Welcome to St Albans
City and District

Welcome from the Chief Executive, Amanda Foley 

Thank you for your interest in this key role working across St Albans City and District Council and Watford Borough Council. Now​​ is a great time to join us and contribute to a sustainable future for local government in Hertfordshire by leading our high performing and trusted Legal Shared Service across two forward thinking local authorities.

In recent years the Council has made a step change towards becoming more adaptable as an organisation; better able to respond to financial pressures, shifting expectations and pace of change, and constantly learning and innovating. 

Our digital transformation has already accelerated beyond anything we could have anticipated 3 years ago, and we are creating an increasingly modern and efficient council.

We have changed the way we work, creating a muti-skilled Customer Delivery Team able to work across services to tackle demand where it arises and providing a talent pipeline across the council.  We have a reputation for bringing in and developing our talent, winning the LGC award for Best Next Generation employer in 2023.

Closing our budget gap has been challenging over the last few years and has focussed our minds on what needs to be done to thrive.  We are transforming our services, which is being recognised on the national stage. Our award-winning market was named the Best Large Outdoor Market in Britain by the National Association of British Markets in 2024 for example. And our LGA Peer Challenge  in 2023 set out a range of areas in which we excel, and confirmed our understanding of what else we need to do. You can read about our work to increase our productivity on our website .

Our partnerships are strong and productive, for example with our local and regional safety and resilience partners and our third sector colleagues.  We have recently transformed a key city centre site creating beautiful new commercial properties at Jubilee Square, encompassing superb social and affordable housing completed with our partners at Watford Community Housing Trust.

The Council’s focus is on supporting local communities, improving social housing, making the environment a priority in all our decision and treating everyone with fairness. Key to these things is the development of our Local Plan. You can read more about the Council’s objectives and our priority actions, in our Council Plan.

In line with Government’s Devolution agenda we are also working towards a unitary model of local government in Hertfordshire in 2028 while continuing to deliver high quality services to residents locally.  You can see how we are working collaboratively across Hertfordshire to develop a joint proposal for Local Government Reorganisation on our website.

Successful applicants to this senior role will consolidate and enhance the work we are doing to build strong foundations for the future of local government, providing a great customer experience for our residents, delivering high quality local services and developing high performing teams.

We are looking for a curious, courageous, inspired and talented leader who enjoys challenge, can lead with energy, vision and people skills, and who can thrive within a complex and uncertain environment.

If you feel you have the experience, skills and qualities we need and you share our vision, we want to hear from you.
 

​​​Amanda Foley
Chief Executive