The single biggest lesson for me is about openness. Make things open, it makes things better, it really does. It makes things accountable, challenged and genuinely innovative, people learn lessons. Which is why I post this here, now, and maybe more in future...

In the next few months we’ll prove some of this by beginning rollout of our new website on localgov drupal with some of the highest accessibility and design standards out there. From a quiet embarrassment to nationally leading.

My Head of IT had been there 20 years, reported to the then CEX and spoke to him meaningfully "twice in three years". I had three infrastructure officers in total. The civic centre is a 1970s concrete relic of failing heating, filing cabinets and 20 year old furniture. Pillars of sand.

These companies needed loans, the council lacked skills to manage them, and the Public Works Loan Board kept lending. £700m residential towers are now worth £210m

In short. Eye watering. Since the 1990s WBC built up a sprawling collection of companies to buy land, develop and in some cases lend money at scale, leading to £2b debt and one of the most complex organisational structures in the public sector, relative to size.

🧵 Today Woking Council have formally accepted a government commissioned report into England’s most indebted council. A few thoughts on what it’s been like on the inside… 🧵

Now X is fertig🦋🙏could someone build a non crap version of LinkedIn please? My inbox is now 💯 spam, my timelines videos of unemployed influencers. Ta.

Ran a councillor session this eve on the www.woking.gov.uk website we’re rebuilding (last update: 2008. Not joking). Aside from the apps and portal requests we were asked to build a councillor only chat room. Almost certain this is what was meant… 😊