Climber’s talk to inspire council

Motivational speaker and mountaineer Joe Simpson has been in Oldham to inspire senior council managers.

The climber, best known for the book and film “Touching the Void”, took part in the latest conference for 200 senior council managers at the Queen Elizabeth Hall last week.

Event management company, City Speakers International, which also manages Sir Steve Redgrave and Dame Kelly Holmes, said Simpson charges between £8,000 and £10,000 for corporate speaking events.

The programme of management conferences has been initiated by chief executive Charlie Parker, who said £1 million has been put aside over two years for investment and training for council managers.

He is overseeing Oldham Council’s 488 redundancies this year, which include first and second-tier manager posts, which have been cut from 34 to 21.

He said: “The big problem is that the council is overstaffed, and we have got to deal with those costs.

“Staff have been saying for a long time that they want investment in them and support through this period of change. Staff are saying ‘Value us.’

“Part of what we have been doing is arranging support for managers and getting people to understand where we want to go.

“This is part of beginning to look forward and getting the organisation ready to go forward.

“There is a sense of real change in the perceptions of people in the way in which we have been doing this.

“This is a very sad period for Oldham but at the end of the day it will be stronger, and there are many thousands of staff here and they need support and investment in them.

“If we don’t invest in our staff, we are very very short-sighted.”