#13 My new job: the Daily Mail, The Wanted and farewell South Staffordshire

Farewell South Staffordshire Council

The council's offices in Codsall
- my home since 2007.

After more than five and a half years, tomorrow I will bid farewell to my friends and colleagues at South Staffordshire Council.

I'm expecting it to be an emotional rollercoaster of a ride - I've made an awful lot of good friends in Codsall over the years and I have to say, I've thoroughly enjoyed my time there as its Communications Officer.

But after nearly six years, the time feels right for a change of scenery, a fresh challenge and the opportunity to get my teeth into something new.

I was a fresh faced 23 year old when I turned up for my first day on 23rd July 2007. Since then I've met government ministers; worked with journos from the Express & Star to The Sun; and have regularly been threatened with legal action by developers who have taken exception to my quotes in the press. I've travelled the world, spreading the South Staffordshire mantra; taking photographs of wheelie bins from Auckland to San Francisco; and I've even met a man from Kinver, in New Zealand, who was so delighted to know he'd be returning home after his travels to find a new blue recycling bin, he text his wife who was on the beach to tell her.

Personally, I'm not sure Malcolm Tucker and I
 share the same managerial style.

My most memorable moments

I've been called the 'king of spin', Alastair Campbell, Andy Coulson and, up until recently, even Max Clifford. I'm glad that nickname ceased. My personal favourite is Malcolm Tucker although I'm not sure my style is exactly the same as his.

There have been some memorable moments over the years - both good and bad.

I've been pilloried in the Daily Mail for my campaign to introduce plain English at the council. The message boards that day were somewhat critical of my plan - especially given that my quote had the phrase 'our levels of avoidable contact have fallen year on year'. In hindsight, perhaps I should have said 'we've had less people complain about the fact they don't know what the hell we're going on about!'. In fairness though, that final line was supposed to be 'off the record' - thanks to my good friend and former Express & Star journalist Alex Campbell for that one!  


'Jamie and his Olympic Torch'.
The stress of the Olympic Torch led me to gain a few pounds!
Standing next to The Wanted does
 nothing for your self confidence either.

For the record, here's the article. Thanks again to my mate Dav Tomlinson who printed the article and framed it for me. It takes pride of place. But it was I who had the last laugh... the inaccuracies still make me chuckle. They named the wrong council, put a picture of the wrong council offices and referred to me as having a 'communications department'. As a one man band for more than five years I'd have loved to have a whole department!

Over the past five and a half years I've:

• met pop stars
• held the Olympic torch
• been given free reign to ridicule the management team at our annual awards (although I suspect this will be returned ten-fold tomorrow!)
• had the pleasure of working with Jaguar Land Rover on the i54 'South Staffordshire' project which is a huge boost for Staffordshire and Wolverhampton.

I've also propelled the council into the world of Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. I've even written, directed and starred in my first film! Can you spot my cameo appearances in this video?

We've also teamed up with Dominic Littlewood to expose rogue fly-tippers, been the but of jokes on Harry Hill's TV Burp and even made it national when we prosecuted former Wolves striker Freddy Eastwood for a fly-tipping-related offence (Mark Mudie, you are welcome).

My favourite memory?

It's not very often South Staffordshire Council gets sandwiched between Barack Obama and Gordon Brown on Sky News' headline cycle...but that's exactly what happened in December 2008.

A somewhat dubious 'Lapland'-inspired winter wonderland event was to be staged in the village of Essington just before Christmas. But without a licence or any sort of permission, the council were asked to step in. We were the big bad council who were set to ruin Christmas. But it transpired there was a little more to it than that.

A similar, although unconnected, event had been closed down by trading standards teams in the south of the country just weeks before and all the signs suggested this was to be of a similar ilk. Broken first by the Express & Star, anticipation was growing as to whether the event would take place or not. We were taking calls from ITV News, the BBC, Reuters, The Sun and The Guardian. It was going to be a busy week! The organisers had promised 'huskies, reindeers, real snow, a bungee trampoline and cartoon characters skating on ice'. By the time the event was scrapped, TV crews captured one or two tatty marquees, one burger van, a white-painted plywood “ice rink” and, if memory serves me rightly, some tatty-looking tinsel and a pornagraphic magazine. A Christmas 'Winter Wonderland' it certainly wasn't. I think most people managed to get a refund after a bit of a battle which was good news. It was a busy week - but one I look back on with a smile.

I will miss South Staffordshire and will really miss some of the great friends I've worked with there. So where now? On Monday I take up my new position as Head of Communications and Engagement at Wolverhampton Homes. As with any new job, I'm approaching it with a mix of excitement and anticipation with a dash of nerves thrown into the mix for good measure! But it's set to be a fresh challenge and the opportunity to get involved in some new projects and learn a lot more too.

I'm sad to leave South Staffordshire behind - it's been a blast. But for now, it's time to hurl myself into a new challenge. #13 - get a new job. Done.