14 February 2025

Monday morning began with a meeting between myself, Lisa Evans, Deputy Leader of the Council, Mike Greene, Chief Executive, and Majella McCarthy, Director of Children's Services. It was our quarterly catch up where Majella brings us up to speed with everything we need to know, and we can give steer to the direction of travel for the directorate. Immediately after Lisa and I had our regular weekly catch up with Mike. 

In the afternoon I was invited to a fantastic event hosted by the Mayor of Stockton-on-Tees celebrating the sporting success of two locals who won medals at the Paris 2024 Olympics and Paralympics. Richard Kilty was part of the Olympic bronze-medal winning 4x100m relay team, and Faye Rogers in her first Paralympic games achieved a gold medal in the S10 100m butterfly. Both athletes spoke about their upbringing in the Borough and their journey to achieve their Olympic and Paralympic dreams. 

Following that there was a Special Cabinet meeting to look at the budget and our Medium Term Financial Plan (MTFP). A tremendous amount of work goes into creating this plan, and we're in a much better position than councils up and down the country, thanks to our well-considered and carefully managed transformation programme. The plan will now be taken to full Council next week for final approval. 

On Tuesday morning I met with the Chief Executive of NEPO to look at the next agenda for the NEPO Collaborative Procurement Committee. Collaborative procurement is a great way for us to work with other local authorities in the region to build some collective buying power and collectively save money in our procurement of services. 

Following that I met with officers from our Scrutiny Team to discuss potential upcoming scrutiny reviews for 2025/26. 

In the afternoon there was an all-members briefing on the budget headed by Garry Cummings, Director of Finance and Transformation. 

Mid-week I had a pre-agenda meeting of the Health and Wellbeing Board later this month, for which I am Chair. 

Yesterday morning I attended a Tees Valley Leader's meeting to get an update on the Tees Valley Energy Recovery Facility. The project will serve more than 1.5million people in the region with sustainable, safe and affordable energy. 

In the afternoon it was the February Cabinet meeting. We looked at school performance for vulnerable pupils in the Borough, and the new Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy for 2025-2030. 

Today I'm taking advantage of a quieter day to catch up on emails and paperwork after a busy week before attending the Mayor's Charity Ball at Wynyard Hall tonight. I thoroughly enjoy the Mayor's Ball and it's always a pleasure and a privilege to see so many people coming together to raise much needed funds for the Mayor's charities: Leo's Neonatal and Parkinson's UK. 

This weekend I'll be relaxing and spending some time with my family. Middlesbrough suffered their third consecutive loss on Wednesday against second place Sheffield United, and didn't really at any point look to be the better side. We play Watford at the Riverside tomorrow. We really need to make our game-in-hand count and walk away with the three points if we want to keep the play-off positions a reality.