5 minute read
David Sidaway, chief executive Telford and Wrekin Council
TELFORD’S FUTURE IN SAFE HANDS
If there’s one thing that can’t be denied it’s that David Sidaway is a determined man. To do a degree part-time, while working, and taking a pay cut to achieve your ambitions takes a special type of resolve.
But that’s exactly what happened when David, now chief executive of Telford and Wrekin Council started his journey with the University of Wolverhampton, first by studying a HNC and then progressing onto the BSc Quantity Surveying.
Even though David has worked for councils across three decades, he acknowledges he has an interest, and some would say flair, for the commercial world. And it is his talent for recognising and influencing that which has helped shape some of his key career successes.
Telford and Wrekin Council is relatively new, in council terms, having been formed in 1998. Telford’s Southwater complex at night (above)
With the confidence of success and his work with the commercial world ringing in his ears, in his mid-30s David knocked on the door of the then chief executive and said: “Please let me lead and deliver Southwater”. Telford needed to move the next level with a big part of that development being the need to deliver a heart to the centre of the town, connecting the significant retail, business and conference sector, the amazing town park and leisure facilities.
What was needed was someone with a vision, and the drive and determination to see it through.
Step in David Sidaway, who secured the £250 million Southwater project to oversee: creating a new beating heart for Telford town centre whilst incorporating and enhancing existing features like the town park. It wasn’t just hearts and minds that had to be won over – earth and water did too, as the new plans required the lake on site to be moved.
The Southwater project has been an undeniable success – bringing in valuable new business and investment, but not at the cost to local people. And David is clearly a man driven, not only by ambition, success and a commercial mind, but by the absolute desire to serve the residents of the borough and to help people.
David has an easy-going and approachable manner – but this isn’t something that should be taken for granted. He is clear to state the benefits of building positive working relationships to help ease transition and change.
Home-builder
As ‘director of place’ at Telford and Wrekin, following the success of Southwater, he is particularly proud of the work to provide new housing for those most in need. He oversaw the creation of a wholly-owned housing company – run as a private company, but owned by the council. 500 new homes were built on brownfield sites, regenerating not only the land, but people’s lives. In 2015 David moved to a new role as chief executive of Stoke-on-Trent city council where he replicated the success of the housing project in Telford and Wrekin, this time creating 450 new homes in Stoke-on-Trent, once again transforming lives, providing jobs, and safeguarding services.
Another project David is particularly proud of involves one the single biggest employers in Telford and the surrounding communities: the Ministry of Defence. The MOD has had a site in Donnington since 1936.
But in 2012 it was under threat of partial closure, taking vital jobs with it. Winning was a long battle, with the borough involved in a tough fight against Bicester in Oxfordshire which appeared to be named as the MoD’s preferred site. A drastic plan included buying up land that could accommodate the proposed expansion – and that’s where David’s skills and commercial expertise came in to play once more to secure land from the private sector to provide certainty and clarity for investors.
“An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory”
The University’s regional learning centre, University Centre Telford: wlv.ac.uk/uctelford
The £130 million centre opened in April 2017, providing everything from food and medical supplies to clothing for servicemen and women officers both based in the UK and abroad on the front line. In total it is estimated to be worth between £7 billion and £8 billion over 13 years – but that figure could rise to £13 billion if the MoD expands the range of products handled. For Telford it safeguarded several hundred jobs and up to £60m to the borough’s economy.
Storms and pandemic
Most recently, 2020 brought two major challenges to David’s leadership. Back at Telford and Wrekin Council following his spell in Stoke-on-Trent, David returned to the organisation in January 2020 only to be faced with the worst flooding the region has seen in decades in the February.
The Ironbridge Gorge was battered by high winds and severe flooding from Storms Ciara and Dennis, which caused extensive damage to homes, businesses and livelihoods along the river and World Heritage Site, with the River Severn peaking at 6.8m in Ironbridge. Then, with tentative plans in place to welcome the return of visitors to the area, the Covid-19 pandemic hit. David was faced with the task of closing the council within a matter of hours, as well as redeploying hundreds of staff across other areas of the council. Determined not to be left catching-up on any national efforts, David and the team immediately oversaw plans to safeguard and support some of the area’s most vulnerable people.
Within days a free school meals scheme was set up, weeks before the national system caught up. Meals were not only prepared by staff and volunteers, but packed and delivered to families’ doorsteps. The council and volunteers also sprang into action to support elderly and lonely people, coordinating users and volunteers in making phone calls providing companionship and support at a very difficult time.
So what’s next? He’s intent on helping to do everything he can to continue an aspiring and ambitious vision for Telford and Wrekin and ensure its continued development. He views the council as a family with people at the heart of everything we do, saying, “We deliver services to people, through people and being a people-centric organisation is everything – a family.”
But being David Sidaway, he’s clear that any progress will be not only for the benefit of communities and people, but with their support, co-design and buy-in. After all, if there’s one thing he’s demonstrated in his career, it’s that it’s easier to build upon friendships than to be at loggerheads when you want progress.
