by Paul O'Brien
Wednesday 24 November 2010
Mad dash around London today for a series of meetings aimed at developing a couple of research projects that APSE is keen to undertake on green jobs and service delivery.
Later on had a catch up with Jack Dromey, who is now a Shadow CLG Minister. Jack has spoken at numerous APSE conferences over the years in his previous role with the T&G and he has also worked with us on a range of housing issues in the past.
Finished the day with a meeting with Lucy Makinson, Director of Efficiencies at the CLG where we shared our views on how efficiency can best be achieved in local government.
by Paul O'Brien
Thursday 11 November 2010
Spoke at LACA North East conference today in Durham on the impact of spending cuts on local government catering services.
Gave my usual message of doom, gloom and despair, Anita Brown from Stockton Council and Vice Chair of LACA North East who organised the programme put on a session on laughology to follow me so that people didn’t go home to depressed.
by Paul O'Brien
Friday 05 November 2010
I raised the point about the impact of the cuts with Scottish Government Minister for Children and Early Years, Adam Ingram, who gave the keynote address at the conference and he gave his commitment that the Government viewed healthy eating as a priority and would seek to protect this agenda from the impact of the cuts.
Institute of Sports and Recreation Management (ISRM) Chief Executive, Sean Holt also spoke of the need for the leisure sector to speak with one voice in order to make a case for protecting physical activity from funding cuts.
