My speech at the West Lancashire Borough Council meeting 20th July 2022. The vote at the end of the debate supported my position and the Council Plan Annual Report was not approved. In my recollection a Council Plan Annual Report has never been rejected previously.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Annual Report contains a positive record of the steps taken by the council over the past 12 months. It reflects the hard work and efforts of the council’s staff and I want to thank them for that. There are numerous achievements in the report about which they can be justifiably proud.
However, this year I cannot support the recommendations to approve this report, as I'll explain.
The current
report is heavy on commentary but lacks measures of success in some areas. Giving one example, it states that a series
of mobile CCTV cameras for tackling fly-tipping and environmental crime were
deployed but provides no measure of their impact. Our West Lancashire have been asking for
information on this for months with no substantive reply.
The format
of the report is backward looking. It
gives the perception of being written after the event with positive successes
included. Sometimes repeated from
previous year’s reports. There will be a
new Council Plan being formulated this year to commence from next April and it
needs to be forward-looking, setting SMART objectives with the Annual report
on the progress of the plan reporting against those objectives.
It is highly
selective in its reporting not always acknowledging the challenges faced and
the actions taken to remedy them. No one
reading the report where it says: “Development of our Local Plan 2023-2040
progressed with 291 respondents to the Issues and Options consultation that
will inform the next stage of the Plan. A revised Local Development Scheme was
approved in March.” Would know that the revised Local Development Scheme
approved, had to extend the timetable for the adoption of the new Local Plan by 8
months because of the departure of the majority of the Planning Policy team
with a deliberate decision to delay replacement of staff in some posts. There is more that could be said on this in a
confidential forum, but the Report before us does not even mention the delay.
Another
example would be in the finance section where there is no mention at all of the
fact that the Council Accounts for the year ended in March 2021 – 16 months ago
have still not been externally audited and where the external auditors are
highly critical of the council’s performance saying they did not receive the
council’s financial statements until November, and then due to long delays in
council officers answering questions the external auditors had to pause the
audit in March this year. They had hoped
to resume the audit by now, but our finance officers are still working on
outstanding areas.
Our internal
audit identified that no assurance could be given in relation to the financial
controls relating to the procurement of refurbishment works here at Derby
Street and at Robert Hodge Centre – this on a spend close to £1million. Yet it is not even mentioned in the annual
report. Instead, we have a quote from
James Pierce [the Council's Chief Finance Officer] on Page 18 of the report worthy of Dr Pangloss. It is a pity Mr Pierce is not present tonight
to justify his optimism.
Again, just
this morning, I learned that the Local Government Ombudsman found maladministration
by the council relating to two incidents last year.
I’ve been a
councillor for 23 years. Never in that time
have I had council staff approach me on a confidential basis – whistle blowers
if you will, until this year. This year
it happened twice. I advised use of the
formal whistleblowing policy in both instances.
I don’t minimise the enormous step it is for a council employee to
contact a councillor about internal matters and so to say I was taken aback by
this course of events is a large understatement. It’s clear to me that staff morale is not
what it should be and we all need to work to address that. Indeed, staff turnover was very high last year
and I know of more than one staff member who didn’t leave for better terms and
conditions.
An Annual Council
Plan Report needs to be more than a PR document. It needs to honestly reflect the challenges
the council has and the corrective steps to be taken. I am afraid this report does not do that.
