Report on County Council Matters to North Nibley Parish Council

3^rd July 2017

County Council meeting 28^th June

Two motions were considered at this meeting, both of which were reported in the Gazette the following day!

- Gloucestershire Fire & Rescue Service: a unanimous vote on a Lib Dem motion for the Service to remain under the governance of the County Council and to oppose its transfer to the Police and Crime Commissioner.

- Javelin Park Incinerator: a Labour/Green Party motion to stop work on this until the outcome of a referral to the Competitions and Markets Authority is known. This was lost by 22 votes to 31.

County Council Extraordinary meeting 28^th June

The Liberal Democrat Group had requested that this extraordinary meeting be held to consider the details of the recently published Ofsted report, and the recommendations that the Council will be putting in place to ensure that failures are tackled quickly.

The inspection was carried out between 27^th February and 23^rd March, but the results were not published until last Monday, avoiding the county and parliamentary election purdah periods.

The findings were that overall the children’s services in Gloucestershire are inadequate, that the adoption performance is good, the experiences and progress of care leavers requires improvement and that leadership, management and governance are inadequate. (Inadequate = does not meet minimum standards.) Several children’s services senior managers have left the council. The cabinet member with this area of responsibility did not stand for re-election in May.

A motion put forward by the Liberal Democrats with an amendment from the Conservatives resulted in a unanimous vote:

- for cross-party representation on a newly established Improvement Board to review progress and ensure maximum scrutiny;

- for an independent Local Government Association Peer Review of the failings outlined in the Ofsted report, specifically to understand the cultural issues identified within the Council and the inadequacies in management oversight, to ensure that similar problems do not arise again or in other service areas, in preparation for which:

- the Council requests the Chief Executive in consultation with the group leaders to carry out a full review into the council’s corporate culture and in particular:

i) to commission an independent review of support for whistle-blowers and independent help and support for staff to raise concerns;

ii) to ensure corporate ownership of all exit interviews and appropriate access by scrutiny and cabinet members to that information;

iii) to review the appraisal process and

iv) to carry out an independent, transparent, annual staff survey, the results of which will be shared with all councillors.

Outside Appointments

At the County Council meeting I was reappointed to the two outside bodies I previously represented the County Council on: the Severn Estuary Partnership and the Berkeley Site Stakeholder Group. I am now also a member of the Gloucestershire Local Access Forum.

The Liberal Democrats regionally have reappointed me to South West Councils, a successor to the South West Regional Assembly, and to its Resources and Management Committee.

Amey Contract

It has now been made clear that the Amey contract will not be extended and the council will be seeking a new arrangement from March 2019, looking at how other councils operate. It is of course possible that if the council tenders for a new contract Amey will bid for it and could win. I hope the deliberations will include the possibility of bringing the service back in house. The way forward will be decided by Cabinet at its September meeting.

The Highways Contract Advisory Group of which I was a member has been replaced by a cross-party Highways Cabinet Panel of which I am now a member.

The long-delayed parish council satisfaction survey was said to have been sent out on 12^th June. However, this did not happen until last Tuesday, 27^th June. I assume this has been received by your council.

Berkeley Bridges

The traffic lights were finally due to be removed last Thursday.

John Cordwell