Year of cheer for Bill

FOR most red-blooded males, allowing pop beauties Atomic Kitten to use their office as a dressing room wouldn't just be the highlight of the year, but possibly their entire lives.

But while a signed autograph from the three girls is stuck to Bill Taylor's computer, their attendance in his office last December when they switched on Blackburn's Christmas lights doesn't even figure on his list on achievements.

"Officers had found me another meeting to go to so I wasn't actually in here at the time, worse luck," he said.

It is 8.30am on a rainy morning. By most people's standards, an early meeting. For Bill, however, it is a late start. Normally at his desk by 7am, Bill boasts working 15-hour days as he juggles leading a council and his regular job as a youth worker for Lancashire County Council.

Twelve months ago, Bill completed his rise through the Labour Party to become leader of the council. Having served on the council for 21 years, Bill was the borough's youngest mayor in 1989/90 and led the education department after the authority become a unitary in 1998, helping make it one of the most successful education services in the country.

That success has continued throughout this year, and was crowned with the council becoming joint winner of the Local Government Association's Council of the Year award at a ceremony in London earlier this year.

Bill said: "It has been a good year but also a challenging one. We have had to face up to a lot of things, like modernising the council.

"The fact we have come through that and won Council of the Year shows we are doing something right. We are now watched by so many other authorities.

"People seem surprised that we, a northern, Labour-run council, can do so well but it is simply because we don't rule anything out. Officers can come to us with the zaniest ideas they want and we will consider them."

Of course, the public-private partnership with Capita has impressed people around the country. In theory, it offers the council the chance to cut its admin costs and improve services by passing many departments over to Capita. In return for the contract, Capita has pledged to invest in the borough, and offer 500 new jobs in five years. They have nearly reached that target in just one year, with two big call centre contracts to be based inside India Mill in Darwen.

Bill said: "People are paying a lot of attention to us now. I am thinking about getting special tourist status for the town hall because we have so many people visiting us now to see how we have things done."

But with success - other achievements include national praise for the regeneration and lifelong learning departments plus a handful of Government grants - comes pitfalls.

Bill, 50, has seen a succession of senior officers move on from his authority to larger authorities or into better jobs. The new chief executive of Blackpool is a senior officer from Blackburn with Darwen. The new head of Bradford's privately-run education department was the head of Blackburn with Darwen's until last year.

"We have to accept that is going to happen here and we have to deal with it. I like the idea of bringing on bright, young staff, getting the best out of them for three or four years before they move on. Like a good football team, we are able to mix youth with experience."

The year, however, hasn't passed without criticism. A recent national survey highlighted a number of key areas where the council was below average and it was even attacked form within when the borough ground to a standstill in December when gritting lorries failed to keep the roads free of snow.

"I was stuck in the traffic coming home from Rovers and I know how frustrating it was. But we were hit with very cold weather and there was little we could do about it. We have to do the best we can with the money we have.

"It is what I call the Paul Simon scenario. If a radio station was to ask me what I wanted them to play, I'd want Paul Simon songs all the time. People also want a massive fleet of gritting vehicles, but they'd only be used once every seven years. We can't just have them on standby because we have other services to provide which people want just as much."

The council was also bombarded with complaints about how long it was taking benefit claims to be processed.

Bill, though, is proud of the way the council has dealt with problems.

And he says: "I still think it is a massive privilege to be the leader of this council in this borough.

"Seeing the differences we can make makes it worth while."

Over the next year, Bill hopes to see the opposition parties get more involved. "Some of the opposition councillors carp about things we do but don't get involved in the background stuff when we are planning and that isn't the way to go about things," said Bill.