Meeting documents

The meeting was opened with a Prayer by Councillor Eurfryn Davies.

1

DECLARATION OF INTEREST

There was no declaration of interest by either Member or Officer.

2

TO RECEIVE ANY ANNOUNCEMENTS FROM THE CHAIRPERSON, LEADER, MEMBERS OF THE EXECUTIVE OR THE HEAD OF THE PAID SERVICES

to the meeting. He emphasised that Members were present to listen only and that there would not be an opportunity for any debate.

The Minister for Social Justice and Local Government, Mr Carl Sargeant AM said he had been appointed to the post in December 2009 and was anxious to continue with the work which had been commenced by his predecessor Dr Brian Gibbon. He thanked Members for their attendance and indicated he believed Members were well aware of the reason for his visit.

He continued, “Last summer the Auditor General for Wales published a damning report on the governance of this Council.  My predecessor intervened immediately, and directed you to rectify the problems that the Auditor General had identified.  

Those problems included poor member behaviour, a lack of strategic direction and inadequate public engagement.  That is a toxic mixture which demands prompt, vigorous and sustainable action from members and officers alike.  

No-one here contested the Auditor General’s analysis or our intervention.    Your response was that “it’s a fair cop”, that much had to change and that you would make the collective effort needed to achieve that.  

That is vital – the first step in resolving problems like these is acknowledging that they exist.  But it is not enough simply to state your support in principle.  You need to take action, and that is what I want to talk about today.  

You have made some progress already.  For instance, I am pleased that group leaders are meeting regularly to manage council business and to consider conduct issues.  But you need to do much more to tackle the problems the Auditor General found.

At the heart of these problems is poor member behaviour – conflict within and outside this chamber, poor relationships between members and officers, and a persistent focus on minor and internal issues.  That both prevents the council from operating effectively and seriously damages its public reputation.  

No doubt many of you have stories to tell about these issues.  But let us be quite clear that personalising things or apportioning blame will get us nowhere. The problems that you face are too deep-seated to be caused solely by individual misbehaviour.  

Instead, they arise because this council does not focus enough on the real needs of this island and its citizens.  Debate too often concentrates on personal and parochial conflicts that are completely irrelevant to those you serve.  Individual misbehaviour is a symptom of the problems that you face – it is not the cause.

Of course, politics at any level is a rough trade:  politicians habitually disagree with each other, often strongly.  No-one is saying that debate should proceed in complete harmony and consensus.  

But disagreement should reflect genuine and sincere differences about policy and service delivery.   If I were to stop people in the street outside this building and ask them what they wanted their council to deal with, I am pretty sure that none of them would mention who said what to whom in a committee meeting here, the ownership of a small area of land in Amlwch, or the identity of David Bowles’s former landlord.   

Focusing on personal rivalries and allegations like this is self-indulgent in any circumstances.  Doing so despite the numerous and pressing problems that this island faces is even worse. It is a betrayal of Anglesey’s citizens and communities, who deserve action and leadership, not petty bickering.  

Putting that right involves several things.  Firstly and most obviously, misbehaviour needs to be addressed properly and anyone who obstructs recovery should be dealt with particularly severely.   Those in positions of authority within the council, like group leaders, need to take appropriate action and I am pleased that some of them have.  

Your standards committee must also deal with individual cases and also proactively raise awareness of standards issues.  The members of your committee carry out a difficult job without any recompense.  They show an admirable commitment to public service in doing so.  

But I believe that the committee does not meet often enough.  Nor is it proactive enough in educating members and raising standards.  

I am also concerned that there are no members of this Council on the committee.   Co-opted members are vital to ensure that standards committees are impartial and objective.  But Councillors themselves must also contribute to maintaining standards by serving on the standards committee.  

That happens everywhere else in Wales.  The fact that it does not here suggests you feel unable or unwilling to regulate your own behaviour.  It clearly demonstrates how far recovery still has to go.  

So I want to see your standards committee overhauled as soon as possible, with a refreshed membership, a remit to raise standards proactively, and at least quarterly meetings.  I also want some of you back as standards committee members by the start of the next municipal year.

