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Local Government
Rochford District Council
Rochford District Council
Because this interview was quite lengthy and covered a lot of areas, we have inserted sub-headings to emphasise and clarify
those areas. We hope you will find that helpful.
Cllr Mrs G A Lucas-
14 Somerset Avenue
Rochford
Essex
SS4 1QA
01702 543 142
07990 526 422
To return to the Rochford District Council front page, please CLICK HERE
To see Jill’s previous interview in 2010 please CLICK HERE
To see Jill’s 2012 Planning interview please CLICK HERE
To see Jill’s previous interview in 2010 please CLICK HERE
To see Jill’s 2012 Planning interview please CLICK HERE
Interview with Councillor Gillian Lucas-Gill who is now portfolio holder for Services Development / Improvement and Performance Management on the District Council. PART ONE
(23rd September 2011)
Gillian was one of the first people on the Council we interviewed nearly a year ago. Since then she has become part of the Executive in the Council, and just recently her husband, Mike, has retired. How had things changed, what did her role now involve and how did it affect her general role as a Councillor, what about changing laws, is Rochford Police Station closing, what about Forum Meetings, and what sort of shops do we need in Rochford? These were some of the things we covered as we ranged widely over the work of the Council and the things happening locally. We hope you find her answers as helpful as we did.
Portfolio versus Constituents
RL: A lot of time has passed since we last spoke. Have the changes been good?
Jill: Yes, indeed. Even in the last three weeks since Mike has retired it has been easier. Trying to run the business, a home, and being a councillor is a very full life. When I got the portfolio it was even more full with that being like a full-time job.
RL: Yes I do remember you saying last year and that having been a parish councillor before you were a district councillor had been like a walk in the park and I assume that coming a portfolio holder has been equally big jump?
Jill: Yes indeed, if you do it properly – and you are not allowed not to! As you know there are three Rochford councillors in the ward and when I got to the portfolio someone wrote that it was a shame because two of the three Rochford councillors are now portfolio holders (because Keith Gordon is also a portfolio holder) which now leaves us “only one working councillor.” I was a bit upset by that.
RL: Well, when I interviewed you last year I was struck by your commitment to the local people. Does becoming a portfolio holder actually mean that you do not have so much time for the local people?
Jill: Not at all! The portfolio is really important but because of the nature of it, you can really manage it and I would never put that in front of the constituents of this ward; they are still the most important thing, they are the people I did it for, if you like, because I want to try and make a difference to some lives, so you had just build in the portfolio around it. I’m lucky now because I don’t have any other commitments at all, as far as business is concerned, and I’m retired and so it hasn’t altered my commitment to my constituents at all.
RL: (aside to husband, Mike) I hope you don’t mind me asking the question Mike (because I’m fairly sure I know the answer) but now you are retired do you have any resentment that Jill is still so involved?
Mike: No, not at all, because I know that Jill really loves what she does on the Council and I am more than happy that she is doing it. I will support her 100%. This week, tonight will be the only night that Jill will be at home but I knew that when she stood for council, that she would be out a lot. As I say I support her 100% and she loves what she’s doing.
Jill: And as you know we’ve been married 40 years and he knows I’m not the sort of person that can just sit around in doors, I just have to be doing something and he’s brilliant and never moans because I’ve been out so much. But then there are other weeks when I’ve only been out one evening so it’s swings and roundabouts really.
The Portfolio
RL: Your portfolio description is a bit of a mouthful - Services Development / Improvement and Performance Management, which means what in a sentence?
Jill: Not easy in a sentence. The ‘performance management’ is probably the easiest part to explain. We are required by law, the government, to keep records and check on our performance in every aspect of what we do as a council. To that end we have a performance manager who spends his life collecting data etc. and then quarterly, comes with his results to me as his portfolio holder, which we then look at. Should there be an area where we think ‘oh that’s not doing very well, why isn’t it’, we look at it and do something about changing it. I have to say because, as you know, councils are all given targets, we do tend to meet most of those criteria.
