AS THE man in charge of a £339m budget to provide council services in Southampton, new chief executive Brad Roynon will be calling on his skills as an amateur photographer.

He is used to keeping a trained eye on the running of services at the Civic Centre while ensuring he keeps a focus on the bigger picture - and Southamp-ton's role as a major regional centre.

He has been in post for two months now and is clearly relishing his new role as city supremo.

"All of these things are important and the art of a chief executive is being able to keep all the plates spinning and make sure that everything moves forward," he said.

"I have to ensure the management systems are in place so the council can operate properly and not like some street corner operation.

"The process is currently quite well developed but it does need some tweaking.

"At the same time I need to have an overview of what is happening in the city."

As he gets to grips with the challenges facing Southampton, Mr Roynon, 50 - who has moved to the city with his partner legal secretary Denise, 53 - is keen to hear from residents what they think of the services they receive - and about their priorities for the city.

The citizens' panel - a group of 1,500 whose views represent a cross-section of the city - has already been used to inform the scrutiny process and the first two investigations into public toilets and the state of the city's roads were prompted by their views.

"I want to be able to develop the input of the city panel. We need to publish the results of our consultation using the panel and make that information available to other partners in the city," he said.

Major developments in the city such as the arts quarter in Guildhall Square, the multi-purpose arena next to the WestQuay shopping centre and the revamp of the waterfront at Town Quay combine to make exciting times ahead for the city, he said.

"There are immense opportunities for the city.

"When you talk to other councils in comparable positions they are dealing with ifs, buts and maybes but in Southampton's case these are not pipe-dreams.

"We have a profile of change and development that is going to happen," he added.