David Hamilton - Blog

Following the huge success of our 'Be Seen to be Clean' campaigns in Whittlesey and March, we are moving into Chatteris to get local people involved in looking after their environment.

We'll be in Chatteris in April, May and June and we hope to reduce the amount of food and cigarette litter out on the streets - so watch out litter bugs! We'll also be working with dog owners to make sure they clean up after their pet.

(Above) The Be Seen to Be Clean Team is coming to town.

We are linking up with lots of other organisations, including the local library, Chatteris Street Pride Group, the town council and local businesses to make Fenland a cleaner, safer and greener place to live.

Our campaign will involve local businesses and community groups and we will be talking to local school children about why it is important to put litter in the bin and not on the street.

We're organising a special Environmental Action Day in the summer. It will be a day full of family fun, free environmentaly friendly give-aways, information and all sorts of environment advice. We'll be announcing the date of the action day in our local papers and on our website.

• services for young people;
• health and wellbeing of people living in the district;
• community safety;
• making the area even cleaner and greener;
• minimising the environmental affect of our work;
• making Fenland a united, thriving district;
• promoting local businesses in the area; and
• making our services accessible to the public.

We've taken all these important issues and put together a three year plan. It sets out how we will work with other organisations in Fenland to tackle issues which local people have told us are important.

(Above) David Hamilton at last year's consultation exhibitions.

To make sure that we have prioritised issues which you think are important to Fenland, we'd like to invite anyone who lives or works in Fenland to take part in one of our 'tell us what you think' events:

• Monday 14 January
  1.00pm – 5.30pm
  Wisbech @ your service shop
  
  
• Tuesday 15 January
  1.00pm – 5.30pm
  Whittlesey @ your service shop
  
  
• Wednesday 16 January
  1.00pm – 5.30pm
  Chatteris @ your service shop
  
  
• Thursday 17 January
  1.00pm – 5.30pm
  March @ your service shop

• Saturday 19 January
  9.00am – 12noon
  March @ your service shop

If you can't make it, don't worry - we've developed an online questionnaire too:

http://www.fenland.gov.uk/yourviews

or we can send you a postal questionnaire - drop us a line on 01354 654321 before 16 January and we'll send you one.

If you would like more information about how you can help shape Fenland, please call us on 01354 654321, or email us at: yourviews@fenland.gov.uk. 

Happy New Year

I’m back after a rather long break from my blog. I’m finding it a bit of a challenge to pick up from where I left off – nearly a year of news from Fenland District Council is very difficult to sum up in just a few paragraphs, so I’ll focus on two of our biggest announcements of 2007!

Most improved - and very proud!

Big news! Fenland District Council has been named as the most improved council in the whole country!

The Audit Commission’s new figures show us as the most improved of all 388 councils in England. There are around 100 different measures of success, and in the year ending March 2007 we improved 75% of them. This compares with a national average of 48%.


(Above) David Hamilton, proud to work for Fenland District Council

I feel very proud to work for the council and with such a fantastic team of people!

An ‘excellent’ Christmas present!

More big news! Last month the Audit Commission officially announced that Fenland District Council has been rated as ‘excellent’ – that’s the commission’s highest accolade! We are also the first ever district to have jumped a category – from ‘fair’ to ‘excellent’.

(Above) David Hamilton (holding the letter 'L') with members of Fenland District Council's Environmental Services Team.

Five year vision for Fenland

During the summer, the inspectors visited Fenland to undertake a detailed assessment of how we were performing. They recognised the success of our five year vision to improve the quality of life for people living in Fenland.

I can testify that everyone in the organisation, from councillors and senior managers through to frontline staff, signed up to make it happen and you can see the fantastic results out in the community.

We're not resting on our laurels! Plans are already in place to improve services even more!

Our journey to excellence

There are some great stories about our journey to excellence and I hope to write more about them over the next few weeks – until then, here are 20 things the Audit Commission said about Fenland:

1. Over the last three years our pace of improvement has been faster than most other councils.
2. The strengthened political and managerial leadership has raised our profile.
3. Our increased external profile is leading to increased external investment in Fenland - including £95 million for education.
4. There is strong political and managerial leadership.
5. Working with partners, we have improved the health of the community – and it has helped raise the life expectancy of people living in Fenland.
6. Our recycling rate has increased significantly with the successful introduction of our three bin system.
7. We are providing decent and affordable housing.
8. We are meeting the needs of older people and those with disabilities.
9. Local people have a voice in setting ambitions for the area and understand how priorities are set.
10. Our priorities are based on a sound understanding of local needs. There is a robust framework of strategies and plans to deliver our priorities.
11. Electronic service delivery has improved significantly with 100 per cent of interactions with the public capable of electronic delivery.
12. Over the past three years there has been a significant and sustained focus on improving performance, with the pace of improvement increasing.
13. Our overall public satisfaction remains above average.
14. The Golden Age Fairs and Golden Age website have improved access to services and information for Fenland’s older residents.
15. We have delivered improvements for young people. Our Youth Council has allocated grants to support facilities for young people across the district.
16. We are working effectively to create an attractive and sustainable environment with clean, green and safe streets.
17. We exceeded targets for recycling and composting household waste.
18. We have reduced crime by working with our partner organisations. The British Crime Survey indicates overall crime has fallen in Fenland by 13 per cent.
19. We have contributed to better use of CCTV, including automatic number plate recognition, which has increased incident detection and arrests.
20. We are actively working to regenerate the area and create additional jobs. Since 2004, approximately 550 new jobs have been created.

Get in touch!

I’m always interested in hearing your views – particularly residents of Fenland.

You can email me at dhamilton@fenland.gov.uk and you can ‘surf the fens’ and find out lots of information on our website at www.fenland.gov.uk. Don’t forget to leave me your contact details so I can get back to you.

The Nene Waterfront Regeneration (NWR) Project in Wisbech has been shortlisted for a prestigious national British Urban Regeneration Award. The BURA judges were excited by the multi-million pound plans to develop a 20-acre derelict waterfront site and transform the economic fortunes of Wisbech and Fenland as a whole.

(Above) An artists impression of the iconic 'Boathouse' development which will be one part of the NWR Project.

Great to be back!

After a relaxing Christmas recharge, it's good to be back for what will be an exciting and ambitious 2007 here at Fenland Hall.

New Year clean up

If you haven't already - don't forget to recycle your Christmas cards! I've taken mine to WH Smiths but I believe Tesco are also taking them. All the money raised from the recycling will go to the Woodland Trust.