Message from the Chief Executive

Beverly Owen, Chief Executive

Newport is an exciting place to work. If you have enthusiasm, commitment and courage, then I would welcome your application to become part of our senior team. Two words are at the heart of all our activity – improvement and opportunity – and our new structure will be key to delivering against our aim of delivering an ambitious, fairer, greener Newport for everyone.

This isn’t just the next step in your career or a chance to join a thriving city council; it is an opportunity to shape the future of Newport. We’re not interested in standing still and if you don’t want a challenge, these roles are not for you.

We aren’t just satisfied with being a good council, so we need people who constantly strive for excellence. You will need empathy, resilience and political awareness.

Newport is a diverse, vibrant city with significant ambitions for growth. We have a range of projects and programmes, bringing significant sums of money in development into the city. We have major ambitions as a hub for tech-focussed excellence, cyber and data.

Newport is urban, rural and coastal and really well connected by the M4. The central station sits on the main South Wales line, also bringing us many opportunities. Our port is Wales’s leading general cargo port handling some £1 billion of trade a year. We are the commercial centre of Wales.

Newport has got its challenges, just like every other city, but there are a huge number of positive things going on.

The decision to restructure and the resulting composition reflects what we’ve learnt in our response to the pandemic. As an organisation we pulled together, and I want that to be harnessed and developed further. It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity to grasp that and build a new organisation.

We also want to create a revived organisation that is a great place to work, where people look forward to every day, where they want to do their very best and they feel valued.

We want to be certain that every member of staff understands the role of public service and their part within it – something I think has been lost in local government over the years as councils have had to be more commercially minded.

First and foremost, we are here to serve the people of Newport.