STEPHEN BARKER is relentlessly optimistic about his job. He needs to be, given that earlier this year he was appointed to the post of reputation manager for Nottingham City Council — a post created after some of the most dire headlines in the city’s history.

Renowned for Robin Hood, the city made headlines for binge drinking and alcohol-fuelled violence. This was followed by the shooting of Danielle Beccan, 14, as she walked home from a city fair.

Then Steve Green, the Chief Constable of Nottinghamshire, suggested that his force was being overwhelmed by the number of murders and might have to “farm out” some investigations to other forces.

Barker is too cautious to suggest that the chief constable’s remarks on alcohol-linked disorder and gun crime might have fuelled Nottingham’s current “reputation” problem. But the city’s political leaders were in no doubt that action was needed to undo the damage done by the headlines. They decided that the city had to develop a longer-term strategy to protect its image.

Reputation management is a well-known concept in the private sector but is a novel one in the public. Barker says: “Councils are beginning to understand that as well as ordinary communication, they must protect and project the local area’s reputation.”

Barker, 39, knows only too well how quickly the damage is done. “We are in a global media world where bad news spreads quickly and where a quick Google search at a particular time of the year can generate a lot of coverage of things that are probably not representative of the city,” he says.

He admits that Nottingham has a problem with alcohol-fuelled violence and gun crime but insists that it is no worse than many other cities. Nevertheless, the damage has been done.

The effects of the headlines started with the city’s two universities reporting a 6 per cent fall in applications. Anecdotally parents were asking if it was safe for their children to go to study in the city.

Private firms started talking about image problems and efforts to persuade inward investors to put money in their city started to falter, Barker says. “Private firms indicated the problems. It became more urgent when business started saying, ‘This is going to become a major problem unless it is sorted out’,” he says.

So how is reputation management different from a traditional local government press office? Barker struggles a little to explain, before saying: “To some extent it is a marketing approach to communication, understanding the full range of activities out there and ensuring you tailor your message to different audiences. An important part of reputational management is understanding that you have a hierarchy of organisations that want to know about you,” he says.

Barker and his team have a layered approach aimed at maintaining investment in tourism and bringing new jobs to the city but also reaching out to opinion-formers. He says that for a city of 600,000, with two universities, Nottingham must become better known in Westminster and Whitehall. “We want to ensure that we are visible to opinion-formers in both areas. Our leaders have to be visible, and part of reputation management is to provide them with platforms to take part in the wider policy debate so that people know that there are things that others can learn from us.”

Whether reputation management is just spin by another name remains to be seen. But Barker is aware that he has his work cut out to ensure that Nottingham is remembered for Robin Hood rather than alcohol abuse and guns.

Born: June 30, 1966, in Coventry.

Education: Warwick School; Mid Warwickshire College of Further Education; Trent Polytechnic, Nottingham.

Career: Student Union officer; direct marketing; self-employed publisher, Nottingham; business development officer, Nottingham City Council; 1995-1998 agricultural worker, travelling South-East Asia; 1998 marketing environment services, Nottingham City Council; 2005 reputation manager, Nottingham City Council.

What he says: “In the bad times people turn to local government.”

Little-known fact: Used to milk 300 cows a day.

Richard Ford is The Times home affairs correspondent

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