Former leader hits back at Cheshire East bosses

michaeljones

The former Leader of Cheshire East Council has lashed out at the current Council leaders after they blamed the "difficult organisational challenges" they face on "legacy matters".

In a letter to the Secretary of State, the Acting Chief Executive Kath O'Dwyer and Council Leader Rachel Bailey said that current scandals, several of which have been referred to the police for investigation, relate to "the period of organisational leadership of the previous council leader".

The open letter was sent in response to a call from local campaign groups, including Residents of Wilmslow and Hands off Sandbach, for MP Sajid Javid to initiate an independent enquiry into the way the Council is being administered and consider placing Cheshire East Council into Special Measures.

Kath O'Dwyer and Rachel Bailey wrote "Some of these matters are the subject of ongoing police and audit investigation and/or internal disciplinary or member conduct proceedings. Nevertheless, we have approached these matters in a robust and transparent way and will continue to do so, putting as much information as we can in the public domain as and when issues come to light, taking steps to ensure that any matters of concern are fully and independently investigated and that any recommendations are shared openly and acted upon without delay. It is important to note however, that these are legacy matters, not issues relating to the current leadership or management of the council."

Councillor Michael Jones has responded by writing to the Secretary of State Sajid Javid himself to "put the record straight".

He wrote "I believe the unspecified "legacy issues" referred to in their letter is simply a deliberate attempt to distract and excuse their ineptness both at political and officer level. This is clearly understood by the action groups now springing up.

"It should be noted that in my cabinet, Cllr Rachel Bailey held domain over the Children and Families portfolio and Cllr Clowes controlled Adults and public health with total autonomy. These accounted for some 65% of our net budget. Cllr Bailey, for a significant period also had responsibility for delivering the much-delayed Local Plan. Therefore, if there are legacy issues surely Councillor Bailey and Clowes must take the lions share, such as did their portfolios."

At the time of his resignation in December 2015, Cllr Jones says the council was rated number one in 13 areas nationally, including rural business support.

He said "We had efficient services and the council's resident survey in 2015 had the highest approval results in the council's history reflected in May 2015 with handsome General and Local Election victories which saw all our MPs re-elected and an increased tally of Conservative Councillors elected locally. Contrast these results with 2017 where we saw excellent.MP, Edward Timpson lose his conservative majority by some 50 votes helped by Rachel Bailey protesting alongside Laura Smith about education funding. It was this naïve act which I believe was the cause of the loss of the seat."

He goes on to refer to the recent announcement that the Council is facing a £17.7 million budget shortfall, which represents 6.7% of the Council's net revenue budget, saying "The overspend is also attributable to the council spending millions on consultants, interim staff and the cost of covering staff suspensions which includes the Chief Executive, the Monitoring Officer and several in Environmental Health. Even the S151 officer has had his duties removed and given to an interim. The three key governance roles are now being carried out by "temporary staff", alarming to say the least."

Michael Jones said "Staff morale has plummeted, staff grievances soared particularly complaints of current bullying. The Cabinet are collectively quiet and secretive and the attack on me is to distract you from the incessant media scandals, concerning air quality monitoring, staff threatening suicide, lying about not paying minimum wage to care staff; it is endless and current.

"Only last week was there a headline blasting the Council for "Lies and Cover ups", this isn't legacy stuff!

The former leader goes on to claim some legacy issues for the four years he was Leader, saying " £9.6 billion of investment in Cheshire East in my time as leader including, HS2 coming to Crewe, (overshadowed now by the subsequent loss of the HS2 engineering jobs to Stafford under Rachel Bailey), the Bentley investment for the Bentaga, the saving of Alderley Park, and the delivery and funding for a plethora of new roads, roundabouts and junctions, all making Cheshire East one of the safest areas in the country for road users. All done without a council tax increase, without an overspend and strong asset sales."

Photo: Michael Jones.

Tags:
Cheshire East Council
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Comments

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Alan Brough
Friday 22nd September 2017 at 1:07 pm
This unseemly rant by Michael Jones serves only to highlight the mess at Sandbach.

He heaps praise upon himself and his tenure with some very questionable statistics - not least the last one claiming that Cheshire Easts roads are the safest for road users......hardly surprising since they are gridlocked with road works, have been for some considerable time and will continue to be so for the foreseeable future.