31 Jan Recovery Board Report

8/7/2019 31 Jan Recovery Board Report

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ARB(10) ReportIN CONFIDENCE

BWRDD ADFER YNYS MN t ANGLESEY RECOVERY BOARD

Tenth Meeting, January 31st 2011

Report to the Minister for Social Justice and Local Government

1. The direction to the Isle of Anglesey County Council of August 12th 2009 includedthe establishment of a Recovery Board to advise you on the progress that theCouncil makes towards addressing the serious corporate weakness identified by

the Auditor General for Wales. As part of that, our terms of reference require us toprovide you with a report after each meeting.

2. The Anglesey Recovery Board met for the tenth time on Monday January 31st. This

is our report to you.

3. This meeting concentrated solely on evaluating the Councils overall progress andprospects for improvement, in light of recent political and other developments onthe island. You asked us in particular to consider the likelihood of a sustainablerecovery by this August; and by the local elections in May 2012.

4. In approaching this fundamental question, we had the considerable benefit ofdetailed input from the Auditor General for Wales and his staff, the Chief Executiveof the WLGA and the Councils interim Managing Director. Having discussed theirviews, the Board reconvened in private to determine its own conclusions on thatquestion and on a number of issues which we believe inform it.

Recent instability and its causes

5. You will be aware of recent moves within the Council to unseat the current Leaderand form a different ruling administration. These seem to have arisen overChristmas, and have continued since then despite an undertaking from the Leader

to stand down at Mays Council AGM.

6. We have no interest in personalities, or in the relative merits of the current andother possible Leaders or political configurations. Those are matters for theCouncil. The issue here is the continuing political instability within the Council; andthe tendency for members to concentrate on making or undermining political dealsrather than on delivering for the island.

7. This continued and continuing instability is highly disappointing. The recentmanifestation comes at a time when members should be concentrating on securingrecovery, setting a budget, developing the proposals for collaboration withGwynedd, and tackling the serious strategic and delivery challenges facing theisland not least the potential development of Wylfa B. These issues demandcareful and detailed consideration; now is very much not the time for councillors to


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exercise their right to change the leadership and undermine decision-making andstability in the executive. Seeking to do so, in our view, shows poor judgement anda focus on a set of priorities which does not adequately emphasise the criticalissues facing the Council. Furthermore, the Board has in the past receivedpersonal assurances from leading Councillors that in the interests of recovery and

the effective governance of the island they would not destabilise the administration.While those assurances were welcome and indeed necessary, they now appear tobe without substance. As a consequence, we would treat any further, similar,assurances with a good deal of caution.

The Councils political culture

8. We believe this tendency to indulge in personality politics and the pursuit of powerpresents a serious risk to recovery. It also presents a major distraction fromservice delivery and denies officers the political and strategic leadership theyrightly need. The same tendency was at the heart of the WAO report which led to

our intervention. While there have been periods of relative calm, it seems that thepersonal rivalries and allegiances that have characterised Anglesey politics over atleast the past fifteen years remain a significant factor. Thus, a sustainablerecovery is unlikely for as long as councillors, and in particular senior councillors,choose to behave in this way.

9. However, there are some signs of positive change in the Councils political culture.Restructuring and enhancing the scrutiny system has created an environmentwithin which members can and do engage seriously and amicably with significantpolicy and delivery issues such as modernising older peoples services, whether informal scrutiny or beyond. We saw a similar phenomenon at our seminar onfinancial challenges and collaboration in October. We believe that a moreconstructive form of politics and political behaviour can emerge where membersare placed in the right context and provided with suitable support. In time thatmight succeed in supplanting the current culture. But equally that has reliedheavily on outside involvement: for instance the scrutiny system was reformed atyour instigation and all Board members actively participated in the seminar. Atpresent we find it unlikely that the Council would be able to sustain such changesin its own right and without substantial ongoing outside support and direction.

