Councillor Paul Bettison

Leader of Bracknell Forest Unitary Authority, Chairman, Environment Board and LGA e-champion

Born in Preston, Lancashire, 53 years ago, Paul has spent most of his life in the South of England. Paul has been married to Jean, Immediate Past Mayor of Sandhurst Town, for 30 years, and they have two daughters, Clare (22) and Emily (21).

Having spent ten successful years with US based Rockwell International, before setting up his own successful business supplying printing equipment to the UK newspaper and general printing industry during the mid 1980s, Paul turned to local politics as his next challenge in 1991. He was elected to Sandhurst Town Council in May of that year, and to Bracknell Forest Borough Council at a by-election in October 1991. He rose first in the Town Council, becoming Deputy Mayor in 1992 and Mayor from 1993-1995. In 1996 Paul was elected Leader of the Conservative Group (then in opposition) at Bracknell Forest. In the elections in May 1997, Paul led the Conservative Group to victory, gaining the distinction of being the only Conservative Leader in the country to wrest power from Labour on what was generally not a good day for the Conservative cause!

Under Paul’s leadership, the Conservative Group at Bracknell Forest managed a “seamless” transition to unitary status in 1998, and following many innovative local government initiatives, he led his Group to further gains in May 2000, 2003 and 2007 with swings to the Conservatives of twice the national average.

Paul is active within the LGA, and is firmly committed to local government representation at the highest level. From 2000 to 2002 he was Chairman of the LGA’s Housing Executive and oversaw the introduction of many innovations in Bracknell Forest’s housing service. Paul believes fervently in local authorities’ power of community wellbeing and asks ‘what could be more fundamental to anyone’s wellbeing than the roof over their head?’ From 2002 – 2004 he chaired the LGA’s Rural Commission and Executive, and was successful in persuading DEFRA that local government can play a key rôle in the delivery of the rural agenda in the post-Haskins era. He currently chairs the LGA Environment Board and also sits on the LGA Executive. Paul is also the Local Government Association e-Government Champion and the Conservative Party’s National spokesman on ICT matters. He has been on the Board of Directgov, Government Connect, and of the National Opportunity Card since 2005.

Located in the heart of the UK’s “silicon valley” Paul’s authority of Bracknell Forest is seen as the leading UK council in the area of electronic service delivery, with Bracknell Forest on-line, BF Net, a thriving CRM roll-out, and the world’s first multi-application smartcard – e+. A long list of awards is testimony to his council’s commitment to e-Government.

A firm believer in self-help for local government, Paul spent 18 months as a peer mentor to the Leader of the Conservative Group of Hackney LBC, and has performed the same task for the Leader of Walsall MBC for the past 5 years. More recently, Paul has worked with Swindon Borough Council; Kingston upon Hull, North East Lincs Council, Plymouth Borough Council and Trafford MBC. He is the National Lead Conservative Member Peer at the Improvement & Development Agency (IDeA).

Paul retired from his business activities in 2004, and now devotes himself full-time to Local Government.