Elected Mayors - The Treacle Thickens

Since the Bolton News chose not to print my overly long letter, I submitted a shorter letter on the 26th November as follows:-

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Dear Sir
Should any of your readers still feel disenfranchised or un-consulted over the matter of how the Council executive will operate in the future, perhaps they would care to read the document entitled ' New Council Constitutions - Consultation Guidelines for English Local Authorities'

This can be downloaded from the following Government Website.

http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/localgovernment/newcouncilconstitutions3

After reading this, they can then make a judgment as to what extent Bolton Council's Consultation measured up to these guidelines.

Interestingly, Bolton Council are adamant that no such guidelines were ever issued by the Government.

End of letter

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By Tuesday of this week , this letter still not having appeared, I was starting to worry that maybe there is some agenda going on here to block discussion. (It's easy to get paranoid).

Anyway, faced with the prospect that the Proposals for change are going to be submitted to the full Council on December 9th and knowing that once it gets past there it would be even more difficult to undo, I formulated an e-mail to send to all 60 odd Councillors of Bolton Metro.

The e-mail read as follows:-

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Dear Elected Member of Bolton Council

Forgive me for communicating with you in this way.

As you are aware, the officers of the Council have recently conducted a Consultation with the residents of Bolton Metro with respect to new arrangements for the Executive and a choice of two options.

As a result of this, out of a population of 240,000, 622 replies were received.

The Local government Act of 2000 requires that "before drawing up proposals under this section, a local authority must take reasonable steps to consult the local government electors for, and other interested persons in, the authority’s area."

The Act also requires that "A local authority must have regard to any guidance for the time being issued by the Secretary of State for the purposes of this Part."

The guidance for this purpose was issued by the then Department of Transport Environment & Regions in October 2000 under the heading ' New Council Constitutions - Consultation Guidelines for English Local Authorities'

This can be downloaded from the following Government Website.

http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/localgovernment/newcouncilconstitutions3

This document comprises 58 pages

A comparison of these guidelines with the actual consultation carried out by the Council strongly suggests to me that the consultation comes nowhere near to satisfying the requirements of the Act.

This is re-enforced by the statement of Alan Eastwood on the 17th November that -

"........Despite the above being included within the Act it does not provide either for any specific form of consultation or for any specific consultation period. In addition the department for Communities and Local Government decided not to issue any guidance to Local Authorities as to what the Department considers would constitute 'reasonable steps'. As a result, each Local Authority has had to reach its own decision as to the form and level of public consultation that it considers to be appropriate."

If it is the case that the Council has not recognised the existence of such guidance, let alone designed its consultation in accordance with such guidance, then it would appear to me that the requirements of the Act have not been fulfilled and the matter cannot proceed to the next stage.

In any event, the response of only 0.2% of the population amply demonstrates the inadequacy of the consultation method.

You may therefore, after confirming to your own satisfaction that which I have laid out above, feel that these matters are likely to further re-enforce the perception of the public that their views are not being sufficiently taken into account on this most basic matter of how we are governed locally.

Accordingly, you may wish to make representations in the appropriate places.

I remain
Yours sincerely etc

End of E-mail

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Now I reckon that this is a respectful communication between a local resident and elected representatives on an important issue. It does not demand that the Councillors agree to what I am suggesting, it only asks that they look at the matter, come to their own conclusions and act accordingly (or not as the case may be).

A councillor friend of mine suggested that instead of sending 60 e-mails it would be easier to simply send it to Claire Atkinson, the Members Secretary and with the push of one button she could distribute it to them all. As this councillor friend of mine has demonstrated today, this is not an unusual occurrence when a resident wants to bring something to the notice of all the elected members.

This I duly did on Tuesday 1st December.

Yesterday I received the following e-mail from - who else but the above named Alan Eastwood - saying :-

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Dear Mr Richardson,

I refer to your e-mail which you sent to Claire Atkinson dated 1 December 2009 requesting that the information you have provided be circulated to all Elected Members. I am afraid that I am reluctant to circulate your e-mail, as the information contained within it, is incorrect. The guidance to which you refer was issued in respect of new Council Constitutions which came into force in 2000 and brought in the initial Cabinet/Executive Model along side others. This guidance does not relate to the current consultation and in fact, no guidance was issued in this regard. I hope this clarifies the position.

