Chief Exec reflects on his first year at Knowsley

The New Year saw Knowsley Metropolitan Borough Council take a new direction with the appointment of Steve Gallagher as their Chief Executive. Huyton Today thought it was about time they caught up with Steve to see how he was getting on, so Andrew Lord and Laura Richardson were sent to investigate.

Steve, formally an Executive Director at Blackburn Council and with over 25 years experience in local government, said that he saw the main focus of his new position as one of helping people to understand the council and how it works. “One of the most important roles of local authorities today is to provide leadership to the community and to take responsibility for ensuring that the important issues are tackled by all the people who live and work in the community. We all have a responsibility for that.”

When asked if he came to the job with a vision of what he wanted to achieve, he said, “Yes I did. When I came to Knowsley it was clear that there were some things that needed changing. Part of my vision was to improve educational attainment, to get unemployment down, to make sure that people have the skills to help them get jobs, and to improve the health in the community. I want to see a significant improvement in the quality of life for everybody in Knowsley over the next few years.”

He continued by saying, “There are a lot of good things about Knowsley. It's a great place to work with great people. I don’t want Knowsley to be seen as a deprived area. I don't get that feeling from the people I meet. It's a good borough and I want it to be seen that Knowsley is a good place to be.”

Steve also sees the continued development of technology within the borough as a major priority. “One of the strengths of Knowsley,” says Steve, “is its use of information and communication technology. We have over 160 centres linked up to a cable network with about 900 direct access PCs. We are way ahead of most places in this country and Europe. Now we have that advantage we don’t want to lose it. We’ve got something good we can build on.”

One of the most enjoyable aspects of his job is working with people, something he has to do a lot more of these days. As Chief Executive Steve spends much of his time meeting elected members on a one-to-one basis. “Under the new system a lot of members feel they don’t get as much time or information as they used to, so now I have to try to allocate more communication time with them.”

Steve hopes that as Chief Executive he can help people understand the role of the council and what the council can do for them.

See also Huyton Today’s interview with Steve Gallagher as part of the 200 Democract Week