ARB(07) Report

BWRDD ADFER YNYS MÔN  ANGLESEY RECOVERY BOARD

Seventh Meeting, July 29th 2010

Report to the Minister for Social Justice and Local Government

1. The direction to the Isle of Anglesey County Council of August 12th 2009
included the establishment of a Recovery Board to advise you on the
progress that the Council makes towards addressing the serious corporate
weakness identified by the Auditor General for Wales. As part of that, our
terms of reference require us to provide you with a report after each
meeting.

2. The Anglesey Recovery Board met for the seventh meeting on Thursday
29th July. This is our seventh report to you.

3. During the fourth meeting it was agreed that the Board would move from
evidence-gathering and into monitoring and analysis of progress made (or
not made) by the Council towards recovery. Therefore the seventh
meeting focused on the how the Council is progressing following recent
political activity, in particular the formation of the new ‘Alliance’.

Interim Managing Director’s Report

4. The Board was joined by the Council’s interim Managing Director, Mr

David Bowles. Mr Bowles reported on recent developments within the
Council, including the current political situation.

5. Mr Bowles reported that the current political situation within the Council,
following the re-grouping, appears stable. The Alliance has committed to
producing a manifesto and joint statement and work has been done
around producing a forward work plan. Ian Bottrill will be working with the
Council to create ownership on political protocols, coaching and
mentoring. He will also be working on bridging the gap between the
Alliance and opposition groups.

6. The Board and I feel these are all positive steps. Nevertheless, the Board
remains concerned that the Alliance's numerical strength is not great and
that this could be eroded as the Council faces many difficult financial
decisions.

7. Mr. Bowles also reported that a lot of work is currently in development on

the strengthening of corporate teamwork among the cadre of senior
officers and middle managers.
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8. The Council is currently undertaking a fairly extensive budget consultation

process. An Affordable Priorities Programme has been launched in order
to secure savings within the Council. Mr Bowles reported that work around
the Budget was under control and started from a relatively stable base.

9. The Board, in its discussion on the Managing Director’s report, was

concerned that the focus of the Council in the past two or three months
has again been on member behaviour. I will reiterate what I said in my
letters to you and Mr Bowles that the Board and I believe it is time for the
Council to redirect attention to focus more closely on the service, strategic
and financial plans for Anglesey. This is now a critical issue given the
financial conditions in the public sector already as well as beginning to
prepare for the implications of the UK Comprehensive Spending Review in
October and the subsequent Assembly Government budget. Whilst I
appreciate that extensive work is being done by Mr Bowles and officers on
bridging the Budget gap for the next five years, more attention is still
required by Councillors, who will need to be advised, steered and
supported by senior management, on the challenges of managing with
less and the inevitable changes this will entail in the delivery of services.

Alliance’s “terms of engagement” / handling of potential referral to

the Public Service Ombudsman for Wales

10. It is becoming clear that that the naming of two councillors in the Alliance’s
terms of engagement remains a significant issue of contention between
the Alliance and the opposition. In addition, it seems that one member of
the Alliance has not signed up to the terms of engagement.

11. As you said at the time of the Alliance’s formation, those terms are a
matter for local decision. And naturally, councillors who misbehave and
who breach the code of conduct must be dealt with appropriately.
However, we are concerned that the terms could perpetuate personality
issues within the Council. We would urge the Council to dispose of the
two existing Ombudsman complaints as soon as possible. Then, all
councillors could move on to addressing the very real problems that the
island faces.

Update from the Leader of Anglesey County Council

12. The Board was also joined by the Leader of the Council, Cllr Clive
McGregor, who was invited to discuss how the Council was progressing
following recent political changes.

13. Cllr McGregor believed the Alliance was stable and committed to recovery.
Cllr McGregor remains as Leader of the Council but has stepped down as
leader of the Llais i Fôn group. He has done this so he can concentrate all
of his efforts on being leader of the Council. The Council’s portfolio holder
for Finance, Cllr Tom Jones, has taken over as leader of the group. In
addition, Cllr McGregor hopes that this change of Group Leadership, a
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change that will enable the Group Leader to spend time strengthening
partnerships, will encourage members to join the group.

14. At the time of writing, a total of four executive meetings have taken place
since the Alliance was formed at the beginning of June. All of these appear
to have been handled in a constructive manner.

15. During the middle of June, the newly formed Executive at its meeting
resolved to recommend the full Council to establish closer collaboration
with Gwynedd on planning issues. This included a Joint Planning Policy
Unit (JPPU) being created which will commence work on a single Local
Development Plan for Gwynedd and Anglesey. In addition a joint planning
policy committee will be formed as a formal cross boundary decision
making body.

