13 August 2008
The scintillating line-up for the SOLACE annual conference in Belfast is announced today.
The programme is all but complete and it promises to be the best ever conference. And top officers from around the UK has responded by signing up to the Waterfront Hall event in the heart of the revived in ever-increasing numbers. Steve Benyon, Isle of Wight Council, became the 100th chief exec delegate in early August.
Special SOLACE study tours to all the Northern Ireland capital’s former Troubles hot spots along with conflict busting drama sessions will top the bill on the Wednesday and Thursday mornings. Cabinet ministers, Julia Unwin from the Joseph Rowntree Trust and a face-to-face debate pitching the protection of the countryside against the rocketing need for 200,000 new houses every year are also featuring at the Waterfront Hall. And more than a dozen terrific workshops will help you explore the issues that matter to local government.
Knife deaths in London, dealing with extremism in all its forms and community safety in general have become part of a local authority senior executive’s workload in recent years. Two of the UK’s most senor policemen, Sir Hugh Orde from Northern Ireland and Sir Norman Bettison from West Yorkshire have agreed to explore some of these issues when they speak on Policing by Consent on the opening day of the Belfast event.