10. It is also essential to recognise that there are at least some members of the

Council whose commitment to recovery is beyond doubt, and who have takenconsiderable personal and political risks in demonstrating that commitment. Theyand their actions have also attracted strong public backing in recent meetings,indicating that the public mood fully supports recovery. That deserves recognition,although it would be inappropriate for us to single out individuals here. Theproblem is that some of those individuals now appear to despair of the prospects ofsuccess: they may be too few in the face of a seemingly intractable political culturethat values personal advancement rather than reform.

11. At our first meeting in October 2009 we noted a widespread belief that theCouncils problems could be attributed to the actions of a few rogue councillors.

We did not accept that then and we do not accept it now. In any elected bodythere may be a handful of members who seek to misbehave or further their ownends. But they should be, and usually are, isolated and thwarted by the majority


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making clear that such attitudes are unacceptable, whether through partydiscipline, clear support for and enforcement of a code of conduct, or moreinformal means. In other words, problems of political culture and behaviour arecollective, and the majority needs to challenge the disruptive actions and views ofthe minority.

12. We do not believe this has happened to a great enough extent. If there is a silentmajority of councillors who support changing the councils political culture, theyhave remained largely silent. Again, we have seen some evidence to the contrary,especially in scrutiny. But those instances are sporadic, and too often underminedby poor standards of chairing and adherence to procedure which allow badbehaviour to persist. That needs to change urgently if a silent majority is to have achance of making itself heard and challenging the current culture: it is arguablethat this is among the single greatest obstacles to progress. Furthermore, plottingto change the leadership can only reasonably take place if those involved haveconfidence in securing majority support within the council. If councillors had made

it clear that they would not support such changes, political instability would nothave persisted.

13. Overall, the councils political culture and values have improved to some extent,but not quickly or deeply enough to give us full confidence in the possibility ofsustainable change and recovery by August 2011.

14. The problems of Anglesey go back at least 15 year since the creation of the newIsle of Anglesey County Council and possibly for 30 years to include the time of theDistrict Council. One significant step in the creation of a refreshed and moreforward-looking Council in 2008 was the presence of 13 new members who did notbring with them a significant amount of historical baggage from previousdisagreements.

Officers

15. We have heard extensive evidence over the past eighteen months about the abilityof the Councils officer structure to support recovery. On the one hand, there aregrounds for concern about a lack of capacity and capability, especially in thecorporate centre and in support functions such as finance and HR. We are alsoconcerned that officers sometimes do not fully support members or contribute

adequately in council proceedings. On the other, it is clear that most of theCouncils services remain at least adequate, with some of them being very strong.Much credit must go to officers for their commitment to operational managementand service delivery in a time of considerable turmoil.

16. However, we are concerned that the long-standing political instability has seriouslyundermined the general relationship between members and officers. A strongrelationship based on mutual respect and understanding is vital for any council todischarge its duties effectively and to deliver services which meet local needs. Weare aware of very strong views now being expressed in staff meetings about theimpact of political instability on staff morale and a lack of faith in members; we

understand that you heard similar views at a recent meeting with trade unionrepresentatives. We can have no view on the accuracy of such claims, but thesimple fact that they are being made suggests that this critical relationship could


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come under strain.

Collaboration with Gwynedd

17. Before Christmas the Council voted unanimously to support your proposals for full-

scale service integration with Gwynedd Council; councillors in Gwynedd didlikewise. That followed our seminar in October when members considered thispossibility seriously and honestly as a response to the current financial climate. Itis important for me to re-emphasise that this service integration was neverenvisaged as a move towards merger and that both Councils were to retain a fullcomplement of democratically accountable Councillors.

18. There must, though, be serious doubt about whether such a project can proceedwhile council politics are so unstable and unpredictable. We can have littleconfidence in members engaging seriously with the issues involved; and while wehave no remit to consider the position of Gwynedd Council, the political and

practical risks to that organisation would appear to be unacceptably high.Collaboration in the interests of efficiency and service quality must of courseproceed, as it must across Wales; and in that sense we believe the scoping studyshould proceed. But full integration on the scale envisaged does not appear viablein the current context of council politics.

