imaginative traveller: Newcastle council aims to push through reforms (Guardian)

Friday, June 10, 2011

Newcastle council aims to push through reforms (Guardian)

Newcastle's new Labour leaders want to see a big organisational shakeup. How
will council officials respond to this challenge?

When a large council changes hands, the transition from one party to another
can be challenging for some senior officials, or a breath of fresh air for
others.

In Newcastle upon Tyne, Labour's victory over a Liberal Democrat
administration last month sent shock waves through the city's civic centre.
Nationally, shifts of power between the parties at Westminster are often seen
as more traumatic than anything comparable in local government. But rejection
of a ruling party in the council chamber presents a dilemma for some senior
officials, particularly if their relationship with a new ruling party has been
lukewarm during the opposition years.

Nick Forbes, the new Labour leader in Newcastle ? seen as the Lib Dems'
flagship urban authority ? has two problems to grapple with: budget cuts this
year of ?45m, alongside the axing of ?10m in special grants designed to help
poorer areas; and a management regime with which he has clearly experienced
difficulties.

While relations with some senior officials appear good, there is nevertheless
a sense of a lingering coolness between some members of the ...

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