16. We believe this is a highly constructive approach which will strengthen

capacity through partnership working. We will of course keep you posted
on developments. We also believe strongly that there are a range of
other opportunities for increasing the amount of joint working and
collaboration between the authorities in line with developments elsewhere
in North Wales and your policy approach more generally. In any case,
developing these sort of arrangements will be an inevitable and essential
part of the Council’s response to dealing with the service challenges
resulting from fewer resources.

17. In addition, Recovery Board member Mr Graham Williams attended an

Executive Board meeting on 22nd June. Mr Williams found the approach of
individual members and of the Board as a whole to be well mannered and
constructive. The Leader was confident in his chairing of business and in
his handling of individual members. Differences of perspective were
evident in relation to a number of items but were worked through
constructively with members taking care to recognise and give weight to
views expressed but also assisting colleagues to gain a rounded view of
relevant considerations. As a result, agreement emerged on how matters
should be dealt with in a most encouraging way. Mr Williams was
impressed by the way the recently constituted Board functioned and with
the way individual members contributed in a spirit of supporting each other
and of seeking to make progress.

18. I am therefore pleased to report that we are seeing a positive start for the
Alliance in managing its own partnerships. It is still early days and there
are likely to be very difficult challenges ahead, in particular dealing with the
Council’s budget, service prioritisation and dealing with a very narrow
political majority.

Update from Cllr Bryan Owen, Leader of the Original Independent Group
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19. Due to the recent political changes and to ensure the Board adopts an
inclusive approach in terms of monitoring the Council’s recovery, we
invited Cllr Bryan Owen, the leader of the largest opposition group (the
Original Independents), to join part of the meeting.

20. Cllr Owen became leader of the group following Cllr McGregor’s decision
to form his new group, Llais i Fôn, as breakaway from the Original
Independent Group.

21. Cllr Owen informed the Board that he believed his group was strong and
that no members wished to join the Alliance. We were encouraged to learn
that his group were instead committed to providing effective scrutiny and
challenge to the Alliance. However, my Board and I were concerned to
learn from Cllr Owen that opposition members were afraid to offer
challenge in the Council chamber in fear of being regarded as undermining
the work of the Council. He also felt that the current practice of naming
and shaming individuals was preventing the Council from moving on.

22. As your Recovery Board we have deliberately refrained from taking sides
in the new groupings in Anglesey. However we trust that the opposition will
approach their role positively and that the Alliance will respect their rights
to do so. Being able to provide and accept robust but constructive
opposition is a key test of political maturity and it will also indicate how well
the Council is progressing towards recovery. It should be made absolutely
clear that offering constructive criticism is welcome and we would urge all
members, inside and outside the Alliance, to act accordingly in the
interests of maintaining an effective and well ordered democratic forum.

23. On a more positive note, the group has discussed producing an Original
Independents Group web page in order to attract / engage with potential
members and the general public. We believe this to be a positive and
innovative approach and would encourage the Original Independents to
adopt it.

Succession planning – appointing a Chief Executive

24. The Board is mindful that David Bowles is an interim appointment and
there is a need to establish long term sustainable senior management
arrangements for the Council

Anglesey County Council’s Archives

25. In my last report I informed you that the National Archives (TNA) were
moving to prohibit Anglesey County Council from maintaining an archive of
public records, to close the archive that exists and move the records
elsewhere due to the management of the service and the condition of the
building currently used. However since then the Council’s Executive
Committee agreed the purchase of an alternative office for their archives.
In addition, both TNA and Cymal have offered professional help to the
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archive service to develop the design for the new office providing that the
project will go forward in October.

26. This is a very promising development and the initial threat to remove
public records from Anglesey has now been addressed. If the development
of the new building continues as planned, Anglesey County Council will
have a very good archive building much superior to the current position.
We are grateful to the Director of Education and Leisure and his staff for
their hard work in addressing an ongoing and deteriorating situation
successfully, despite the strains of the current context.

Communication

27. Anglesey County Council has demonstrated that it is serious about

achieving a sustainable recovery; this is particularly evident in how they
responded to the set actions you put to them during your address to Full
Council at the end of February. However we are unsure whether or not
these achievements have been effectively communicated to the entire
Council and the citizens of Anglesey. As a result the Board and I have
discussed the possibility of creating a designated page on the Council’s
website to highlight the Council’s achievements since the intervention, as
well as providing information on the Board’s activities since being
established.

28. The Board has already began work on identifying key activities, enablers,
suggestions and influences the Recovery Board has had since its
inception over the past 9 months from October 2009 . Those suggestions
have been delivered through your Ministerial letters and responded to by
the full Council. Any improvements should acknowledge the role of the
whole council, which should help to build bridges with the silent majority
within the Council.

29. Finally as I write, despite some good work, it is still a time of considerable
tension within the Council, exacerbated by the particular form of the terms
of engagement. We are monitoring and advising on a daily basis and, as
you would expect from us, we will continue to do so until the situation
becomes clearer.

Yr Athro / Prof Elan Closs Stephens CBE

Cadeirydd / Chair