WAO urges stronger intervention by ministers in Isle of Anglesey Council
The Welsh Audit Office has called on Welsh Ministers to intervene more strongly in the running of Isle of Anglesey Council, after the watchdog published a report rating the local authority's prospects for achieving a full and sustainable recovery by August 2011 as "poor".
In the report, which followed a re-inspection last month, the WAO argued that Ministers’ intervention in 2009 had failed to produce a sustainable recovery from the authority’s “long history of weak governance”.
Commissioned by the Minister for Social Justice and Local Government, the report also described Anglesey’s prospects of achieving a full and sustainable recovery ahead of elections in May 2012 as “uncertain”.
According to the WAO, some progress has been made since an initial report two years ago. This includes:
- The Recovery Board appointed by the minister bringing a diverse range of expertise and experience and providing valuable insight. It has also conducted monitoring and provided regular reports to the minister
- Anglesey had taken significant steps to improve consistency in its approach to corporate issues. However, these have not yet been embedded
- Progress in ensuring a consistent approach across the council when it comes to business planning, project and programme management and performance management. More work needs to be done to implement changes in full.
The report nevertheless found that “conflict is once again having a corrosive effect that seriously jeopardises service delivery”.
It suggested that instability and uncertainty had affected staff morale and the prospects for greater collaborative work with neighbouring Gwynedd Council. These issues were also distracting staff and councillors from delivering the authority’s programme of improvement.
The WAO said that events in 2011 suggested that the efforts of the Recovery Board and the Interim Managing Director had ultimately proved unsuccessful in resolving Anglesey’s underlying weaknesses of corporate governance.
“The re-inspection found that the pursuit of power for its own sake or for the advantages that it can bring to individuals or the wards they represent has once again emerged,” it claimed. A lack of diversity contributed to this culture the report and deterred “new blood” from standing for election.
In addition to calling for stronger intervention, the Auditor General for Wales – Huw Vaughan Thomas – recommended that Welsh Ministers should:
- direct that the executive functions of the council be exercised by commissioners appointed by them
- retain the power to appoint an Interim Managing Director, but clarify the terms of reference and accountability
- give the commissioners the function of appointing any of Anglesey’s other statutory officer posts should they become vacant during the period of intervention
- direct Anglesey to develop a strategy that promotes democratic renewal
- request that the Local Government Boundary Commission for Wales review its existing proposals relating to a reduction in the number of councillors and the introduction of multi-member wards “so that these address adequately the need for democratic renewal”. Any changes should be implemented prior to the next local election, the WAO said. “It may therefore be necessary for the Minister to use powers under section 87 of the Local Government Act 2000 to delay the elections until 2013”
- consider directing the council to conduct a referendum that seeks the views of the Anglesey electorate on a change to a Directly Elected Mayor and Cabinet governance model.
Vaughan Thomas said: “It is disappointing that Ministerial intervention has not succeeded in producing sustainable recovery for Isle of Anglesey Council. I acknowledge that, in some respects, the council has responded positively to the intervention, but much work remains to implement plans and embed the modernisation of the council’s corporate arrangements. For this to happen there needs to be political stability within the council and I do not believe the council’s current democratic arrangements support the changes that are needed.
“In making specific recommendations for further Ministerial directions, I hope that a stronger intervention combined with democratic renewal will help to resolve these issues and allow the council to move forward in a positive direction as well as securing sustainable recovery for the future.”
