A review of the Council's proposal to build a recycling station at Lyme Green Depot in Macclesfield has revealed that the aborted plans have cost Cheshire East taxpayers over £800,000.
The report, published today, also confirms that planning rules were broken, as the main contractor commenced work on the site before planning permission had been granted, officers did not comply with EU Procurement Regulations or ensure there was effective reporting to members of the council.
They also spent beyond the approved budget on the scheme breaking Finance and Contract Procedure Rules. The approved capital budget for the scheme was £650,000 but the total anticipated spend for the Lyme Green scheme at mid-May was £810,000.
Despite the cost of the project altering significantly from the figure approved by Council a revised business case was never submitted to the Capital Asset Group and the additional expenditure was committed without the approval of Cabinet.
Work began at the site on 24th October 2011, three weeks prior to a planning application being submitted on 16th November 2011.
Work ceased on 30th November 2011 after objections from planning officers and the ward member, as well as complaints from local residents. The planning application was deferred by the Strategic Planning Board on 18th January 2012 and subsequently withdrawn on 17th February 2012.
The report, commissioned by the Chief Executive and Leader, recommends "The Council as a regulatory authority, should not undertake development without planning permission even if adverse publicity is unlikely. It should apply the same standards to its own applications as it does to third parties.
"In the future all Council development projects should go through the same planning processes as third party applicants in order to ensure a consistent level of service between external applications and our own planning applications."
During a meeting with Cllr Michael Jones, Leader of Cheshire East Council, today he told me "This is not a good day for Cheshire East Council but it is a good opportunity.
"Clearly processes have not been adhered to and I as leader will ensure that this situation will be addressed in its full. We will implement robust processes to stop this happening again and they will be extensive."
"I know it is a lot of money but it is not wasted money unless we don't go to that site in the future."
The Audit and Governance Committee will consider the report at a meeting on Thursday, 14th June. Members will be asked to consider the findings and recommendations of the Internal Audit investigation, review the conduct of staff mentioned in the report and consider whether there is a case for disciplinary action to be taken.
Cllr Michael Jones added "We will announce our decisions after 14th June. I do think there will have to be a constituential change. This is something we will take robust action on and I see it as an opportunity to take Cheshire East Council forward.
"This gives me a chance to get things right. It is a terrible report but I relish the opportunity to make it work."
He added "Processes should never again be broken without severe consequences."
The Audit and Governance Committee will meet to discuss this report at 2pm on Thursday, June 14th, in the McIlroy Suite at Macclesfield Town Football Club. The meeting is open to members of the public.
Click here to read the report in full and associated appendixes.
Comments
Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below.
Just exactly who are these people? Who will manage their disciplinary process? And how do they get away with this stuff time and time again? If the rest of us abused the trust and finances of the public in this way, we'd be arrested.
The words 'resign' and 'go to jail' spring to mind here.
Indeed, these idiots should be in jail, not sitting at their desks oblivious to their inefficiency.
Who are these people anyway ............. How dare they abuse procedures and their position !
David Hadfield (Still a Grumpy Old Man) !!!
Obviously, Ms Butcher must have time on her hands from her £140,000 per annum day job making the sick, disabled and vulnerable of Cheshire East miserable.
Come on Mr Jones - control your officers, and fulfil your obligations to those you represent. You can see what people think about this - another expensive mess they have to pay for. That'll be to go alongside the fine from the Information Commissioner's Office (Data Protection) because an officer of the Council made an inappropriate email circulation containing an individual's personal information (£80,000 - the largest fine the ICO has ever imposed, though CEC achieved a reduction to £64,000 for prompt payment), the £80,000 set aside to cover Wenzel's sick leave, plus this latest obscenity - £810,000 for the aborted waste recycling plant. That's, let me see now, £954,000 that the people of Cheshire East gave the Council in good faith to provide funds to maintain their roads and pavements, care for their towns, protect their children, etc.
Who gave you lot the right to take their money and throw it down the drain? You're an incompetent, shameless disgrace.
8.0 Legal Implications (Authorised by the Council’s Deputy Monitoring
Officer)
8.1 All employees must ensure that they use any Council or other public
funds entrusted to them through their job role in a responsible and
lawful manner.
Wonder where they will go with that one.
Michael Jones, the new leader of the Council, was previously (from Sept 2011 to his election as leader in March this year) the Portfolio Holder for Resources. I wanted to know what that meant so I looked on the CEC website and found this list. "Finance, construction of medium term financial strategy and annual budget report, capital programme, capital strategy, reserves strategy, income and funding strategy, treasury management, business management, insurance, audit, democratic services, civic matters, electoral services and member training and development."
If you care to take a look at Appendix A on page 47 of the report presented to the Audit and Governance Committee on Thursday, 14 June, you will see that it is a timeline for activities relating to the waste transfer project.
http://moderngov.cheshireeast.gov.uk/ecminutes/Published/C00000486/M00004516/$$ADocPackPublic.pdf
Annex A (page 19) is also quite interesting, because it shows clearly that the main contractor was on site and working by 24 October 2011, even though the planning application for the project was not even received, much less examined and approved until 16 November 2011. So all this stuff was going on while Michael Jones was in charge of Resources.
So this is my question. If you are the councillor with particular responsibility for finance and all that other stuff listed above, wouldn't you be expected to know that the Council's officers are pouring money out, breaking EU procurement laws and their own rules? If you would be expected to know that, did Michael Jones actually know what was going on? And, if he didn't, why didn't he? Was he deliberately kept in the dark? Or was he hoping for an unobtrusive resolution?
Whatever the answer to my question, Michael Jones tells us that sorting out all this stuff is an opportunity, that he relishes this opportunity, and so on (see Lisa Reeves' report above). Bah, it's not an opportunity, it's a scandalous disgrace and it seems that some very senior people were implicated in it.
Don't stop watching this everyone please. I have a very bad feeling that they are just waiting for it all to die down so that they can bury it in a dark place. The HR Manager said at yesterday's meeting that no-one implicated in this had been suspended while the enquiry took place because he was waiting for more evidence. How much evidence do they need?