Scrutiny demand Cabinet re-think!

There was a ‘first’ at County Hall today. It was the first meeting of an Overview and Scrutiny Committee to debate a Cabinet decision that had been ‘called in.’

The venue was the Trelawny Room. It was the Corporate Resources OSC and the subject was the Severance Policy for Cornwall Council staff. The Cabinet had decided to drastically cut the amount that would be payable in the event of future redundancies.

The call-in was arranged by Committee Chairman John Keeling, due to concerns about how the decision had been taken, the lack of consultation with the unions and other staff members, as well as a range of issues of detail. John proved to be a masterful Chair and the meeting was very much in the style of a parliamentary Select Committee, with members quizzing two senior officers of the Council, a union official and the Deputy Leader.

There was a broad consensus that the process leading up to the Cabinet’s decision had been flawed and numerous questions were also tabled about the decision itself.

I queried why certain employees who might be made redundant from 2010 onwards as a direct consequence of the move to unitary would be compensated less than those who will have left the Council’s employment before that date. I made the point that I believed all people who might lose their jobs as a result of the changes in local government should be treated the same.

The Director replied that those employees still to be affected by the ‘transition’ period would have redundancy payments calculated on the existing policies, but later job losses as part of the ‘transformation’ (whether identified in the unitary bid or not) and ‘efficiencies’ would be treated differently through the new policies.

He said this was equitable. I disagreed and described his distinction as inequitable and morally indefensible.

The Committee does not have the power to over-ride the decision but can ask the Cabinet to think again. I am glad to be able to report that the Committee voted unanimously to ask the Cabinet to revisit the decision itself and the processes it followed to come to the decision.

An update

There are two reasons why I have not blogged for the last three weeks or so. The first was my wonderful ten days holiday in Gwynedd during the middle of October (see above). And the second was the somewhat manic nature of the last couple of weeks.

It has certainly not been quiet.

Cornwall Council has gone public on its ‘bleak’ financial position and the possibility of a £15 million overspend. There has been the Ofsted inspection into Children’s Services which have been branded ‘inadequate’ on 22 out of the 33 areas assessed.

The date for the Public Inquiry into the incinerator has been set (March 16) and the STIG Strategy Group now has the task to prepare a wide range of papers (Statement of Case, Statement of Evidence, etc).

The list goes on ...

New roles in Clay Country

In this last week, I have attended my first meetings as one of Cornwall Council’s three members on the Board of Clay Country Local Action and a Director of the ClayTAWC facility in St Dennis.

Clay Country Local Action is a Rural Development Programme and between 2007 and 2013 will invest £1.8 million in to the local area. Priorities for the programme will include (i) Harnessing the Natural Environment, (ii) Sustainable tourism and (iii) Providing new opportunities for local people.

ClayTAWC is the Clay Area Training and Work Centre, which provides support to local residents in training, education and working towards employment. It is also a wonderful local community venue for local people.

I am looking forward to playing my part in both Clay Country Local Action and ClayTAWC to the best of my ability.

St Dennis Public Meeting

On Friday (25th September), Fred Greenslade, John Wood and I organised a public meeting at St Dennis in association with St Dennis Against Incineration and the Parish Council.

The meeting was primarily to inform people about what was likely to happen over the next few months, now that SITA had appealed against the refusal of their application for an incinerator in this area.

Julian German (the cabinet member for Waste) and Corporate Director Tom Flanagan both started the meeting by assuring local people that the Council will robustly defend the appeal.

The meeting covered the content of the Integrated Waste Management Contract, the appeal (which will probably be through a Public Inquiry scheduled no later than March/April 2010), the potential outcomes of the appeal and the work of the Council’s new Waste Advisory Panel to look at all of the options available for dealing with waste in Cornwall.

We also made sure that people were aware of the limited extent to which the contract could be varied without falling foul of procurement and contract rules. But Fred, John and I pledged that we would do everything in our power to make sure that all options around the termination of the Contract were also properly investigated and considered.

I can also report that Cornwall Council has agreed to meet with representatives of the communities of St Dennis and Treviscoe in order to explore how the Council can assist local people and organisations in presenting their views to the Public Inquiry. This meeting will be organised in the near-future.

SOUL in St Austell

Once again, it has been a few days since my last post.

On Thursday (24th September), I was invited to speak at a public meeting organised by SOUL (Save Our Unspoilt Land) in St Austell. This group has been set-up following the news that Wainhomes plan to put in a planning application for 1,500 new properties adjacent to the town.

I focussed on problems with the planning system. In particular, the ridiculous housing numbers proposed for the old Restormel area (contained within the Regional Spatial Strategy) and how the recent delays in producing local planning policies (compounded by the setting up of the unitary authority) meant developers were testing the limits of what would normally be allowed.

I also appealed to the meeting to see the big picture and to also focus demands on a proper housing strategy for the St Austell area.

Since the meeting it has become clear that the Regional Spatial Strategy for the South West is in difficulties. Following legal challenges on similar documents in the East of England, the government has instructed that further work will need to be carried out on all Regional Spatial Strategies.