In 2013 Terry Cutmore, Leader of the RDC, was also elected to be one of Rochford’s 4 representatives on Essex County Council. We asked Terry to talk about these early days of life on the County Council and you will find that Interview on the County Council pages of Rochford Life.

After he spoke about the County Council we moved  on with an overview of what has been happening in the past year in the life of the District Council. We hope you will find this informative and helpful in bringing understanding to the working of the Council. This is the continuation page of that second part of the Interview

2013: Talking with Terry Cutmore, Leader of Rochford District Council - Continuation

(November 2013)

RL: But health and caring are still big issues for you?

Terry: On the County side, and certainly on the Health side, it’s not just about costs but it’s about where people are with long-term problems. Often they want to be at home as much as they can. Indeed it is cheaper to keep them at home and very often they will have their own relatives nearby and they are comfortable where they are – yes, there may have to come a time when they leave that – but that frees up services for others who really need them. These are the things that will be happening more. I think there will be more focus on people helping themselves.  

It is about information coming to people, and of course the District Council is part of that conduit for information, and it has been a real learning curve. It is about tying all that together and about monitoring and encouraging, and innovating. It’s not a scrutiny thing. I am concerned about the problems they’ve had at Basildon and certainly the problems they’ve had at Colchester (falsifying papers), but it’s a culture thing as well. What you don’t want is talking shops. In this area I think mental health has come forward a lot so it’s no longer such a taboo subject, and I’m pleased about that.

RL: As we said at the end of the main County part of this interview, it’s been a busy year for you!

Terry: It’s been an interesting year for me with an awful lot of learning and I’m still doing it now. Some of the partnership stuff that we are doing now, and some of the new learning that I’ve taken on board, on both the Health side and with County, has helped me in some of the other things that I do and enabled me to look at things from an overview perspective, and to see why thing are done in a certain way or why tradition is. One of the things I’ve never liked to hear is, “We’ve always done it that way,” for you have to look at it and ask why have we always done it that way, is there a better way, is there a smarter way, but if it is OK leave it alone if it is working.

Another interesting thing, as we conclude this, is that we had some information on our complaints versus our compliments with RDC and our compliments still outweigh our complaints in Rochford. There always will be some problems, there always will be something that you could be better at doing but mostly we do very well I think. People’s aspirations are higher today than in the past making greater demands but I like to think we’re always trying to do our best fro the people of Rochford District.    

In the course of the Interview  reference was made to outgoing Chief Executive, Paul Warren and incoming new Chief Eexecutive, Amar Dave.  Below are basic biographies of these two men.

You can also find an interview with Paul here on Rochford Life already and we are hoping to add new interviews with both men in the near future.

Paul Warren, Chief Executive, Rochford District Council

Chief Executive of Rochford District Council at the Council for more than 15 years. Originally from Plymouth, Devon, Paul qualified as a Town Planner at Manchester University and has worked in the Midlands, London and Hertfordshire before arriving at Rochford in late 1993. He currently chairs the countywide Safer Essex Forum and serves on a number of other bodies both locally and across Essex. Paul's hobbies include sport, travel, walking, gardening, fly-fishing, reading and music. He is married with two children; both girls – aged 24 and 15.

Amar Dave, future Chief Executive, Rochford District Council

Mr Dave has been Acting Corporate Director of Environment, Culture and Transport at Reading Borough Council since 2010 – heading up a team of 568 staff and with a revenue budget of £49 million. He has extensive experience of managing the delivery of frontline council services including highways, transport, planning, environmental, housing, arts and heritage. Prior to joining Reading Borough Council, Mr Dave has enjoyed success in a number of other high profile roles with organisations including Stroud District Council and Amey Facilities Management. He knows the Rochford District and the County well as his wife grew up in Essex and she still has family living here.

Return to Part 1 of Interview

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