Flintshire councillor challenges secrecy over council transformation plans
Flintshire County Council is planning ‘radical changes’ to how it operates which imply staff cuts, a committee chair has said, moments after councillors voted to discuss the plans in private.
The admission came at a meeting of the council’s Corporate Resources Overview and Scrutiny Committee on Thursday, as members considered new projects under the council’s Strategic Transformation Programme.
The committee voted to exclude the press and public for the item, against the objection of Councillor Alasdair Ibbotson, who argued the legal exemption being used did not apply.
Councils can exclude the public when a report contains information about consultations or negotiations on employment matters.
Cllr Ibbotson told the meeting the papers contained nothing of the kind.
‘There is no information related to consultations or negotiations on employment matters within the papers that have been presented for this meeting,’ he said, pointing out that two earlier items discussed in public, including one on the Welsh language among council staff, contained more detail about consultation with employees and trade unions.
He said the report contained suggestions for changing how some services are delivered, ‘but there’s nothing suggesting any changes to staffing levels’.
Gareth Owens, the council’s Chief Officer for Governance, told members the test was not whether exempt information was in the papers, but whether it might come out in discussion.
‘We do it out of an abundance of caution on our part as officers, because clearly once the genie is out of the bottle, you can’t put it back in,’ he said, adding that members could hold the debate in public if they were confident of avoiding ‘issues such as workforce reductions’.
The committee voted to go into private session. Cllr Ibbotson asked for his vote against to be specifically recorded, telling the chair: ‘It’s not lawful for members to just move everything into part two and say one of these applies without any evidence.’
He challenged those who voted for the exclusion to set out what exempt information they expected to be discussed.
Councillor Bill Crease, chairing the meeting, replied: ‘I think it’s fairly straightforward. We’re going to be talking about radical changes to the structural operation of the council, which in itself implies rationalisation of staff.’
The discussion then continued behind closed doors.
The same Strategic Transformation Programme report is due before the council’s Cabinet on Tuesday 16 June, where it is again listed to be considered in private.
The published justification states the report ‘contains details of matters pertaining to employment relations’ and that the public interest in withholding the information outweighs disclosure ‘until those matters have been resolved with the relevant employees’.
It is one of four items Cabinet is due to consider behind closed doors on Tuesday, alongside the sale of Pant Glas Farm at Gwespyr, a county-owned smallholding, the annual business plan for Gwella, the council-owned company which runs leisure centres and libraries, and the relocation of a specialist education facility.
The transformation programme is the council’s main vehicle for changing how services are run as it manages continuing financial pressure.
[File image of Lord Barry Jones Chamber Room, Ewloe]
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