Harrow council has new chief executive

The newly appointed Patrick (Pat) Flaherty has started this week as the 4^th substantial chief executive officer of the Harrow council in the last 18 years.
Mr Flaherty joins the council from Somerset County Council, where he has been chief executive for almost a decade and held leadership roles in areas including regeneration, transport and health.
Mr Flaherty replaces Sean Harriss who worked for three and a half years under the last Labour administration.
After his appointment to Harrow, Mr Flaherty said: “I am delighted and honoured to be invited to join the London Borough of Harrow as its chief executive officer.
“It is clearly a very exciting time to be joining, and I look forward to working with our councillors and staff, our partners and the wonderful community of Harrow to make a real difference”.
The current local authority was first elected in 1964, a year before formally coming into its powers and prior to the creation of the London Borough of Harrow on 1 April 1965. Since then, the Harrow population profile has hugely changed, for example further to census 2011, projected Indian population 29.1%, other Asians 12.1% and Pakistani 3.9%. The council members population is equally very diverse!
Councillor Paul Osborn, leader of Harrow Council, previously said: “This is the start of an exciting new chapter in Harrow’s story.
“As an administration, we are keen to begin working hard for the people of Harrow and doing so in partnership with our borough’s new chief executive”.
Given the council administration’s emphasis on ‘putting residents first’, hope Mr Flaherty would look into an apparent cultural change at the civic centre under the last administration where the residents were apparently discouraged from contacting the council officers directly (for example the contact details on the official council letters are disbanded) and the local residents struggle to get prompt, efficient or satisfactory response to their queries etc.