There are occasionally blips; in the last quarter figures that he gave me a few weeks ago there was a big blip in the reported number of crimes in this part of Essex. Now we are really a low crime area but they had gone up on a three month basis, so we looked at that and found out why and dealt with it. The local strategic partnership who meet with the police a lot, noted that what I can only describe as three months of madness occurred in Hockley, a spate of petty crime, pushing over the walls and scratching cars, knocking down the fences and that sort of thing. They put extra officers out there and it’s back to normal. But that’s what the performance management side of it is. No, generally in this area our crime figures are very good and having the inspector down at Rochford has made a great difference. He is very much on the ball and very approachable and I think he’s made a huge difference to the area
Closing Rochford Police Station?
RL: While we are mentioning the police, is there any truth in the rumour that the police station in Rochford is closing down?
Jill: It’s not happening. I’m not going to say that in say two years’ time it won’t happen, but the police have been told that they have to save millions. A police station will stay there but the front desk is closing. Let’s get this in perspective: first of all, the front desk was never open full time anyway. Second, we took the statistics on all front desks across Essex and people just aren’t using them. These days when people do want the police they will phone them. However Rochford parish council and Rochford district council have both offered the police space within their premises if they want to carry on with the part time front desk. Several areas have done that and it works.
RL: Yes, I understand that. We recently had cause to report a burglary and a constable on a bike arrived within three minutes and two in a car arrived with a dog two minutes later and they were excellent.
Jill: Yes, the fact that we have the dog at the local station is a factor that should keep it open. No the station itself will not close – there will still be men stationed there – it is just that the front desk won’t be there, but that should not affect their local availability, as you have found.
Knowing the work
RL: If we may return to your role as a portfolio holder, I have been reading the executive decision of last June that you signed and I have to say I was amazed at the sheer volume of the things covered there. (CLICK HERE to see the things covered) Do you have to know about every single line of the things covered there, in your new role?
Jill: You learn as much as you can learn and of course every portfolio holder has officers, senior members one step down from Paul Warren, who are ultimately the ones who work for you as the portfolio holder and they do the work. We meet up on a regular basis and we go through these things. My officer is Sarah Fowler who is head of customer services and communications.
The service development side of it is basically what it says. At the moment I’m incredibly busy because we need a new ICT supplier of Computer Systems and what councils are trying to do these days to save money is to have shared services so we, along with Castle Point, Braintree and Colchester councils, work to purchase this as a group and all that that involves. The paperwork is phenomenal. Obviously, under any circumstances, I can’t be learning everything about computers because that’s what we have the experts for and they will give me the information that I want. When you think about it I don’t have to know all of that and I simply receive their information and advice and pass the appropriate questions and draw conclusions. I then present those to the executive for discussion before passing on to the main council for consideration and approval. We have good officers and you ask questions of them which often leads to other questions. The service development is developing services within the council.
Another example is to do with audio visual. We’ve had some money put aside for a few years now in the council to redo all the audio visual equipment in the council chamber which is a fairly old and failing us and we need to update that equipment, so that is our next project and we are actually sending out invitations to tender now. So that’s the sort of thing that that involves. If you’ve never been to the council chamber you ought to come.
Forum Meetings – getting public opinions
RL: As a quick aside, the last time I was here you invited me to a the forum meeting which I believe were who later stopped but are now about to start again. Has there been a change in thinking?
Jill: When they were stopped, they were stopped with this new plan in mind. What we suffered from across all the regions was a lack of audience participation which they were designed for, to get people involved, to find out what people wanted etc., but it didn’t work very well because few people came to us or asked questions and such meetings cost money. So what it has been decided to do is combine them. We spent a lot of time deciding how to do this. Should we have just one meeting for the whole area? We felt that people from one side of the district would not be interested in things on the other side so now we have just split it in two so we have one for Rayleigh and Rawreth and the other for the area Wakering to Hockley. What will happen is that every portfolio holder will be there, and all of the ward councillors will be there for us. They will all be chaired by the leader of the council and we are hoping to have more people and more dialogue. There was a letter in the local paper this past week asking when the council would stop digging up the road, but of course it is not us but the county council and people don’t understand these things. I do wish people would get involved and understand how local government works.
RL: Yes there do seem to be a number of misconceptions.