19. That is highly regrettable. The October seminar was possibly the high point of ourinvolvement with the council: it appeared that councillors were fully committed totaking decisive and fundamental action to address some very pressing issues. Ifthat is now not so then a major opportunity has been lost and it would be verydifficult to get it back. Furthermore, we understand that resistance to integrationlay behind at least some of the recent plotting, which in part aimed to underminethe project.

Overall prospects and further action

20. You asked us for an overall view on the councils progress and on how far asustainable recovery was reasonably foreseeable by August 2011 and by theelections in May 2012.

21. We must reiterate that the Council has made progress under intervention. But

overall, the issues we have set out above lead us to conclude that a sustainablerecovery is not reasonably foreseeable by August, at least. There may be a betterchance of this by May 2012; but in view of the speed at which power and loyaltiesshift within the council and the significant impact that can have, we cannot predictthat with confidence.

22. We are equally clear that this situation demands some more stringent form ofintervention. This should not be a matter of punishing councillors but rather ofensuring that continued instability does not obstruct or detract from tackling theserious strategic, financial and delivery challenges facing the island. In otherwords, any further action needs to address to the particular problems we have

identified. It also needs to encourage, rather than abandon, some of the positiveprogress and willingness that we have seen.


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23. The exact form any such action might take is of course a matter for you. We would,however, like to offer some considerations which we believe could usefully informyour decision.

24. Firstly, we believe that, on balance, councillors should not be absolved of all

decision-making responsibility. That would be unfair on those who have showngenuine commitment to the recovery so far. In the short term, it is important thatthey set a budget and council tax next month: much work has already been done,and councillors must be responsible and accountable for the difficult choices thatthat entails. In addition, and even more importantly, if Councillors were to lose theirdecision-making responsibilities, there would be no clear assessment structure fora return of powers.

25. In the longer term, retaining some form of decision-making within the councilwould require councillors to develop and demonstrate a more mature approach totheir responsibilities, which would in turn inform a future decision on ending the

intervention. Any such retained decision-making must, though, be tightly controlledand circumscribed, perhaps by limiting the issues on which the council can decide,or subjecting its decision-making to external control and accountability.

26. Secondly, we detect a real risk that some councillors could exploit a furtherdirection for their own political ends and thus enhance their chances of re-electionin 2012 on a platform of resisting external control. That sort of continuedantagonism cannot be in the interests of the island and its citizens. Further actionneeds to require councillors to change their ways; anything which encouragedthem to portray themselves as victims or martyrs could be counter-productive.

27. Finally, we strongly believe that the long-term viability of the council demands awholesale process of democratic renewal: only then can we be sure that thepolitical culture will improve. As it stands, the council has among the highestproportions of members returned unopposed and among the lowest proportions offemale councillors (2 out of 40). It also has some councillors who are returned ascandidates for national political parties (or are known members of them) butchoose then to join one of the various independent groupings. All of that mustchange, and it can only do so if more citizens are encouraged to stand for election,and to do so because of a genuine commitment to govern the island effectively andaccountably. There is probably a role for the Electoral Commission and the

political parties in this, but the Board would be happy to contribute too if you wish.At the heart of the problems of Anglesey lies the ability to take the electorate forgranted. Our focus must be on active citizenship, participation and representation

28. These considerations lead us to suggest a possible model for further action, whichwe set out in the annex to this paper. You will wish to consider this alongside otherpossibilities, and with advice on the scope and applicability of your powers, whichis beyond our remit. But we believe this offers a good balance between increasingthe stringency of the intervention, and building on the progress that the Council hasmade so far. It also upholds the rights of the people of Anglesey to have theirvoice heard at a time when public services are most under threat.

Yr Athro / Prof Elan Closs Stephens CBE, MA (Oxon), D Litt (Glamorgan), FRSACadeirydd / Chair


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Documents

31 Jan Recovery Board Report