Part 3 of 3: Gillian Beasley marks ten years as Peterborough City Council chief executive this month.
To recognise her achievement the Peterborough Telegraph conducted a question and answer session at the town hall, and asked readers for their posers.
They didn’t disappoint us and the conversation touched on everything from the future of the city to chocolate factories, and from the football club to the fountains.
Here are the third set of answers (read the second part from this week’s Telegraph):
Do you think enough people know what a Chief Executive is?
I don’t think anybody knows what anybody’s job is, actually.
I will give you an example. I went out with the refuse collection and did a whole morning with them.
I had no idea what a tough job it is, and how frightening it is – you have to get the refuse bin onto the lorry perfectly or it tips it all over the floor and everyone gets annoyed. I also did a session with reception staff at Bayard and it was terrifying!
You cannot know what a job involves. You could spend a month with me and not see the breadth and range of the job.
On the spot then, sum up your role in 25 words.
I’m running a large complex organisation that provides public services to everybody in the city with a large budget and capital spend.
What’s the toughest part of your job?
There isn’t one part. I would say it’s the range and diversity and the flexibility you have to show in the space of a minute sometimes.
They are long working hours and I’m not complaining about that because you expect it when you work at my level, but it’s all about keeping the energy and enthusiasm, and the competence in all of the dealings you have.
I could be dealing with someone’s complaint that some people think is very minor but to that person it is important, or I might be dealing with an international investor who wants to put money into the city. They want to see the whites of the CE’s eyes to see whether they can do business with you.
It can be that range in 10 minutes.
People deserve me to be at my best and it’s that stamina which makes it tough.
Have you had other opportunities for other roles elsewhere?
When I was an advocate it was mainly working with children’s law, and there was a time when I did some pro bono work with the National Council for Disabled Children, helping families understand what their rights were. I loved doing that.
I also worked for the National Children’s Bureau pro bono, so I did a lot of free work for voluntary organisations promoting children’s rights and parent’s rights, and at that stage I thought that was something I’d like to do. I had a really good employer and could combine being employed and pro bono work.
I’ve had lots of offers. At one point a big planning consultancy offered me a job at another authority. I had done a planning inquiry and they liked the way I did it so offered me a job.
But my heart has always been in local government because of the variety of work and commitment to a massive range of services and outcomes for people has actually always attracted me. But I have always been able to do voluntary work as well.
J J Carter: Why does PCC refuse to return to weekly black bin collection, the one service which all council tax payers want?
There’s a choice. You can be weekly or bi-weekly.
If we go to weekly it will cost more money, but also weekly black bin collections encourage people not to recycle, and if we put things into landfill it costs us more money.
So it’s partly financial but also environmental, and we are keen to improve recycling rates, use our facilities to separate materials out and put them into the system.
If people understood the bill and the effect on the environment we might win the argument.
Tim78: Why, when this city is one massive clash of cultures, is the city centre such a bland area? There’s nothing to attract anyone to Peterborough apart from the Cathedral, there’s no cultural identity and PCC appears to do nothing to help build one. Where are the opportunities for budding artists? Why don’t we have something apart from the Cathedral to make the city worth a visit? Why don’t we make use of the massive blank wall that greets people the city centre on the side of TK Maxx, by hiring a local artist to place a distinctive work of art on that wall?
Jane Gribi: I moved to Peterborough many years ago and brought up my children here. I find Peterborough City doesn’t do a lot of things for children or teenagers like other cities do that I have visited. Milton Keynes have an Xscape including bowling,cinema, snow slope,shops and coffee shops all under one roof. I have to take the kids out of Peterborough in search of fun during holidays and weekends off school because there is a lack of fun things for them to do here.Would their be any plans for the children and teenagers of Peterborough to get something like a big Xscape in the heart of their city? It would attract other people from other cities to visit as well and don’t think it would be a waste of money. Would be an investment for the city!
The wall is something we are looking at, but we don’t own the building, so the issue will be how we make that happen.
From January next year we are going out for public consultation about the city centre.
South Bank has kicked off, there is the carbon challenge site, we’ve got two planning permissions at Station Quarter, and the issue is that there is a distinct lack of leisure in the city centre. That has been a problem for some years.
The North Westgate Scheme would have addressed that but when the recession hit and retail plummeted that scheme became unviable.
So we are looking at what kind of leisure people want to see.
