FULL COUNCIL 18 APRIL 2012
AGENDA ITEM 18 QUESTIONS RECEIVED FROM MEMBERS
1. From Councillor Eric Seward
Question to Cabinet Portfolio Holder with responsibility for Environmental
Services
Garden (Brown) Bin Collection
As a result of the recent disruption to the Garden Bin collection service
due to the operator experiencing difficulties in obtaining fuel for their
vehicles what lessons have been learnt to try and ensure that the service
is not similarly disrupted in future.
2. From Councillor Graham Jones
1. The publication of the council’s magazine Outlook is governed by the
“Code Of Recommended Practice On Local Authority Publicity”. .Local
authorities are required by section 4{1] of the Local Government Act
1986 to have regard to the contents of this code before coming to any
decisions on publicity. Section 6 of the act defines publicity as “any
communication in whatever form, addressed to the public at large or a
section of the public”. The code therefore applies in relation to all
decisions by local authorities relating to paid advertising and leaflet
campaigns, publication of free newspapers and news sheets and
maintenance of websites – including the hosting of material which is
created by third parties.
2. For the 6 or so years that Outlook was part of my portfolio there was
absolutely no political interference. Our very competent and able media
and communications team had a free hand to report as they saw fit.
Occasionally suggestions might be offered and sometimes they were
accepted and sometimes they were not. Outlook won an award winning
publication and was acknowledged by a clear majority of residents as
the primary source of their information about Council services. .
3. It is clear, in my view that the last issue of Outlook was heavily biased
and failed the test of Objectivity and Even-handedness as set out in the
Code, both in content and emphasis it was heavily politicised. This
seemed strange since I am aware that the communications manager
has strong views on the importance of editorial independence.
4. Investigations have unearthed the shock revelation that Councillor
Trevor Ivory has made political interventions in the editorial content of
the magazine. In response to a direct question from Councillor Virginia
Gay the Communications Manager said that the quote attributed to Cllr
John Lee in Outlook was amended by Cllr Ivory by the addition of the
words “After years of neglect we will do everything we can to
invest in the future of the District.” That statement was attributed to
Cllr Lee when in fact it was provided by Councillor Trevor Ivory and
therefore in my opinion the residents of the District were misled. The
Communications Manager also revealed in response to direct
questions “They [quotes] were then sent to Trevor for approval as is
now the case for all Outlook articles and came back with his
amendments….” This is scandalous and is a clear breach of the Code.
There were a number of other examples of politicising in the last
Outlook which diminished the public’s confidence in its integrity.
Will the leader now guarantee that there will be absolutely no political
interference in future magazines and that the editorial content and style
will be left in the capable hands of the Communications Manager, in
whose integrity the public have long had confidence and in order to avoid
charges of complicity in these shocking events will she remove Cllr Ivory
from the cabinet, replace him with someone capable of understanding the
Code of Recommended Practice and ask him to make a financial
contribution to the authority reflecting the cost to the council tax payers of
producing what in essence became a Conservative party publication.
3. From Councillor Graham Jones
Question for Leader at Full Council on Wednesday 18th April 2012
1. Media training was discussed at and recommended by the Member
Training, Development and Support Group on 30 August 2011. The
Group agreed the following:
a) Media training would be limited to Cabinet members and the
Corporate Management Team (CMT) but it would be useful for the
Communications Manager to write an article for the Members’
Bulletin advising all members on how to deal with media enquiries.
2. These minutes were endorsed as a correct copy at the subsequent
meeting on 7 December and endorsed by Cabinet at its meeting on
6 February. The training cost of an external consultant was £1,250
plus £80 expenses and was delivered in two half day sessions. No
other members of staff were present other than The Chief
Executive, Steve, and Nick
3. Cllr Eales gave her approval on 2 June 2011, having discussed the
training with her Cabinet colleagues. [Note: the 2nd of June was
the date that I was given and I suspect that this should be Jan?]
4. Peter Battrick and Rod Lee discussed a number of providers. They
compared costs and capabilities and decided that not only was
Chris Kelly the most experienced trainer of local government
officers and Members, he also offered the most appropriate training
package for Cabinet's needs and the cheapest deal.
5. The cost of the training overall is estimated at £1,330 to which must
be added the salary costs etc of the three highest paid officers of
the authority. This is conservatively estimated at £1,250 giving a
total cost of an estimated £2,500+.It is not clear when the leader
and cabinet were aware of the cost or indeed whether they ever
had that knowledge. Thus the leader and Cabinet agreed external
training by a consultant which cost hard pressed council tax payers
over £2,500 and at the same time cutting services, raising car
parking fees. This at a time when we have a first class
communications manager and an expensive corporate
management team who should have been perfectly capable of
delivering media training.
Will the leader please advise which of these statements she disagrees with?