Milton Keynes Council has hired Peter Heaton as marketing and
communications manager to manage community relations and promote the
council’s application for city status after 2000.
Heaton started this month; he replaces Peter Morris, who left to become
press and PR manager for Silverstone Race Track last year.
Heaton will lead a PR team of four, reporting to Milton Keynes’ chief
executive Howard Miller and working closely with the council’s
eight-strong policy team.
He joins from the Mental Aftercare Association, where he had held the
post of director of marketing and communications for over two years.
Prior to that, he worked for government and public sector PR agency DTW,
based in Milton Keynes.
Central to Heaton’s work will be promoting closer relations with the
local population through the media and focus groups.
The town’s population is growing at around 10,000 per year and currently
stands at around 204,000.
The council, which is a Labour-controlled unitary authority, expects to
submit an application for formal city status to the Government later
this year. City status should help the council to secure funds to
improve its infrastructure and raise its profile.
’My task is to impress upon Government and the civil service the
specific nature of Milton Keynes as the fastest-growing city in the
country,’ Heaton said.
He will also attempt to secure wide media coverage of the council’s
public referendum on the services it provides and the level of council
tax.
Milton Keynes will be the first council to conduct such a referendum and
voting is set to take place between 1 and 19 February.
