About

A dedicated Father of two girls, who are intent on growing up far quicker than I would like them to; one teenager and one ‘want-to-be’ teenager. Partner of the wonderful Sarah, primary school teacher and great mother of ‘the boy’. I’m still looking for the answer to being a perfect parent in order to raise perfect children. Okay, so that’s never going to happen, but you’ve got to keep on trying, always!

Lover of literature, music and film. A would be novelist, painter, photographer, composer of songs, actor…all the things I’ve never had the gumption to pursue to great effect. Play the guitar; mostly badly…which I might use as the name of my first album (3yrs in the making so far)

I’m striving for something approaching originality – not suggesting I can achieve this! I’m not here to evangelise solutions based only on theory. That’s easy. So where opportunities arise and where I can create them, it’s all about the doing and implementation – that’s hard, that’s the challenge, that’s where I am and where I want to remain!

Spent the last seven years working in local government, undertaking a range of roles: Neighbourhood Management,  responsible for financial planning and budgets, project monitoring and evaluation, developing communications products such as website, community magazine, press releases and general promotion of events. Neighbourhood Renewal, supporting local groups with funding applications and developing projects to support local needs. Policy & Governance, supporting and developing local area committees, working with councillors, the public and a range of internal and external services to develop community projects and resolve community issues. There isn’t one of these roles that I haven’t brought something new to; a greater effectiveness, a change in perspective, even if it was only something small.

Responsible for developing the wider use of webcasting within the local authority, from council meetings to committees, to internal communication events. Developing staff skills and confidence to embed culture change as a positive and progressive experience. Introduced social media aspect by including twitter feed alongside webcast to encourage greater public participation and interest, under the ‘Watching & Tweeting Democracy’ heading – allowed for capturing of officer updates, public and councillor tweets.

Proud member of the @CllrSocMed team, which includes a small number of amazing folk: @Gr8governance, @StevenTuck, @CllrTim, Cllr @SimonMagus. Check out them and all the available resources! FREE, FREE, FREE

Over the last 12 months I’ve been plying my trade in Housing Options Service and Private Sector Housing Service. My current role is as Empty Homes Coordinator, where I am responsible for developing the written strategy into something practical and deliverable, which will yeild results in the future. The challenge is well underway. It’s a tough one, but there is already progress being made. When you face challenges as big as this, and empty homes is definitely on of those, your networks are crucial…I’m very lucky in that respect!

Finally (Yeah, I know I go on): Trust yourself. Trust to your instinct. Then run it by somebody you trust, to make sure you’re right!!