Two different Conferences

Caroline Spelman, Chairman of the Conservative Party, who is perhaps best known for her Private Members' Bill aimed at reclassifying gardens as greenfield land.

It has been just like old times! I have spent the last three days at a couple of sharply contrasting conferences, (one at your expense and the other at my own.)

The council tax payers of Babergh kindly paid for me to attend the Public Sector Transformation Summit 2008 in Islington on Thursday. I was there in my capacity as E Government Champion and Chair of the Information Technology Task Group. The idea was to see, and take note of, how other Councils are bringing about change and restructuring in their organisations to effect the Government’s requirement that we all save 3% per annum. Of course the productivity improvements that can be achieved by information technology are significant, and it was this aspect in which I was particularly interested.

I shall spare you the technical stuff, but I am pleased to be able to tell you all that Babergh, if not actually racing ahead of the pack in this area, is certainly up there with the competition. In addition to an ongoing programme concerned with better customer access, which has already delivered savings and an improvement in response rates to those who call in by phone, we are currently working on an Information Strategy for the Council that will help us to bring about further improvements. The conference was very interesting, and among other things there was the opportunity to see a presentation on the Public Service Village, that is currently being built at Bury St. Edmunds as a joint venture between the County Council and St. Edmondsbury Borough Council.

Then on Friday morning it was off to Marylebone Station, to take the train to Warwick for the Conservative Councillors’ Annual Conference. I very much enjoyed this event. Unlike the Party Conference it is a relatively small affair, with only about 230 councillors attending. They came, however, from all over England and it was very interesting to share experiences with them. David Cameron (Yes!!!) opened the Conference, and it was closed by the truly excellent Chairman of the Party, Caroline Spelman, who is a role model for all of us women in politics! Liam Fox , Shadow Defence Secretary, and Eric Pickles, Shadow Local Government Minister were also there.

Contrary to what many people think, Conservative policy makers are gradually creating clear blue water between their policies and those of the Government. They are keen to shift politics away from centrally imposed targets, and to return power to local people. I shall be writing a short report on some of the initiatives that were announced, plus a brief conversation that I had with Eric Pickles. If anyone is interested to see this please e mail me and I shall let you have a copy.

Much was made by presenters at the Conservative Conference of a need to kill off ‘the grey man at the centre with the lever, trying to get results’. It occurred to me as I returned home on the train that I had seen this bugaboo on Thursday at the conference in Islington, in the persona of a very bossy man from the Government Connect Programme, Department for Communities and Local Government.