Jill: Just recently on local radio a resident was asked, do the councillors listen to you? He said no. Now this was to do with a planning matter and the truth is that councillors DO listen but are not allowed to express opinions before they have had the opportunity to do so in the council chamber. We always tell people this. I know that we, that’s the councillors in this ward, if we are asked to go to anything to do with planning, will always go and we say we’re quite happy to come along and listen and to answer questions that we can answer, however we cannot give you an opinion because if we do we will then not be able to sit in the chamber and vote or speak. That doesn’t do anybody any good; we need to be able to get up and speak at that place. You can’t stop change but you have to sometimes put your personal preferences aside and ask what is good for Rochford. If we have to comply with the Law and of course that is changing all the time at the present.
Top of page
Continuation of Interview
(23rd September 2011)
Gillian was one of the first people on the Council we interviewed nearly a year ago. Since then she has become part of the Executive in the Council, and just recently her husband, Mike, has retired. How had things changed, what did her role now involve and how did it affect her general role as a Councillor, what about changing laws, is Rochford Police Station closing, what about Forum Meetings, and what sort of shops do we need in Rochford? These were some of the things we covered as we ranged widely over the work of the Council and the things happening locally. We hope you find her answers as helpful as we did.
Portfolio versus Constituents
RL: A lot of time has passed since we last spoke. Have the changes been good?
Jill: Yes, indeed. Even in the last three weeks since Mike has retired it has been easier. Trying to run the business, a home, and being a councillor is a very full life. When I got the portfolio it was even more full with that being like a full-
RL: Yes I do remember you saying last year and that having been a parish councillor before you were a district councillor had been like a walk in the park and I assume that coming a portfolio holder has been equally big jump?
Jill: Yes indeed, if you do it properly – and you are not allowed not to! As you know there are three Rochford councillors in the ward and when I got to the portfolio someone wrote that it was a shame because two of the three Rochford councillors are now portfolio holders (because Keith Gordon is also a portfolio holder) which now leaves us “only one working councillor.” I was a bit upset by that.
RL: Well, when I interviewed you last year I was struck by your commitment to the local people. Does becoming a portfolio holder actually mean that you do not have so much time for the local people?
Jill: Not at all! The portfolio is really important but because of the nature of it, you can really manage it and I would never put that in front of the constituents of this ward; they are still the most important thing, they are the people I did it for, if you like, because I want to try and make a difference to some lives, so you had just build in the portfolio around it. I’m lucky now because I don’t have any other commitments at all, as far as business is concerned, and I’m retired and so it hasn’t altered my commitment to my constituents at all.
RL: (aside to husband, Mike) I hope you don’t mind me asking the question Mike (because I’m fairly sure I know the answer) but now you are retired do you have any resentment that Jill is still so involved?
Mike: No, not at all, because I know that Jill really loves what she does on the Council and I am more than happy that she is doing it. I will support her 100%. This week, tonight will be the only night that Jill will be at home but I knew that when she stood for council, that she would be out a lot. As I say I support her 100% and she loves what she’s doing.
Jill: And as you know we’ve been married 40 years and he knows I’m not the sort of person that can just sit around in doors, I just have to be doing something and he’s brilliant and never moans because I’ve been out so much. But then there are other weeks when I’ve only been out one evening so it’s swings and roundabouts really.
The Portfolio
RL: Your portfolio description is a bit of a mouthful -
There are occasionally blips; in the last quarter figures that he gave me a few weeks ago there was a big blip in the reported number of crimes in this part of Essex. Now we are really a low crime area but they had gone up on a three month basis, so we looked at that and found out why and dealt with it. The local strategic partnership who meet with the police a lot, noted that what I can only describe as three months of madness occurred in Hockley, a spate of petty crime, pushing over the walls and scratching cars, knocking down the fences and that sort of thing. They put extra officers out there and it’s back to normal. But that’s what the performance management side of it is. No, generally in this area our crime figures are very good and having the inspector down at Rochford has made a great difference. He is very much on the ball and very approachable and I think he’s made a huge difference to the area
Closing Rochford Police Station?
RL: While we are mentioning the police, is there any truth in the rumour that the police station in Rochford is closing down?
