Crawley Borough Council has appointed Mark Robinson as its first
communications head, to lead its newly strengthened marketing and PR
team.
Robinson has been communications head at the London Borough of Lewisham
since January 1997and will move to Crawley, West Sussex, in
mid-December.
Lewisham has yet to appoint his replacement.
Crawley created his post after a communications audit, carried out in
the summer by marketing officer Linda Hardy-Maskell.
’This recommended better integration of internal and external
communications,’ said Robinson. ’Crawley is a very modern and
progressive council. But without effective communications you can’t
build trust, and if there’s no trust, there’s no accountability.’
Robinson will be on the management team and report directly to chief
executive Michael Sander. He will have a team of three and also be
responsible for marketing and public affairs.
Hardy-Maskell used to jobshare with PR officer Carolyn Mallin, with one
person supporting them. Both reported to the head of strategy.
Hardy-Maskell left in August to go freelance. Mallin moved to the
Teacher Training Agency as external communications director in
September.
Crawley does not retain a PR consultancy and Robinson plans to review
the council’s relationship with Designate, a Southampton-based agency
which handles production of its residents’ newspaper.