It is also vital that all members of the Council are fully involved in its work, whether as members of the executive or in an overview and scrutiny role.  I have been impressed by some of your executive’s work recently.  In particular, it has shown courage and foresight in tackling school rationalisation.

But your overview and scrutiny systems need serious re-examination.  Your three committees met on fewer than twenty occasions between them last year.  Those are by some margin the lowest figures in Wales.  

Even when they do meet, your committees concentrate too much on internal issues rather than the services you provide.  For instance, your principal scrutiny committee has not substantively discussed social services since 2005.  That means both that critical public services are not being properly scrutinised, and that scrutiny members are not fully involved in the business of the council.  

That must change. By the start of the next municipal year, I expect to see positive and radical reforms to your scrutiny system.  These should significantly increase its capacity and engage non-executive members in scrutinising policies and services fully.  

You should also treat all groups fairly in making appointments.  In particular, I want to see the chair of this Council become a depoliticised post perhaps through rotating between groups, as happens elsewhere. The Chair of the Principle Scrutiny Committee must go to the Opposition as should the Chair of Audit. You should allocate the remaining committee chairs and vice-chairs between groups in a balanced way.  

And I expect the same of outside appointments which this Council makes.  These positions are not personal or political trophies – they must be filled in a way which reflects all shades of opinion and which best gets the job done.

All of these issues are critical.  They are among the recommendations which my Recovery Board made to me in its most recent report.  The Board has also published that report and I urge you all to read it.  

I agree with all of the Board’s recommendations and have asked it to monitor developments closely over the next few months.    I expect to see clear and rapid progress towards these recommendations – otherwise I may be forced to direct you to take the necessary action. Some of you will lay accusations about this being driven by Cardiff. Let me be clear as a North Wales AM ensuring that the people of Anglesey have a Council they can rely on is a priority.

Structural change can only take you so far, though.  You know better than me that Anglesey faces some pressing problems.  The most important step you can take is to develop and support a collective culture which looks outwards at those problems and concentrates on resolving them.  

By doing that you will isolate poor behaviour, and show it to be the self-indulgence that it is.  You will demonstrate to me and the Recovery Board that recovery is possible. Most importantly, you will demonstrate to the people of Anglesey that you are worthy of the trust they have placed in you.

As part of this, I have asked my Recovery Board to meet you individually.  The Board will want to know how you, as individuals, can help make this council fit for purpose.  They and I will want to hear about how things can improve – not about accusations and allocations of blame.   I know that many of you are committed to putting Anglesey and its citizens first and YOU must now stand up to those members who do not share these priorities as you too have a responsibility to drive the recovery of Anglesey.

Earlier I said you probably knew why I was here.  Actually, I do not want to be here under these circumstances.  

I do not want to be involved in running a council that should be running itself.  I do not want to believe that issues which are routine elsewhere suddenly become impossible when you cross the Menai Strait.  I particularly do not want to extend my involvement by giving you more stringent and detailed directions.  

But be in no doubt that I can and, if necessary, I will.  I could, for instance, establish and dissolve committees, make internal and external appointments, amend your constitution, entitlement to and level of your entitlements to allowances or your arrangements for delegated powers.  I could even take functions off you altogether.  

So the real question is not why I am here.  It’s why each of you are here.  

If you aim to serve those who elected you, then you have a central role in putting an end to the problems you have faced.  You can transform this organisation, and make it better able to address the needs of this island and its citizens.  You will have my full support and that of my Recovery Board in doing so, and in bringing our intervention to a positive end.  

There is only a short window of time for you to make real progress on these issues as I cannot allow petty politics of the council to put in jeopardy the future of the island – the services that its citizen receives and the decisions that it needs to take in order to make Anglesey fit for the future.  

Without your immediate active support and involvement, the recovery that I am demanding will not happen. Although I have asked my officials to look at failure to comply.  I do not want to contemplate the consequences of such a failure ,and I doubt you would want to either. Failure to complete the tasks required will drive me to consider the future of the council as an autonomous body.  Do not force me to go there. “

The Chair of the County Council thanked the Minister for his address and Members for their attentiveness. He believed members had been given a great deal of information to consider and declared the meeting closed.

O.GLYN JONES

CHAIR