Tuesday, 20 April 2010
Directly elected mayor did not keep Doncaster Council out of the ROTTEN BOROUGHS news: DONCASTER Council as reported by the Yorkshire Post
The worst council of them all: Government steps in at Doncaste
The worst council of them all: Government steps in at Doncaster
Mayor Peter Davies yesterday
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Published Date: 20 April 2010
By Rob Waugh and Martin Slack
THE Government is to intervene in the running of crisis-hit Doncaster Council after the Audit Commission issued its report on the authority – the most damning it has ever produced on a council in its near 30-year history.
The watchdog's emergency inspection ordered in the wake of the Edlington child torture case found the council was failing the people of Doncaster and had no hope ofputting itself in order without significant government intervention.
John Denham, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, quickly moved to accept the findings and confirmed he would use statutory powers to intervene.
He also said the "nuclear option" of taking over some or all the council's functions was "actively being considered" though it is thought a second option involving an independent improvement board, chaired by a government-appointee, remains the most likely outcome.
The Audit Commission's report depicted a council at war with itself, unable to accept the elected mayoral system and still failing the town's most vulnerable children.
The watchdog launched its snap corporate governance inspection in January shortly after the conclusion of the Edlington court case, which itself followed the deaths of seven vulnerable children known to the authority's children's services.
The viciousness of the near-fatal attack by two young brothers on two other children in Edlington shocked the country and there was outrage when a serious case review found it could have been prevented by intervention by the council, along with partner agencies.
Gareth Davies, the Audit Commission's managing director of local government, said the report was "the most hard-hitting we have ever produced" which he hoped would serve as "a wake-up call and a watershed".
The report itself traced the council's problems back to the Donnygate scandal of the late 1990s. Few areas of the council were spared, with criticism directed at some key councillors, though not by name, the elected English Democrat mayor, Peter Davies, and senior officers
It outlined a "dysfunctional" authority with councillors pre-occupied with political antagonisms over the mayor and mayoral system instead of the decline of services to local people.
In turn, "some of the behaviours adopted by the mayor... have failed to meet required standards..."
At a press conference yesterday, Mr Davies refused to take questions about the criticism levelled at him in the report, but read a prepared statement in which he said: "I look to all Doncaster councillors now to work with me in developing a vision for the town's future rather than putting politics before place and people.
"I have only been here for 10 months, and what I want is for a line to be drawn in the sand and for everyone in Doncaster to accept broadly the findings of this report, even if there are points of detail that we may all disagree with."
But there was immediate scepticism from Mr Davies's main political foes that a working relationship is possible.
Labour group leader Joe Blackham pinned the blame for Doncaster's failings on the mayor while Garth Oxby, the leader of the Independent Alliance, said the mayoral system itself was failing the town.
"I would like the Secretary of State to come up to Doncaster and sit at a table opposite me and I could show him what the New Labour mayoral system has done to our town," he said.
"We now have to try and work within that system, but we are hoping for a referendum and hope that the mayoral system will go as soon as possible."
Leader of the Liberal Democrat group Paul Coddington said: "Working with the mayor is on our agenda," but he added: "The truth is he is a maverick guy who never expected to get elected, and is a pretty naive politician. If he had come to us from the start and worked with us he may have got a different reaction."
Mr Denham's first move has been to appoint Rob Whiteman, the new chief executive of the local government improvement organisation IDeA, to chair an emergency advisory board to provide leadership and support to the acting Doncaster chief executive, Jo Miller. Further intervention will follow after a consultation process.
"ABSOLUTELY UNNACCEPTABLE"
Statement from John Denham, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government:
"I take very seriously the failure of Doncaster Local Authority – the mayor, cabinet, chief officers and councillors – to serve the people of Doncaster well.
From the outset, I have made it clear that I would take whatever action was necessary to look after the best interests of local people. I can make it clear. . .that I will use my statutory powers to intervene.
"The Audit Commission's report on Doncaster Council shows the severity of the problems in the local authority across the board and concludes that the local authority is failing the people of Doncaster, not just on one service or issue but in the very way it operates.
"This is absolutely unacceptable."
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Last Updated: 20 April 2010 9:16 AM
Source: n/a
Location: Yorkshire
Related Topics: Doncaster Council
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1
Claudius,
Hedon 20/04/2010 10:57:29
As the Yorkshire Post points out, Doncaster has not suddenly arrived at this state of affairs: why then, was the New Labour Government not invited to intervene when the previous mayor, Mayor Winter, (himself once a Labour Party representative) held office?
And, perhaos even more pertinently, why didn't Ministers intervene long ago when Doncaster's dysfunctional local authority was run by LABOUR councillors - like Joe Blackham - who insists that "the present Mayor is to blame"? Let us here be honest: the present mayor has held office only for a very short time: he cannot, therefore, with any logic, be held responsible for all the reported ills that afflicted Doncaster City Council prior to his election.
And finally, did the people of Doncaster elect the present Mayor, or did they not? If they did, then I make no apologies for reasserting a previously made point: namely, that (unless the present Mayor is guilty of some criminal offence) then, presumably, in a democracy, only the people of Doncaster should have the right to remove him?Report Unsuitable
2
Donman,
Doncaster 3 20/04/2010 20:26:15
I believe that there are a couple of points here that have not been raised anywhere.
1) Change in voting patterns and political affiliation
Around 10 years ago; out of 63 Councillors Doncaster used to have 59 members from a specific party. In 2010 the number from that party has now reduced dramatically to around 29 with a large proportion of Doncaster Council now being made up of Independent and other main parties. This is a fantastic achievement. Years went by as I observed from little Doncaster home where I felt as the though the Doncaster electorate should have been labotomised for persistently voting for the same party. I am glad to say that some voters are seeing sense 'Hoorah!' and long may I hope that voters are educated and make personal informed choices rather than voting for the same old party because their 'mam did'. It is my thought that it is this change that has marginalised part of the 'old' Council who can no longer rely on getting voted in and this leads me into point 2.
2) Change in Local Government leadership election process
Someone changed the Government leadership election process in Doncaster. It wasn't me the Doncaster voter. Nope. It was the Government. They duly selected Doncaster for change. They said Doncaster should have two mayors. One would ceremonial and one of them would be a 'Manager' Mayor and would be elected by and be accountable to Doncaster Citizens. As a Doncaster resident I can look back and say that in my opinion the change was not correctly managed. As a result Doncaster ended up with Councillors that had previously been elected under an old legacy 'Leader of the Council' system and a newly Elected Mayor that was affiliated to those Councillors by Party. So what Doncaster has now is old 'legacy' system Councillors who are now clinging to a severely diminished representation, fighting for 'dreams from the old days' when whatever they said was a carried vote and now actively fighting against an Elected Mayor that Report Unsuitable
3
Donman,
Doncaster 3 20/04/2010 20:27:48
...they simply will do anything to obstruct.
Here's my conclusion
What they should have done is re-elect the entire Council and Mayor at the same time. This would have carried the correct % party representation across the Council and would most definitely have secured a Mayor who at least had Members of the same Party within the Council.
The problems have been caused by the marginalised minority who are trying to cling to the past.
I sincerely hope the Government allows Doncaster to continue its transformational journey. It is getting there and evidence proves it however I don't think that all the problems can be attributed to Doncaster alone because as I've explained above, it was not Doncaster that invented the 'Change Leadership' process. That came from somewhere else.
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