well be of interest to many of us.

I am particularly keen that SCCs  policy of free school transport only to the nearest catchment school is addressed if it turns out that the nearest catchment school is, eg,  a Transcendental Meditation free school. You can find the consultation here  

Kesgrave by-election: purdah Due to the unexpected death of John Klaschka, Councillor for Kesgrave and Rushmere, there will be a district and county council by-election on 9th February.  As the purdah period is upon us, I am not now able to make any commitments as regards my locality budget till after 9 February

New SCC chief exec: Deborah Cadman

Yesterday Suffolk County Council appointed Deborah Cadman  as  Chief Executive, a unanimous decision by the multi-party Staff Appointments board. Ms Cadman is the chief executive of the (shortly-to-be-wound-up)  East of England Development Agency, and a former chief executive of  St Edmundsbury Borough Council.

At £155,000,  her salary is  £63,592 less than Andrea Hill was paid, with no bonuses or annual pay increments.  At a time of belt-tightening, this is laudable and appropriate.

According to Council leader Mark Bee, ” I want to continue the work we’ve started to restore public confidence in Suffolk County Council and allow our staff to get the recognition they deserve. Deborah is just the person to help us do that.”