July 26 2012
Honesty Pays??? In an attempt to improve democratic accountability at local level., the Welsh Assembly has recently passed the Local Government Measure (LGM) .This is an uphill task and I am not sure the LGM is equal to it, but only time will tell.
One of the new provisions is a requirement that county councils should set up a democratic services committee.
Pembrokeshire County Council's version has six members: Cllrs Brian Hall, Johnny Allen Mirehouse, Keith Lewis and Tom Richards (Independent Plus party), Tom Tudor (Lab) and Rhys Sinnett (Plaid), who is also the chairman.
In terms of democracy, the committee is off to a poor start because the Independent party has 67% of the seats which is way out of line with its strength on the council as a whole where it holds just 53%.
As the mathematicians among you will have already spotted, this means that the opposition which holds 47% of the seats on the council has only 33% of the seats on this important committee.
This huge imbalance, you might be surprised to learn, is the result of the application of what are commonly known as "the political balance rules" contained in the Local Government and Housing act 1989.
The political balance rules require that a majority party in the council is entitled to the majority of seats on all committees.
The problem arises because you can't divide an even number into two unequal portions with a difference of less than two.
So a party could have a single-seat majority on the council and a two-seat majority on all committees.
This imbalance is even more pronounced where small committees are concerned - the least possible majority on a six-member committee is 4 - 2.
At the council's AGM I did put forward a modest proposal to increase the numbers on these committees to seven in which case the majority group would have been entitled to four seats and the opposition three, or 57% - 43%; still some distance from exact proportionality much much closer than the present set-up.
Unfortunately, the IPPG block vote, with some assistance from Labour, easily saw off this challenge to their domination.
The upshot is that those 13 members who are unaffiliated to any group (21% of the total membership) have no representation on these six person committees with the exception of the urgency committee where they have a single seat.
How, or why, the urgency committee was selected as being a suitable resting place for an unaffiliated member, rather than one of the other three six-member committees, is not altogether clear, but it is something of an empty gesture because, according to the council's website, this committee last met in September 2002.
The upshot is that quite a few of us, who campaigned as independent independents with a promise not to join any political group, find ourselves excluded from important bodies such as the audit, democratic services and senior staff committees.
It is a strange form of democracy where members are penalised for keeping their election promises.
Making a mark Grumpette has been taking what I consider to be an unhealthy interest in the story about Sir David Steel's wife who marked her 70th birthday by having a jaguar tattooed on her shoulder.
The jaguar (feline) is the symbol at the top of Sir David's coat of arms which he adopted on being elevated to a member of the order of the Knights of the Thistle, or somesuch.
And he chose a jaguar (feline) because he has a passion for jaguar cars and currently drives a 20-year old model.
Subtle lot these Lib Dems.
Not approving of ladies of late middle-age with tattoos, this presents something of a problem, because forbidding such a tattoo would militate against my liberal principles that people should be free to do whatever they please so long as it doesn't harm others.
In any case, if I made known my objections that would only make her more determined.
Fortunately, I still have a few years to devise a counter-strategy - how many I am not allowed to tell - so I determined that, when the Honours Committee send me the letter that I've been expecting for some time informing me that they have me in mind for the Order of the Dragon or the Leek, whichever it is in Wales, I will politely write back and decline.
However, that scheme suffered a blow over breakfast this morning when she told me Lady Steel's decision to replicate her husband's coat of arms on her shoulder was an example of feminine submission.
"If I was going to do that," she said, "I would choose the Three Legs of Man in tribute to my birthplace,"
So, at least the Knighthood is safe - my mother will be pleased.
Arise Sir Michael! - that has a nice ring to it.
Willing to wound Pembrokeshire County Council's problems with its child safeguarding procedures took another dramatic twist recently when the Education Minister Leighton Andrews used his statutory powers to give powers of direction to the Pembrokeshire Ministerial Board - the five person commission headed by a retired High Court judge which has been sent in to help the council put its house in order.
There were several things in the Minister's letter setting out his reasons for this drastic measure that cause concern; including:
a) there has been a lack of oversight by elected members and officers, at the most senior level within the authority, of the management and handling of cases of alleged professional abuse in education services;
b) that the absence of effective governance in relation to safeguarding and protecting children reflects specific failures within the culture of the authority as a whole; and
c) the shortcomings with the authority’s arrangements to safeguard and protect children are longstanding and systemic, and that this is
indicative of the deep-seated nature of these problems and failings within the authority.
And: “The lack of effective democratic accountability and control is a core deficit which has consequences of a generally pervasive kind. It is the root cause of the failings identified in the various external Reports and by this Board and its predecessor. Specifically, there is a lack of clarity and understanding in relation to roles and responsibilities; a lack of transparency as information is not shared; an absence of effective challenge and scrutiny at all levels; and a lack of appropriate record keeping with particular reference to decision making.And: In its report of 27 May 2012 the Board advised the Welsh Ministers that in its view the authority does not see the need for change in the culture and modes of operation which it has always followed. On the contrary, it wishes to see them preserved.
Announcing his decision to the Welsh Assembly the Minister added: However, the direction makes clear why we as a Welsh Government have little confidence in certain senior officers.
Pretty damning stuff, but nothing that will come as a surprise to readers of this column.
However, while much has been made of the need for elected members to take control of the authority, there is very little of real substance in the above statements.
My understanding is that we, as a council, employ these senior officers on behalf of the people of Pembrokeshire and it is our duty to hold them to account.
But short of falling back on the old cliche that "the buck stops here" there is nothing in the Minister's pronouncements to justify the call for "heads to roll", as the Western Telegraph put it in a recent editorial.
The "senior officers" are not named, nor is there any detail of their alleged shortcomings.
Indeed, the whole business brings to mind Alexander Pope's famous lines in Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot:Willing to wound, and yet afraid to strike,
Just hint a fault, and hesitate dislike.
Healthy eating While on the subject of poetry, the item on the news this morning about the benefits of eating apples reminds me of my grandmother's little ditty:
While an apple a day keeps the doctor away,
An onion a day keeps the whole world at bay.