Tuesday, 8 April 2008

Local Strategic Partnerships are the structures charged with overseeing the strategic development of local communities.

At today’s meeting of the One Watford LSP, we discussed the emerging Housing Strategy for Watford. We also heard about the imminent launch of a new campaign to promote Watford – largely funded by local businesses and overseen by Jenny Tomley of the John Lewis Partnership. We talked about Compact, we discussed the County-wide LAA, we touched on the Community Development strategy and we discussed One Watford’s future membership and working practices.

All this undertaken openly and professionally: the simple fare of good local partnership work.

I shudder when I hear reports of “goings on” within some Local Strategic Partnerships and I thank goodness that the One Watford LSP is so sensible and so positive. But having said that, the arrival of LAA1 reward monies introduces a new element into the equation. I hope that my confidence in the LSP is not misplaced.

It took me the entire morning to work through the backlog of e-mails. After the LSP, I worked on our One World forum, on the Networking lunches, and our draft Community Development strategy.

I arrived home about 10:00 pm to find that my dinner was ready and Jackie had finished knitting my new blue waistcoat. How lucky am I? I do hope Jackie knows how lovely she is and how much I adore her.