WLGA names peer review team examining governance arrangements at council
The Welsh Local Government Association has named the team that will undertake an independent peer review of Carmarthenshire County Council’s arrangements.
The remit of the review was approved by the local authority’s leaders and full council earlier this month. Its stated purpose is to “help make Carmarthenshire become the most open and the most transparent council in Wales”.
The terms of reference for the review are:
- The conduct of council business, in particular:
- The effectiveness or otherwise of current procedures or protocols such as notices of motion, urgent and exempt terms, scrutiny, declarations of interest; and
- Ensuring that reports fully set out legal, financial and equality implications of proposed policies and schemes.
- Transparency and accountability to members, including the role of scrutiny and the availability of information for members, including the recording, dissemination and communication of council decisions;
- The role of Full Council, including consideration of the new Modular Constitution; and
- Member development and support and the role of Democratic Services function.
The WLGA has now announced the make-up of the review team. It comprises: Byron Davies, former chief executive of Cardiff Council; Rod Alcott, WLGA Associate (former Wales Audit Office); Cllr Paul Griffiths, Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Council (Labour); and Anna Nicholl, former ministerial special advisor (Plaid Cymru). Support will be provided by Daniel Hurford and Sarah Titcombe of the WLGA.
The Association said: “The team is currently undertaking preparatory research and is finalising the approach of the review, including identifying key interviewees, groups and stakeholders to engage with; the Peer Team will wish to seek the views of all members across the council chamber, as well of those of key partners and stakeholders.”
The review team will visit the council from next week and is expected to meet there two days a week throughout next month.
It is anticipated that interim conclusions will be reported on towards the end of July, “in order to inform the council's wider work of reviewing its constitution”. A final report will be prepared for submission in September.
The WLGA stressed that the review would not consider the specific issues of the Wales Audit Office's recent public interest reports.
“However those reports will form part of the evidence base for the team who will inevitably consider any potential areas for improvement as a result of those reports; the aim is very much to look forward and make any recommendations for improvement that will help the council achieve its objective of being the most open and transparent council in Wales,” the Association said.
One of the public interest reports issued by the Assistant Auditor General for Wales, Anthony Barrett, claimed that an indemnity the council granted to its chief executive, Mark James, for a libel counterclaim against a blogger was unlawful.
This saw the council take the unusual step of publishing legal opinions from two QCs, as it rejected Barrett’s findings.
The Assistant Auditor’s other public interest report criticised Carmarthenshire over arrangements that allowed senior officers to opt out of the Local Government Pension Scheme.
In May this year Gloucestershire Constabulary concluded that there was no evidence that any criminal offences had taken place in relation to the pension arrangements.