Bradley Stoke Town Council Office

The office work of Bradley Stoke Town Council started in a box in the front room of the Town Clerk in 1992 when there were only a few thousand residents and the town was still emerging. Fairly quickly the need was established for an office and a small one or two person unit in The Courtyard, Woodlands was leased (no 8), seven years later the Office moved to a slightly larger office (no7) and in 2004 took over the empty office (no 6) and merged the neighbouring offices into one space to cope with the increasing staff and equipment.

In June 2012, the town council moved to their own purpose built office, sited at the Jubilee Centre in the centre of the town. This has helped to raise the profile of the town council, seeing an increase in the footfall to the office. In the long run this will save the town council money, as rather than paying to rent office space, now that the Public Works Loan is paid off, the town council own the asset outright.

Now there is a busy vibrant office located in the heart of the Bradley Stoke; with four full time and three part time dedicated members of staff.

The responsibilities that go with running a growing financial organisation still stand and a dedicated Responsible Finance Officer role was implemented from 1 April 2006. Previously this had been part of the Town Clerk's role.

The first part time Assistant Town Clerk was employed to assist the Clerk with meetings and correspondence and simple book keeping; as the work grew she was joined by in 1998 by a part time bookkeeper/bookings clerk. When the Assistant Town Clerk left she was replaced, still by a part timer but with more hours. The Assistant Town Clerk then became the full time Deputy Town Clerk; the bookkeeper is now the Responsible Finance Officer with one full time and one part time assistant to handle the bookings for the three activity centres and associated facilities; and there are two busy multi-tasking administrators - one part time and one full time to look after all the increasing range of administration for these areas.

Following a staffing review in 2010, in conjunction with the retirement of both the previous Town Clerk and his Deputy, the deputy clerk's role was revised and is now a part-time role.

The three Activity Centres are run by the Activity Centres Manager, with ten Leisure Assistants (a mix of full, part-time and zero-hours staff) looking after the residents and visitors who use our facilities. The Town Council also employs a full-time Mobile Cleansing Operative who supplements the work of the Unitary Authority litter pickers around the town.

Bradley Stoke Town Council is committed to a strong and robust youth provision which is led by a full time Youth Development & Participation Worker and three part time youth support workers.

Being a proactive Council with a duty of care to all brings new pressures in keeping up with all current legislation and we need fail safe systems in place. Our Health & Safety duty of care to staff, residents and visitors has become increasingly varied and important. We also have to make sure we are aware of and comply with all existing and new legislation eg the recent changes made to comply with the Disability Discrimination Act, Freedom of Information Act and so forth.

The Bradley Stoke Activity Centres, Play Areas and Skate Facility are well used and the addition of the Bradley Stoke Jubilee Centre in 2002 increased opportunities for community use. The Bradley Stoke Community Festival takes place every June, with the annual Firework Display in November. These activities, in addition to our core work of Council Administration means that the keeping up with the provision of bus shelters, litter bins, dog bins, planning applications, grant applications, creating minutes from ad hoc meetings, maintenance, H&S checks, risk assessments, ordering of supplies, booking of buildings, accounts work, filing, newsletters, staff training and much more all needs efficient planning.

Considerable work has been carried out over the past few years to make our Web Site up to date, exciting and informative.

Newsletters are regularly produced and available on our website. The Annual Report is printed and distributed to every household.

Download the flow chart showing the Office Structure from: Bradley Stoke Town Council Office Structure (Excel)