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The Local Government Challenge is a competition to find local government's future top executives. Ten contestants have battled it out to get into the final at the LGA conference in Bournemouth next month. In the final challenge, Claire Holloway describes the final challenge in Braintree. With the mud of Shorne Woods Country Park barely dry on their shoes, our intrepid 10 contestants headed for the bustling market town of Braintree, Essex for their fifth and final challenge. After some tough feedback from the Kent judges, and with the chance of a place in the semi-final riding on the next 24 hours, tensions were running high, as Essex CC's cabinet advisor Damien Dacey delivered the challenge. Each team would be allocated town centre premises for a day, a budget of £100 and a charity to work with. The task – to raise the profile of the charity and secure new, quality volunteers from the local community, and to come up with a plan to bring vacant retail space in the high street into positive community use. Welcome to Braintree's Big Society. After a night of intensive planning lasting into the early hours, the teams arrived at their respective premises at 7.30am. The Red Stripes, working with Support for Sight and Essex Blind Charity, took over the reception area of the Corner House, Braintree DC's resource centre – with central heating and refreshments on tap – while the Anarchic Stars set to work turning a rather less comfortable former shoe shop in George Yard into a bright and welcoming centre of activity for Braintree Mencap. Armed with an array of cakes, sweets, drink, bunting and balloons from their early morning supermarket dashes, the two teams set about decorating their premises ready to entice in unsuspecting volunteers. At 9.00am sharp, the Anarchic Stars opened for business. Team leader Angela, Hounslow's electoral services manager, and team members Nahid and Anthony cajoled passing shoppers into the shop, while David and Rosalind headed out to local businesses in search of professional volunteers. As the pile of contact details grew, aided by the promise of a free raffle and a £20 cash prize, word spread around Mencap's clients, and the George Yard juice and cupcake party was soon in full swing. Back at the Corner House, the Red Stripes' ambitious plans for a grand midday opening with army representatives and firefighters fizzled out and they resorted to plan B: the guide dog. With a brief to secure four or five quality volunteers, team leader Helen set out to create a ‘blind experience', to help visitors understand the charity and the people it supports. While Rachel and Von guided people in, Michel and Jess put their research skills into action, joining Anarchic Stars' Nahid at the town hall to find out local community leaders and businesses' ideas for the high street. To keep the contestants on their toes, judging for this challenge was ‘on location', and as the 4.30pm visit grew nearer, the two teams frantically touched up their premises and their proposals. First stop George Yard, where team leader Angela explained the concept behind the Anarchic Stars' approach. The judges – Braintree DC chief executive Allan Reid; Essex CC assistant chief executive Richard Puleston; chair of the Braintree District Voluntary Sector Agency, Judy Cuddeford, and the LGA's answer to Alan Sugar, John Ransford, were clearly impressed. The team's pitch was short and pithy and their ideas for the high street (now renamed ‘Imagination Lane') were presented succinctly by Antony, with – at last – a clear and defensible business case. The team had clearly done their homework and learnt from past mistakes – but their masterstroke was to include Peter Brown of Mencap, whose admiration was summed up in one sentence: ‘These young people have done what I could never do… they have gone out and sold Mencap to the community.' And so to the Corner House, where in glasses simulating different types of visual impairment, the judges were tasked with painting an eye and describing what sight meant. At first it seemed that this powerful introduction to the team's work would win the day, but while the Red Stripes' ideas for the High Street were not dissimilar to those of their rivals, their presentation lacked the imagination and the edge, and after lengthy discussion, the judges were unanimous – the Anarchic Stars had won the final challenge. So with all five challenges complete, there was nothing more the contestants could do than head for the hotel bar while the organisers began their lengthy calculations to see who would make it through to the semi final. Find out what happened in the next nail biting instalment of the Local Government Challenge. Claire Holloway is project director of the Local Government Challenge at the LGA. The Local Government Challenge is co-ordinated by the LGA Group and sponsored by Liberata plc. For more information and to see the challenges go to www.localgovernmentchannel.com/lgchallenge

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WHITEHALL

Using their brains in Braintree

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