A new generation of chief executives has taken over Lincolnshire’s local authorities, restoring battered reputations and improving low CPA scores.
The arrival of Tony McArdle at the county has been well documented, but the districts – Boston, West and East Lindsey and North Kesteven – have also seen changes at the top. Typical of the new breed is Nigel Howells, chief executive of East Lindsey DC.
For those who are geographically challenged, this largely-rural district is the third-biggest in England, covering 700square miles with a population of 136,000. Its most famous towns are the seaside resorts of Skegness and Mablethorpe on the Lincolnshire coast.
Both resorts, especially the latter, are struggling to bring in much-needed investment, and the council has put in a bid for a licence for a casino which it intends to base in one or other of the towns. The aim is that a casino will then attract other developments, such as hotels. The response is expected at the end of the month.
Nigel joined the council two years ago, straight from running a primary care trust. He explains: ‘The district had just received a “weak” CPA, and it came as an enormous shock. Members thought, at worst, the verdict would be “fair”. My brief was to bring the organisation into the 21st century. It had been very inward-looking and few managers came from outside the area.’
A new top team was recruited and of 10 appointments, six were new. Just before Christmas came the good news that the DCLG, which had been monitoring the council, announced that East Lindsey was on course for improvement and no longer required the tender loving care of its mandarins. Nigel has two strategic directors under him, and seven heads of service. He is currently seeking a new director to replace one who has left to join a unitary.
Nigel has spent all his career at districts, apart from a stint running a primary care trust. He says: ‘What I like about districts is their range. Something will always appeal. Indeed, one of the great things about local government is its sheer variety – and people often don’t appreciate this.’
For one brief period, he was chief executive of a district in the throes of the last reorganisation in the early 1990s which he recalls as ‘a total waste of time’. He adds: ‘The county was opposed to unitaries, but the districts had mixed views. In the end, the county was untouched, so we just wasted a year.’ He remains similarly sceptical about the present unitary plans outlined in the Local Government Bill.
But he remains relaxed about two tiers, arguing that it makes sense for a district to ‘get on the coat tails of a large organisation, like the county, and I see no conflict in that.’
In Lincolnshire, there are unlikely to be unitary bids, but the councils are collaborating on a shared services agenda and may opt for a pathfinder ‘virtual unitary’ bid.
His own council is planning to expand the shared services project from legal and procurement to streetscene and customer services, undertaking feasibility studies first. The district and county also recently opened a new centre in Mablethorpe which acts as a district area office, as well as library, children’s and health centre.
Nigel was brought up in Portsmouth, and educated at a grammar school and Nottingham University, where he studied politics and law.
‘I had no particular career ideas and I knew nothing about local government,’ he says. Nonetheless, he opted for law, and ended up as a trainee solicitor at Portsmouth City Council in 1978. One of the cases on which he worked was a law suit against the satirical magazine, Private Eye, subsequently settled out of court.
He then worked at Stafford BC for eight years, ending as head of legal services. One of his tasks was to help push through a new town centre redevelopment which involved moving a market. But the traders refused to move, and found an ancient parliamentary Act saying the council had no powers to take such action. He had to go to parliament to repeal the Act and seek new powers to move the market.
He then joined Wychavon DC as district secretary, and worked for Warwick DC, running central services, before becoming chief executive of Cotswold DC – during the Banham structure review of the early 1990s – and in 1997, of Sevenoaks DC.
Deciding that he was ‘getting stale and wanted new challenges’, he then made a career switch to head a PCT in Kent for two years, before moving to East Lindsey in 2004. He says of his NHS period: ‘I was basically a civil servant, and part of the Department of Health. Relationships with the centre are fixed. It’s much more command and control. It’s also much more big “P” political than local government.’
His own members take a close interest in their local health service but he remains sceptical about the health scrutiny powers proposed in the Bill, despite the commitment of the DCLG.
Either way, his district will continue to promote joint working across the public sector. As he says: ‘The real challenge is not about whether or not to be unitary, but about providing community leadership.’ n
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