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Passionate about Castle Point

Leader of the Council Colin Riley and Chief Executive David Marchant Castle Point Council invited the Local Government Association (LGA) to carry out a peer challenge to provide a health check to complement the council’s performance and improvement.

The Peer Challenge Team comprising six senior Local Government experts – LGA Peers led by a LGA Improvement Manager spent 4 days in February analysing the Council – inspecting documents; interviewing senior councillors and officers to establish the health of the council.

In total the Peers met over a hundred people, attended over 40 meetings spending over 250 hours interviewing people associated with the Council in order to formulate their conclusions and make recommendations on how the Council can continue to move forward.

The Peer Team said:

‘Everyone the Peer Team spoke to – resident, partners ,elected members and staff – are passionate about Castle Point as  a place ,a council and the services that the council delivers ,commissions and facilitates. ‘

People…… appreciate the caring attitude of the Council at a time of limited resources.’

‘Partners really welcome and value CPBC’s contribution to joint working.’

‘….throughout Castle Point and within south and wider Essex the Council’s strong leadership…….has been described as “ground breaking, dynamic and brave”.’

The report encourages Castle Point Council to continue on its positive journey to deliver its ambitions within South Essex.

Leader of the Council Councillor Colin Riley said

‘I was delighted to take part in the Peer Challenge and was most impressed with the Peers who were able to grasp the issues confronting the Council and for their support in their recommendations. I would like to congratulate the Chief Executive and his hard working staff on such a positive report’

David Marchant Chief Executive said

‘As an experienced Local Government Peer myself I appreciate that the report is a factual record of what the Peer team saw and heard. I am delighted with this positive report which supports the South Essex vison for 2050 as clearly the right thing to do for Castle Point as a Council as a part of the wider South Essex area.’

‘I would encourage everyone to read the report’

CPBC - Peer Challenge Report 2018.pdf [pdf] 128KB

Media Contact: For more information contact Ann Horgan 01268882413 or ahorgan@castlepoint.gov.uk

Pictured is the Leader of the Council Colin Riley and Chief Executive David Marchant.