Leader's blog

Friday 10 January

Happy New Year to you all. I hope you enjoyed a happy and healthy festive period.

On Monday morning, I joined a pre-meeting for the Tees Valley Area Integrated Care Partnership (ICP) to discuss the papers and agenda for the area meeting next month. The ICP brings together a broad alliance of partners working to improve the care, health and wellbeing of our residents.

In the afternoon, I attended the pre-meeting for Cabinet to be held next week. We discussed the agenda which includes an update on some exciting work including the Regeneration and Housing Mission for Powering Our Future, the Levelling Up Fund improvements at Preston Park, and the Memorial Lighting Calendar for 2025.

On Tuesday morning, I joined Mike Greene, Chief Executive, and other senior colleagues for a Cabinet briefing.

I then attended the Big Committee meeting for Bright Minds, Big Futures (BMBF) alongside Councillor Lisa Evans, Deputy Leader of the Council and Cabinet Member for Children and Young People, and Majella McCarthy, Director of Children's Services. BMBF is our national award-winning youth-led group, who work together with the Council to make the Borough a great place to grow up.

Yesterday and today have been quieter days, affording me some time to catch up on important paperwork and plan for a busy week ahead.

This weekend I'll be spending some time relaxing and seeing family. Middlesbrough are sitting at 5th in the Championship, but it's a very tight league. Every result matters now. This weekend they're in action in the FA Cup, playing Blackburn Rovers. They beat us 1-0 late last year so I'm hoping we can come out on top this time and progress to the fourth round.