The decision to dish out new job titles to leading members of Scottish Borders Council is unnecessary and confusing, it has been claimed, with calls for a return to much simpler 'names' for those in charge of services.
Council leader Shona Haslam came forward with the shake up of Cabinet titles which was approved at a full council meeting yesterday.
As a result the updated roles and responsibilities are as follows:
Executive Member for Wellbeing, Sport and Culture: Euan
Jardine; Executive Member for Enhancing the Built Environment and Natural
Heritage: Simon Mountford; Executive Member for Community Development and
Localities: Robin Tatler; Executive Member for Public Protection: George
Turnbull; Executive Member for Adult Wellbeing: Tom Weatherston; Executive Member
for Children and Young People: Carol Hamilton; Executive Member for Economic
Regeneration and Finance: Mark Rowley; Executive Member for Transformation and
Service Improvement: Scott Hamilton; Executive Member for Infrastructure, Travel
and Transport: Gordon Edgar; Executive Member for Sustainable Development: Sandy
Aitchison.
And here are the former titles the very same councillors held before Mrs Haslam decided it was time for change:
Wellbeing, Sport and Culture (replaces Culture & Sport);
Enhancing the Built Environment and Natural Heritage (replaces Planning & Environment); Community Development and Localities
(replaces Neighbourhoods & Locality Services); Public Protection (replaces
Community Safety); Adult Wellbeing (replaces Adult Social Care); Children and
Young People (unchanged); Economic Regeneration and Finance (replaces Finance
and Business & Economic Development); Transformation and Service
Improvement (replaces Transformation & HR); Infrastructure,Travel and
Transport (replaces Roads & Infrastructure); Sustainable Development (New).
According to the council leader: "I am fully focused on making sure that the Borders is the best possible
place to live, work, learn and do business. These changes to the Executive are
about our vision for the Borders and focus on what we are trying to achieve more
than simply what we all do.
"We want a better built environment with the highest
possible standards, we want to encourage health and well being, build on our
culture and deliver better infrastructure and transport. I am particularly pleased to be able to
create the post of Executive Member for Sustainable Development. This will put
the UN Sustainable Development goals at the very heart of all that we do as a
Council. This is an Executive that will drive forward the vision towards the
Council elections in 2022 and beyond.”
But readers of these columns who drew the changes to our attention were far from convinced services will improve simply by exchanging one job title for another.
One contributor told us: "It is difficult to understand why this is being done at a time when SBC has much bigger issues on its hands. How is any council taxpayer going to understand what these new handles mean? The old ones were bad enough. The sheer length means they'll never fit the full titles on their business cards!"
And one Borders resident even resorted to rhyme to mark the occasion, using the pseudonym 'Dean of Guild':
The pandemic may be raging, folks are dying in their
bed,
And Scottish Borders Council is about to lose its
head.
Aye, the much loved chief executive on a hundred something
grand
Will take her leave of everyone, things could get out of
hand.
Our SBC is struggling, its services are cut,
Unlike the grass, no bedding plants, the voters do their
nut.
They stagger on from day to day, no vision and no
locus,
At least the leader’s on the ball, her brain in sharpest
focus.
While all around her melts away she’s come up with a
wheeze,
To change her Cabinet’s titles, obscurer if you
please.
There was a time in days gone by when council posts were
clear,
Chair of planning, head of roads, nothing fancy
here.
But that’s not good enough right now, they’re after something
grander,
Executive member is the name to which we all must
pander.
The list of titles they now have would make a good man
wince,
To lapse into vernacular “it’s all a load of mince”.
A change of title will not help to make the Cabinet
better,
A few might benefit us with a resignation letter.
Apparently this new named bunch will head to the
election,
In amongst them the executive member for public
protection.
I realise that doesn’t scan, you cannot make it fit,
The titles are so big and long, for poets they are
sh*t.
And what is this, cannot believe the title I am
seeing,
It’s only the executive member for Adult Wellbeing.
So in the corridors of power job titles are the rage
But can they push coronavirus from the ‘Berwickshire’s’ front
page?
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