COUNCIL'S DEMOCRATIC PROCESS IS UNDERMINED
14 September 2004
For over three years, while I have attempted to serve my fellow residents of Redruth South to the best of my ability, my impact on the ethos of the modus operandi of Cornwall County Council has been negligible. In my dealings with some senior officers, frankness is not a quality which I have often experienced. Indeed, in one particular case, I seem to have been confronted almost invariably by an evasive and an obfuscatory approach.
This imbalance in member-officer relations, with unaccountable senior officers apparently running this council, distorts the healthy relationship, which should exist in a democratic institution.
Moreover, since I have been unable to obtain answers to many wide-ranging questions, to which local people are expecting answers, the very basis of the democratic process has been undermined. These matters appear to make a nonsense of the commitment to "the highest standards of openness, probity and accountability", which is enshrined in the council's constitution.
The complaints procedure and the whistleblowing policy might be admirable in theory, but I very much doubt whether that assessment in practice would be shared by many knowledgeable members of the public and council employees.
But there is one thing in particular which is worrying and it relates to highways matters. It is apparent that council policies and a statutory duty have been widely contravened. While this implementational failure is seemingly a most serious breach of senior officers' advisory and executive functions, and even perhaps of their codes of conduct, members of the council have not been made fully aware of what would appear to be an improper and unlawful activity.
The apparent failure to enlighten councillors in this regard, when coupled with the lack of frankness in responding to members' questions, particularly in relation to this very matter, and the possibility that some scrutiny committees may even have been subjected to manipulation, raises the very serious question of whether or not there may have been a concerted effort to conceal these crucial issues from the attention of members.
The impression that county councillors, especially those who are members of the executive, may be nothing more than marionettes in the county hall puppet show is extremely damaging for our local democracy. There is a very strong case, which is really unanswerable, for a thorough and completely independent investigation into the county council, conducted by a body whose credentials are beyond dispute. In my view, the people of Cornwall are deserving of nothing less.
Graeme Hicks, County Councillor Redruth
CODE OF CONDUCT FOR EMPLOYEES, section 5 states
"In discharging their duties employees must follow every lawful policy of the Council and must not allow their own personal views or political opinions to interfere with their work."
But of course if they fail in this duty absolutely nothing happens!!!
EXPLANATION IS CRITICISED AS 'UNCONVINCING'
29 April 2004
External Audit claims that the "prolonged system weakness" in County Highways stems from a failure to restore budgets, which in the early 1990s had been cut as a result of financial constraint. Dr Nigel Hicks in a letter to the West Briton suggested that this unconvincing explanation raised a number of questions.
1. Since the financial constraint can only have affected the implementation, and not the nature of policy, a statutory duty and procedures, a fact which is implicitly recognised in Audit's explanation, what is the logic of Internal Audit's 31 recommendations for procedural change? Does this logical flaw reflect the requirement of Internal Audit "to agree conclusions and recommendations with the relevant chief officer"?
2. If the lack of finance, reflected in reduced staffing levels, really were the cause of implementational failure, why was this prolonged and potent obstacle to management's discharge of its duties never reported to the full council? Have not senior officers, who are employees responsible for executing the policy approved by members, a duty to inform members if they are unable to execute that policy? Since, in order to protect homeowners should a developer fail to complete the streets, the council is required by the Highways Act 1980 to secure a bond before building works can begin on residential estates, on whose authority have senior officers apparently abrogated this responsibility?
3. Why have both Audit reports not mentioned the implications of implementational failure? Why, while the failures to secure Section 38 agreements and to comply with the Advanced Payments Code procedures were fully documented, has there been no explicit reference to the fact that such shortcomings were manifestations of a serious failure to execute council policies and a lawful duty? Why were these alarming contraventions excluded from the list of "key findings" reported by Internal Audit to the scrutiny committee and why were they also omitted from both reports?
4. Since no evidence has been adduced to suggest that the policies, statutory duty and the procedures, were flawed, why did Internal Audit deem it necessary to produce in effect a detailed procedural, but questionable, road map for officers who ought to have been equipped with the initiative and the nous to carry out the succinct, but specific, requirements of the Cornwall Design Guide? Why was the implementation of the procedural road map accepted with such alacrity by senior management, much as a lifebelt would be welcomed by a drowning man? If "the serious weaknesses were the result of system failure rather than the actions of any individual", why has the officer, whose responsibility it was to manage and review the system, not been held to account?
5. Why has it been thought unnecessary to inquire whether the prolonged failure to implement a lawful duty imposed by the Highways Act 1980, has ever been reported to members of the county council by the officer, whose responsibility it was to do so, and, if it has, why has no action apparently been taken?
GRAEME HICKS
County Councillor, Redruth South
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