End of E-mail.

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To put it mildly I was bloody furious - and I still am.

What right has an 'employee' of the Council, of whatever status, to interfere with a communication between a local elector and the elected representatives of Bolton Metro residents.

Why was this shown to him in the first place?

If he had 'allowed' circulation of the e-mail with a rider stating that in his (and the Councils) view I was incorrect in some of the things I was stating, then to me, that would have been understandable and acceptable. If I was so wrong then the 60 Councillors would have been able to dismiss and ignore what I was saying.

What is it that Alan Eastwood and the higher echelons of the Town Hall are afraid of?

All this is starting to raise the cynic in me and causing me to ask ' Who is running this Town Hall, - the Councillors or the Officers????????'

What part of Democracy don't they get?

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Anyway, back to the point.

Either Alan Eastwood is right or I am right. - Straightforward.

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In doing a little more digging I have discovered the following. (this includes a refresher course)

The Primary Legislation to do with creation and change of Executive Operations for Local Authorities is the Local Government Act of 2000.

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The Local Government Act 2000 initially dealt with the creation of the Executive operations with a choice of three options.

Elected Mayor + Cabinet
Leader + Cabinet
Elected Mayor + Council Manager

Section 25 - PROPOSALS - of this act deals with procedures to be followed and Sub Section (2) states:-

"Before drawing up proposals under this section, a local authority must take reasonable steps to consult the local government electors for, and other interested persons in, the authority’s area."

This is the subsection which without doubt is the subject of the Guidance ' New Council Constitutions - Consultation Guidelines for English Local Authorities' mentioned before.

One assumes, in the absence of information, that the Public Consultation which took place prior to the creation of the existing Executive Arrangements for Bolton Council some years ago conformed to these guidlines.

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The Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act of 2007 amended and added to the provisions of the 2000 Act.

First of all, for English Authorities, it removed the third option of Elected Mayor and Council Manager.

Secondly it introduced the means by which an English Local Authority could change from the Executive Arrangements it had introduced following the 2000 Act to a different form.

This was done by amending the 2000 Act by adding the following- Quote

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Section 64 Changing governance arrangements
After section 33 of the Local Government Act 2000 (c. 22) insert—
“Changing governance arrangements: general provisions.

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There then follows Sections 33A to 33O which are added to the 2000 Act

Section 33A states:-
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Executive arrangements: different form of executive

A local authority in England which is operating executive arrangements may—
(a) vary the arrangements so that they provide for a different form of executive, and
(b) if it makes such a variation, vary the arrangements in such other respects (if any) as it considers appropriate.

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This is the Section under which the current changes in the operation of Bolton Councils Executive Arrangements are proceeding.

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Section 33E, Sub section (6) states:-

"Before drawing up its proposals, the local authority must take reasonable steps to consult the local government electors for, and other interested persons in, the authority’s area."

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This is the identical wording to that in Section 25 Sub Section (2) of the original Act.

So after 2007, the Local Government Act of 2000, as amended, states both in Section 25 and Section 33E:-

"Before drawing up its proposals, the local authority must take reasonable steps to consult the local government electors for, and other interested persons in, the authority’s area."

It cannot be the case that the Guidelines which apply to Section 25 do not apply to Section 33E - both in the same Act.

The Guidelines which apply to Section 25 (and in my contention to Section 33E) have not (to my knowledge) been rescinded, deleted or amended.

It is therefore my case that because Bolton Council's recent Public Consultation under section 33E patently did not satisfy the guidelines, then the Council has not satisfied the requirements of the Act.

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At the end of the day it will be the Secretary of State, John Denham, who decides who is right and who is wrong - that's if I can get through to him.

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One final point - This, to me, is not about wanting an elected mayor, even though I think that such a culture shock is required to get the Town Hall back in the real world. This is about the day to day, week to week interaction between the governed and the governors and particularly to make sure that the people we elected, irrespective of party, are the people who decide and are in control. From my experiences on different matters with Bolton Council over the last twelve months, I'm not sure that that is the case.

Paul