The pioneer of the Eramus+ project back in the house

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Think our luck with the weather may be running out as the temperature has certainly dropped and we havent seen the sun yet today but its still pleasant enough for early autumn.

Our morning session was due to be with Linn Bertsson based with the Department of Regional Development to discuss the region's strategy for growth and development entitled Vastra Gotaland 2020 but unfortunately Linn is unwell and was unable to make the session. I assume it may have been the build up to meeting representatives from Durham County Council and the excitement got too much but hope Linn gets well soon.

Thankfully Robin was able to give us some information around the project and I have asked if Linn can forward us further info when she returns to work.

Vastra Gotaland 2020 is the strategy for growth and development in Vastra Gotaland from 2014-2020 and is a joint roadmap for the development of Vastra Gotaland. The strategy has been adopted by the regional council and its based on the responsibility that the Swedish government and parliment have given to Region Vastra Gotaland to coordinate and promote regional development in Vastra Gotaland.

The strategy has strong links to the EU strategy for growth, Europe 2020 - the aim is for all inhabitants in Vastra Gotaland to have the best possible conditions to develop.

I am sure our colleagues in Funding and Programmes will be interested to find out more as the strategy seems to be a sister project to the LEADER and similar programmes they are currently working towards for the same 2014-2020 period.

The shorter morning enabled the group to continue to explore the city as we have been travelling quite a bit over the last few days so its nice to be centrally based today.

As some of the photos demonstrate the architecture of the area is magnificent with some impressive buildings also doubling up as offices and retail outlets - talking of retail as its payday our apprentices have decided to do a very noble act of contributing to the local economy and have taking the opportunity to have a look round the huge shopping centre just across the road from our hotel, lets hope they have considered their baggage allowance for the return trip or there will be some very overdressed (and hot) young people on our return journey.

Its no surprise as there is a port in the city that there are sushi outlets everywhere you look, we have 3 alone on the same street as our hotel - I did try one of them over the weekend and it was very nice but to my amazement my eyes were bigger than my belly (impossible) and I could not finish it all.

For such a slick looking city we have all noticed the shady (no pun intended) street light setup with some lights hanging and only connected by minimum wires - it will be interesting to see what our H&S manager, John Chapman, makes of this (see photo below).

Our afternoon session was with an old friend of the council and someone would could take the credit for this placement happening in the first place - Magnus Englebrektsson who on his way to visiting Edinburgh around 18 months ago added another day to his journey to visit us at Durham, this turned into a worthwhile addition to his schedule as it established a strong link between our councils and started the ball rolling for the whole Erasmus+ idea and project.

Magnus was very happy to see us and even recognised me from the initial meeting all that time ago I must have one of those faces - i didn't ask whether this was a positive thing or not.

Along with his colleague Georgia Larsson they informed us of the infrastructure and transport plans for the region, it was very interesting as it was the first area that we could see similarities with how we operate in Durham and the vision we both have to improve the services provided to the public and the important partnership work we need to undertake with other bodies to make this happen.

This was a good example of the 3 levels of government working together to achieve the same goal something that does not happen very often across Sweden due to devolved powers given to the regions and municipalities. The vision to have some of the basic ideas in place by 2021 seemed achievable and this would coincide with the 400 year anniversary of when Gothenburg was established (1621 for those reaching for their calculator).

Some of the more advanced ideas of dedicated bus lanes right across the city with high powered driverless vehicles and rope operated carriages crossing rivers (aka cable cars) every 20 seconds sound like futuristic ideas but the plans are in place and project work has already started.

It was a good session made even sweeter (stop already with these puns) by another Fika break - surely something we can adopt at DCC as I am sure it would increase productivity levels.

We are mid way through the first week and I feel we could walk away now (that's a long walk) with a whole host of innovative ideas the Council would appreciate and we haven't even got to some of the essential services that are the highest priority for the area - Healthcare and Immigration being the top 2.

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Comments

[Joanne]

Sushi you say.....
Surprised to hear you couldn't finish the Sushi.....sounds like my kinda place ;-)