12/12/03 - County Council Chief Executive to Retire

Cumbria County Council Executive, Louis Victory is to retire at the end of next February.  He says:

“I came here just over 3 years ago, to immediately face some of the biggest challenges in county local government in England.  The Council was well behind the times in many respects.  I set out on a change programme, but was soon diverted into dealing with the foot-and-mouth disease crisis in the County.

That year was a terrible time for Cumbrians and, like so many others, I worked day and night to try to manage and improve the situation.  Looking back, chairing the Steering Group for the FMD Taskforce was probably my most useful contribution because it looked forward to the recovery tactics which have brought Cumbria huge benefits in subsequent years.  These benefits have been achieved since the new Conservative/LibDem Administration came into power in July 2001: we initiated the Cumbria Rural Action Zone; the Rural Regeneration Cumbria company; upwards to Ł300 million new investment flowing into the County; the Cumbria Strategic Partnership…all nationally renowned initiatives for rural areas.

The new Administration ensured that the pace of modernisation for the County Council accelerated rapidly when it came into power, and the last two years have been no less busy for me.  I have managed the Administration’s leading-edge ‘Invest to Save and Improve’ initiative to streamline and improve many of our services; introduced a wide ranging Performance Enhancement programme with Consultants Pricewaterhouse Coopers; and constructed a whole raft of workforce modernisation projects.

Following several budget management problems, we also brought in new budget and business management techniques across the Council, based on the Administration’s determination to achieve an efficient and effective organisation which puts the public interest first.

This has been a change and improvement programme driven by politicians and myself which is second-to-none in the UK, but when you’re  turning round a supertanker it takes a long time to ‘go about’.  Modernisation of the County Council is now well under way with major successes already recognised, but yet further major challenges are now emerging.  Despite that I remain confident in the longer-term prospects of the Council, and the Council’s ability to rise to the challenge.”

“The biggest of these new challenges is Children’s Services.  Despite heavy financial investment in the services by the Administration, and a recent investigative report, we were shocked recently by the seriousness of the facts which emerged during the Social Services Inspectorate inspection.  This will now mean that a huge new task must be undertaken to ensure children are safer and better protected by the services the Council provides.

The new improvement programme in Social Services is already underway, but a task like this, and many other major projects, like improvement of performance management in Directorates, would require another several years of extreme personal effort from me, and a continuation of the 70-80 hours working weeks I have been doing since I came to Cumbria.  Whilst this ‘goes with the territory’, it is beginning to damage my health and my family life.  So I have reluctantly come to the conclusion, that it is not sensible for me at 56 to go on working in a way most people in their 40’s couldn’t contemplate.

I have therefore reached an agreement with colleagues to retire from the Council at the end of February 2004.

I will do everything I can to ease the transition to new arrangements before I leave.  I am proud of what I have achieved with our County Councillors for the people of Cumbria, and want to go out feeling that our excellent work together can be properly carried out.

Finally, my sincere thanks to all my colleagues for their outstanding loyalty and hard work: they serve Cumbria well, and I shall miss them.”

Rex Toft, Leader of the Council, says:

“I would like to thank Louis for all he has done for Cumbria.  He had demonstrated great commitment and worked long hours.  His many skills and achievements are widely recognised.

As he says himself, the size of the remaining task to modernise the County Council is daunting.  I and my fellow politicians must see this through but, after the intolerable strains of the last three arduous years, it is perhaps not surprising that Louis feels that  it is time to reduce his workload to a more sustainable level.  It is also understandable that he should want to spend more time with his family.  He is looking forward to taking on a new career with a more flexible pattern of work.  We wish him every happiness and success.  I believe that he will continue to make a big contribution to public life.”