Change
that slipped under radar
Wednesday 13th June 2012
Amidst all the excitement about the
arrival of the Olympic Torch, Her Majesty’s Diamond Jubilee and the
anticipation of the football thing — followed by the Olympics, perhaps it is
understandable that the recent change of governance of Bolton Council has slipped through under the radar.
It now appears that we have a
Cabinet comprising three Executive Cabinet Members and 11 others with assorted
portfolios.
Only the three Executive Members are
allowed to make legal decisions.
All the remaining 46 elected
representatives of the good burghers of Bolton are mere Non-executive
Councillors.
I am unsure whether this change of
governance — the third, or is it fourth, in 12 years — is heading in the direction
of being more democratic or towards the style of some of the more discredited
regimes in other parts of the world.
Perhaps in another 12 months a
further change will concentrate all power in the hands of one person.
Oh no! That would be too much like
an elected Mayor — albeit not directly elected.
At least we have the benefit that
the lamented loss of Mr Eastwood — The Director of the Chief Executive’s
Office, Head of Legal Services, Monitoring Officer and Information Safety
Officer, etc — has resulted in the re-instatement of the post of Borough
Solicitor at a much reduced cost.
All we need now is for the Chief
Executive to be retitled the Town Clerk and the return of the Watch Committee
and perhaps we’ll start getting somewhere. Thank God we’ve lost that “Cleaner,
Greener, Safer” nonsense.
Paul Richardson
Ripon Close
Little Lever
has resulted in the re-instatement of the post of Borough Solicitor at a much reduced cost. Can you explain what this will mean. I have on two occasions had a meeting with Alan Eastwood, and been persuaded not to make a complaint. I never felt confident about the process and was waiting to see what or who I would approach once Mr Eastwood left
ReplyDeleteHi anonymous !
DeleteI’m a little puzzled by your question but I’ll try to answer it.
As reported in the Bolton News on 29th June 2011, Alan Eastwood ‘decided to accept’ voluntary redundancy as a contribution to the saving required in the management structure of the Council.
One of the four senior lawyers working for the Council has been ‘made up’ to replace him - but with the traditional title of Borough Solicitor. This is Mrs Helen Gorman. I don’t know what she’s being paid but should imagine that it is considerably less than the £108,000 that Mr Eastwood was getting.
That is Saving No 1.
Anecdotally, over his period of time at Bolton, Mr Eastwoods interpretations of the law have one several occasions left the Council with expensive egg on its face.
The latest example was in appealing against the decision that Officers outside interests had to be put in the public domain. This saga was initiated and pursued by John Greenwood. It turned out that the cost of the outside legal representation in this case was, if my memory serves me right some £13,000.
All this is well documented on the Whatdotheyknow FOI website.
So, Saving No 2 is that the Council will no longer have to pay for his ‘errors’
I am aware of other shenanikins involving Mr Eastwood, but I will only inform you if you remove your anonymity. You can e-mail me direct at:- kathy.maddox@ntlworld.com
should you so wish.
Mr Eastwood left at the end of May so it’s all a bit water under the bridge unless the complaints that he talked you out of can still be resurrected. I might be able to help - if you so wish.(in confidence of course)
I’m in contact with Mrs Gorman on another matter and she seems a much more amenable person.
Regards – Paul Richardson