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.

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Comments

Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below.

Pete Taylor
Friday 22nd September 2017 at 12:15 pm
Perhaps now is the time for Cllr Bailey to apply her "robust and transparent methods" to releasing a full, uncensored version of the Lyme Green report which we tax-payers paid for? Hopefully one of the several Police investigations will look at this.
Stuart Redgard
Friday 22nd September 2017 at 5:50 pm
It would appear that the "infighting within the Conservative Party" that Michael jones claimed led to his resignation would appear to still be going on. And so is the Police Investigation into Misconduct in a Public Office!


See http://bit.ly/1QIoEjX
Chris Wigley
Saturday 23rd September 2017 at 10:24 am
I clicked on this article by accident when I meant to choose Comedy Nights Taking the Chill out of Autumn, and reading how appropriate that title would have been. I am afraid that we have moved into a pantomime season with our local council with the 'Oh yes it was, oh no it wasn't' disputes between present and past leaders.
We also have to remember that it is not only under the leaderships of Jones and Bailey that there has been trouble, if I am right the commencement and stopping of Lyme Green in 2011 when the first leader of the council, Wesley Fitzgerald was in office. He was the leader who justified the appointment of Erika Wenzel as chief executive, as getting the best, her salary was higher than the former chief executive of the County Council. We may have got 'the best' but the chief executive and her senior officers were all replaced as there were insufficient checks and balances to prevent projects starting without permission and budgetary controls on spending.
The Secretary of State needs to have an independent inquiry into Cheshire East in order to restore trust in local government. He may even consider unification of the authority with Cheshire West.
Pete Taylor
Saturday 23rd September 2017 at 3:27 pm
@ Chris: don't forget Kym Riley, who was brought in at an eye-watering salary to sort things out. He clearly didn't because there has been at least one reorganisation since he laughed all the way to the bank.