We lack that attraction but the challenge will be; can someone make it pay. No operator of any leisure will put money in if they make nothing out of it. We have got to get behind them.
We will produce a planning document, probably starting with ideas, and then it will go out, and it will be time for people to really engage.
Do you think people respond to these sort of things?
It’s about how you do it. You have to take it out there to people.
I did work with a junior school recently and it was an amazing event with 300 kids, and it would have made no sense to use a Powerpoint presentation – it was about the language I used, much more discussion and excitement.
They said they wanted swimming pool with flumes and other things, and we did a vote as to what they would like the most – and they wanted a chocolate factory. I was honest and said I probably wouldn’t be able to get them one!
But it was lovely because that was their engagement with it, and as an adult it was brilliant to see their enthusiasm.
So I don’t think it will be a paper consultation, it will be going out to neighbourhood councils and community associations, and other groups.
Your role is non-political: How often does your job biting your lip around councillors?
I think my job involves biting my lip quite a bit, but not just with councillors, probably less with them than other people to be honest.
I had a very wise person say to me many years ago: ‘least said, soonest mended’. People are entitled to their opinions and it’s not always best to respond.
Biting your lip is a diplomatic way of listening, acknowledging, but not expressing your view.
What is your proudest moment as chief executive?
After the EDL march, going to the cathedral to do the festival of peace and seeing how the communities gathered after a difficult day and showed their unity in the face of extreme views.
The council, faith communities and ordinary people wanted to say that their city was important to them.
Proud moments are about people and what they do. Another one recently was Louis Smith, who had got some criticism.
But I saw a young man wholly dedicated to his sport, who could have gone off the rails, but showed huge humility in talking to youngsters, spending time and signing autographs.
Ros and Vince Parker: Enterprise Peterborough have shown that they are unable to fulfil their contract obligations.
Why has their contract not been terminated and the services put out for re-tender ?
Why is a ‘dodgy’ investment group like 3i still making profit from their incompetence ?
Why is your administration ‘letting the tail wag the dog’ ; have you and they lost control of the situation ?
The difficulty with answering is that if they are contractual matters they are legal matters, so if we were - and I’m not saying we are - in dispute with anyone – it wouldn’t be something I can talk about publicly.
What I can say is that we will always work with partners to improve services, so if there are issues we will work with Enterprise to resolve those.
Enterprise have answered the question before; Many people think they are not going out as much, but due to the fact that we have had so much rain this year the roadsides are growing tenfold.
I went out with Enterprise on a walkabout and those people who we saw on the way said they hadn’t realised; once they understood it they could see what the problem is.
Adi Mowles, Chairman of POSH Independent Supporters Association (and numerous others including Gary Moore, S Gunns, M Griggs): Could you please tell me and all POSH fans why you took the decision that the council should turn down the chance to purchase London Road when Mr Fry offered it to you for a very small amount (£300k) when Mr Fry offered the council (not you) the opportunity.
In doing so can you also explain why you chose not to bother the then cabinet with the proposition.
Do you accept that POSH would be in better position now had you done things differently/properly?
I don’t make those decisions and no chief exec would.
The council is a politically led organisation and all the big decisions - whether the purchasing of the football club, investing, or other things – is those of a political organisation.
That wasn’t my decision and I don’t know how many times we’ve put it on public record. Perhaps we need to do it again.
The decision was made by the leading politicians of the time, and again subsequent decisions were made by leading politicians. That’s how these things work.
A lot of fans are frustrated that the work hasn’t started yet. What’s going on?
It’s what we said before. We are working with the club on a number of things including the Moy’s End, and the chairman has said that he would like to acquire the ground over time, and we are currently in discussions over that.
That involves a lot of working out of the details, and we are working constructively.
We’ve gone past the timeframe when it should have started though...
We wanted to make sure we had a complete package; delivery of the stand, how the stadium is going to move forward, and we thought it was right to resolve them all rather than do it in a piecemeal way, so we have a comprehensive view about how we are going to take the club forward, and the ground forward.
Do you know what the timeframe is?
We have said in a statement that we want it to be as soon as possible but there are important issues to resolve about how it all works. To get that right and not rush it, is absolutely the best thing to do.
By Christmas?
We will know what the outcome is before Christmas in terms of where we want to go with it. I’d like us to see something in the couple of months.
So what would you say to the frustrated Posh fans?
We are trying to do something really important for a club we have huge support for. A bit of patience will be productive.
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