The transfer of Waveney District Council’s operational services to a newly formed partnership was hailed a success at the first ever board meeting of the Joint Venture Company.

At the end of June, Waveney District Council signed a contract with Norfolk County Services Limited to form a partnership providing many of its prominent, public-facing services. A Joint Venture Company called Waveney Norse was formed and after taking over operations on 1 July, the first ever meeting of the partnership board took place last week.

Waveney District Council and Norfolk County Services have equal representation on the board and members are delighted with how things have progressed. Dennis Ball, Managing Director of Waveney Norse commented: “This has been a seamless and trouble free transfer. In fact, it is one of the smoothest we have ever experienced. The staff who transferred have been amongst the most positive and the support services have helped enormously by having a can do attitude, ensuring that the partnership go off to the best possible start.”

Councillor Stephen Ardley, Waveney’s Portfolio Holder for Health & Wellbeing was voted Chairman of the board at the meeting and added: “Everybody has really pulled together at it is great to receive such positive feedback from our partners. The Waveney Norse Team is still very much a part of WDC and is fully integrated into our systems and processes.

“It is business as usual and performance remains the key driver, with everybody focusing on delivering improved services to the public. We have seen improvements across the board, which clearly demonstrates that this a positive and beneficial way forward for the delivery of these services and for the people of Waveney.”