Thank you

Hello,

We’ll start this week with a really big thank you – to everyone who supported us as we cycled the length and breadth of Wiltshire last week.

It was some ride – 130-odd miles – but it was a beautiful day and it’s fair to say we enjoyed it. Most of it, anyway!

The ride was a real team achievement and we are so pleased that together we raised more than £3,000 for Wiltshire Mind, which is a great cause.

Thanks to everyone who donated to our Just Giving page, and to our support team on the day, who made everything run so smoothly.

We’d particularly like to thank the #EPIC team, who set themselves the challenge of engaging staff to beat our 130 miles…which they did quite comfortably with around 725 miles ridden on exercise bikes in Trowbridge, Chippenham and Salisbury – a fantastic achievement which helped raise £315 towards our total.

Thanks also go to all the riders who took part and especially Steve Manning, who had the original idea for the ride and turned it into reality. And, knowing Steve, he is already mapping out an even tougher challenge for next year…

While we’re talking about #EPIC, well done to the team who were finalists at yesterday’s HR Excellence Awards. Terence joined them for the awards ceremony, where our staff engagement work was nominated in two categories - most innovative deployment of HR technology, and outstanding employee engagement strategy.

This is a brilliant achievement from what is, let’s not forget, a relatively new team which has already achieved so much and deserves recognition – and no doubt there’ll be lots more achieved in the near future.

On the subject of recognition there is still time to get your nominations in for individuals or teams who you think have gone above and beyond and deserve an Achieving Excellence award. Please make your nomination here by the end of the week.

You’ll no doubt be aware of the media coverage of the visit of The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall to Salisbury last week.

More than 5,000 people were at the Market Square to see Their Royal Highnesses and they took time to meet the traders and businesses that were directed affected in The Maltings and all those who have been involved in the incident – either as a first responder, or as part of the recovery programme. The city is starting to get back to normal and the Royal visit was a huge boost attracting so many visitors. This weekend (30 June) the winning bid to host next year’s National Armed Forces Day will be announced. If ever there was a time and place for recognising the role of the military – it surely has to be Salisbury that’s chosen – fingers crossed!

Looking ahead to next week, Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting has a really busy agenda. While the headlines from the meeting will no doubt focus on housing (with a big attendance expected for the item on the site allocations plan), the agenda touches on so many parts of our work – including gypsy and travellers, adult social care, governance, social workers, adoption, and an update on our overall performance which affects all areas.

We’ll update on that, and more, next week.

Finally, thanks to all of you for your patience during the hot weather – we’re aware that working conditions are quite uncomfortable for many, particularly at County Hall, and we would urge you to ensure you read the latest advice to help you stay as comfortable as possible. 

Alistair, Carlton and Terence