The new chief executive of Angus Council has vowed to work with “anyone and everyone” for the benefit of the county’s citizens.
Margo Williamson takes the reigns as local authority chief on Thursday, following Richard Stiff who spent five years at the helm.
Mrs Williamson was the council’s strategic director for people before it was decided to appoint a new chief internally, in an effort to trim costs at the top.
Her assumption of the role coincides with a new administration composed of independents, Conservatives and Lib Dems.
She said this is an “excellent time” to become chief executive.
“We have a new administration who are enthusiastic about engaging officer advice to set strategic policy,” she said.
“Our best value audit report in October 2016 stated ‘we need to raise our level of ambition and increase the pace and depth of improvement’ and our staff are already working hard to redesign services that are relevant to changing needs.
“We are also fostering a results-based culture throughout the organisation and everyone is focused on cost reduction.
“In September we will outline our priories as a council and as a Local Council Improvement Partnership.
“I am keen to work with anyone and everyone who has the citizens of Angus as their focus.”
Mr Stiff, whose last official day was May 31, said his last six years have “flown by”.
“The council has changed a fair bit over the six years since 2011 as we made the best we could of increasingly difficult circumstances for local government and public services in general,” he said.
“If anyone out there thinks I have done a reasonable job as chief executive in the face of those pressures it is largely down to the hard work and dedication of the Angus Council team, and the credit is theirs.”
Comment
Mr Stiff was at the head of a council that tripped over the long vines of recession and was left peering into a £45 million black hole, only five years ago.
Successive budgets have attempted to fill the void, with the effect a bucket and spade has on a small body of water.
The outgoing chief exec had custody of a rapidly-changing Angus Council, with all of the tumult and collateral damage that entails.
And some of the programs he oversaw, such as the Transforming Angus initiative to redesign council services in the face of decreasing council settlements, have been unpopular.
But last year’s “best value” report into the council’s structure and services found that, even with all the cuts so far, the authority had yet to identify almost half of its £26.5m shortfall.
It is expected that service reviews over the next year may find savings by cutting staff numbers, redesigning more services, and examining the schools estate.
So Mrs Williamson takes over the reins at a time when more and more people look to “the town” for help, while bean counters can’t see where the money will come from.
It’s a Herculean task but one expects to see the council’s leaner and meaner top tier come out of the blocks quickly and with a plan.
