The Dame Writes to Mr Pickles-at the request of Sir Cockle

The Dame had the honour to receive this missive from Sir Pooter Cockle. Clearly he is thoroughly enjoying hobnobbing with the 'great and the good' and feeling quite the power broker....

Sir Cockle specifically invited her Dameship to feed directly to Mr Pickles her perspective: so here goes: Dear Secretary of State * you asked the Chief Executive of RBK&C to reduce his £280,000 a year salary by 10% saying none should earn more than the Prime Minister-Mr Myers refuses * you asked RBK&C to use the £170 million in reserves to prevent cutbacks to frontline services-Sir Cockell refused * you asked RBK&C to scrap it's Pravda style Royal Borough newspaper-cost £400k pa- Sir Cockell refused * you asked that councillors stop doublejobbing. Cllrs Cockell, Ritchie and Moylan refuse to give up their £130,000 a year taxpayer funded jobs. Why does Sir Cockle not take you seriously?  Yours  The Dame Hornet

A message from the Chairman Dear Colleagues, After the first cabinet reshuffle for sometime, we now have a new Secretary of State for Transport, Justine Greening MP. An ex-shadow CLG Minister and economy guru, I will be pushing for an early meeting with her alongside Cllr Peter Box (Chair, LGA Economy and Transport Board) in order to bring her up to speed on the LGA's work with the Department for Transport, particularly around the subject of transport devolution and what local authorities can offer to help move this initiative forward as swiftly as possible. Keeping with Secretaries of State, I met with Eric Pickles this week alongside the four LGA Political Group Leaders. We held a productive meeting looking at issues such as the local government resource review, council tax localisation, and riot recovery. In respect to the latter, there are still a limited number of places available at the summit we are holding on 27 October. I hope you will be able to attend to feed in your perspective direct to Mr Pickles who will be there to consider what further local government can offer in terms of tackling the underlying social problems behind the disturbances. One issue which we will undoubtedly explore at the event is that of community budgets, something you will know we continue to champion here at the LGA on behalf of the sector. Indeed, I was pleased to speak in detail on this subject at a joint LGA/DCLG/Department for Education conference this week. Finally, I will also be speaking alongside a number of Ministers this week at the National Children and Adult Services Conference which starts this Wednesday at the London ExCel. Health Secretary Andrew Lansley MP, Social Care Minister Paul Burstow MP, Education Secretary Michael Gove MP, and new Shadow Heath Secretary Andy Burnham MP will be among those speaking. If you're unable to attend in person, you can follow the event online through the tweets and blog entries to obtain the latest on the discussions. Best wishes, Cllr Sir Merrick Cockell Chairman, Local Government Association