Jill: It’s not happening. I’m not going to say that in say two years’ time it won’t happen, but the police have been told that they have to save millions. A police station will stay there but the front desk is closing. Let’s get this in perspective: first of all, the front desk was never open full time anyway. Second, we took the statistics on all front desks across Essex and people just aren’t using them. These days when people do want the police they will phone them. However Rochford parish council and Rochford district council have both offered the police space within their premises if they want to carry on with the part time front desk. Several areas have done that and it works.
RL: Yes, I understand that. We recently had cause to report a burglary and a constable on a bike arrived within three minutes and two in a car arrived with a dog two minutes later and they were excellent.
Jill: Yes, the fact that we have the dog at the local station is a factor that should keep it open. No the station itself will not close – there will still be men stationed there – it is just that the front desk won’t be there, but that should not affect their local availability, as you have found.
Knowing the work
RL: If we may return to your role as a portfolio holder, I have been reading the executive decision of last June that you signed and I have to say I was amazed at the sheer volume of the things covered there. (CLICK HERE to see the things covered) Do you have to know about every single line of the things covered there, in your new role?
Jill: You learn as much as you can learn and of course every portfolio holder has officers, senior members one step down from Paul Warren, who are ultimately the ones who work for you as the portfolio holder and they do the work. We meet up on a regular basis and we go through these things. My officer is Sarah Fowler who is head of customer services and communications.
The service development side of it is basically what it says. At the moment I’m incredibly busy because we need a new ICT supplier of Computer Systems and what councils are trying to do these days to save money is to have shared services so we, along with Castle Point, Braintree and Colchester councils, work to purchase this as a group and all that that involves. The paperwork is phenomenal. Obviously, under any circumstances, I can’t be learning everything about computers because that’s what we have the experts for and they will give me the information that I want. When you think about it I don’t have to know all of that and I simply receive their information and advice and pass the appropriate questions and draw conclusions. I then present those to the executive for discussion before passing on to the main council for consideration and approval. We have good officers and you ask questions of them which often leads to other questions. The service development is developing services within the council.
Another example is to do with audio visual. We’ve had some money put aside for a few years now in the council to redo all the audio visual equipment in the council chamber which is a fairly old and failing us and we need to update that equipment, so that is our next project and we are actually sending out invitations to tender now. So that’s the sort of thing that that involves. If you’ve never been to the council chamber you ought to come.
Forum Meetings – getting public opinions
RL: As a quick aside, the last time I was here you invited me to a the forum meeting which I believe were who later stopped but are now about to start again. Has there been a change in thinking?
Jill: When they were stopped, they were stopped with this new plan in mind. What we suffered from across all the regions was a lack of audience participation which they were designed for, to get people involved, to find out what people wanted etc., but it didn’t work very well because few people came to us or asked questions and such meetings cost money. So what it has been decided to do is combine them. We spent a lot of time deciding how to do this. Should we have just one meeting for the whole area? We felt that people from one side of the district would not be interested in things on the other side so now we have just split it in two so we have one for Rayleigh and Rawreth and the other for the area Wakering to Hockley. What will happen is that every portfolio holder will be there, and all of the ward councillors will be there for us. They will all be chaired by the leader of the council and we are hoping to have more people and more dialogue. There was a letter in the local paper this past week asking when the council would stop digging up the road, but of course it is not us but the county council and people don’t understand these things. I do wish people would get involved and understand how local government works.
RL: Yes there do seem to be a number of misconceptions.
Jill: Just recently on local radio a resident was asked, do the councillors listen to you? He said no. Now this was to do with a planning matter and the truth is that councillors DO listen but are not allowed to express opinions before they have had the opportunity to do so in the council chamber. We always tell people this. I know that we, that’s the councillors in this ward, if we are asked to go to anything to do with planning, will always go and we say we’re quite happy to come along and listen and to answer questions that we can answer, however we cannot give you an opinion because if we do we will then not be able to sit in the chamber and vote or speak. That doesn’t do anybody any good; we need to be able to get up and speak at that place. You can’t stop change but you have to sometimes put your personal preferences aside and ask what is good for Rochford. If we have to comply with the Law and of course that is changing all the time at the present.
Top of page
Continuation of Interview