The Ribbon Cover-up
Internal e-mails obtained under the Freedom of Information Act reveal that senior council officers knew about the importance of the Rotherwas Ribbon on May 11th, and therefore almost certainly before the local elections. They kept it secret – even from elected councillors - for nearly two months. They decided back in May how they would deal with the Ribbon, making a mockery of recent Cabinet reports on options. There is now also evidence that the process of scrutinising these decisions is being watered down to cover up the cover up.
Cllr. Gerald Dawe (Green), in whose ward the Ribbon was discovered, said: “It is now clear that the procedures of Herefordshire Council fall well short of the standard expected by other UK local authorities and this is damaging our reputation. Scrutiny of these decisions must be done properly and it cannot be rushed just to cover up possible mistakes by Cabinet and officers.”
THE RIBBON DECISION: Did the Council act properly?
Copies of e-mails to officers and contractors released under Freedom of Information include quotes from Mairead Lane, the Construction Project Team Leader on May 11th, two months before the discovery of the Ribbon was made public by the BBC Today programme. Ms Lane wrote: “There is a political dimension to the issue, which everyone seems to be aware of... [The find has] ...undoubted national and potential international significance. Ms Lane went on to discuss how “we could turn around a potentially bad publicity situation…”.
She concludes “Further discussion will be needed as a solution is reached to agree an approach to publicity which best benefits the Council / consultant and contractors.”
Campaign Co-ordinator Bob Clay said: “No officers appear to have considered the Ribbon or the public! The delay in releasing information was clearly a political decision to avoid negative publicity, but made by supposedly impartial officers.”
We always said that there was a political dimension to the way the Ribbon discovery was handled. This was denied but these documents prove it beyond doubt. It is outrageous that elected members were kept totally in the dark for 2 months.”
Other documents include a claim by John Burnett (Council PR) that English Heritage told the Council back in early July that they were “very unlikely” to schedule the monument – but that the Council “are not saying this publicly”. English Heritage had not had time to consider it properly at this stage.
Mr Clay added: “It seems that the Council successfully staged a “cover-up” of this huge discovery for two months, hoping to get the road continued before adequate consideration of alternatives could take place.
English Heritage have said that they cannot make a decision on scheduling until the full extent of the Ribbon is ascertained. The Council implied this would take 6 months and decided it was ‘too expensive’ to delay the road. We have evidence that the extent of the Ribbon could have been established several weeks ago at around four thousand pounds only. Only when the extent of the Ribbon is known can an informed decision be made about the road. This is something the Council do not wish to have. They want the road at all costs – including local democratic procedures.”
THE SCRUTINY: Are the Council's scrutiny procedures sub standard?
The Cabinet have ‘welcomed’ call-in of their decision by the Environment Scrutiny Committee. However it is now becoming clear that the Scrutiny procedures within Herefordshire Council fall well short of the standards adopted by other Authorities. Herefordshire Council’s scrutiny processes are at variance with the guidelines as follows: -
Government guidelines require that local authorities should provide overview and scrutiny committees with a budget. In Herefordshire there are no such budgets. So the Committee cannot call some witnesses because “it doesn’t have a budget”, according to Chair of the Environment Scrutiny Committee Cllr. Bob Matthews.
These guidelines also suggest that scrutiny committees should meet frequently on a monthly or six weekly cycle. The Environment Scrutiny Committee only meets quarterly.
Cllr. Matthews asked Cllr. Lloyd-Hayes to find her own witnesses. It is extraordinary that a committee chair does not realise that the committee as a whole should decide who to call.
A Committee cannot arrange witnesses, call for documents, re-interview witnesses and much other essential processes and then debate and agree a decision in only 10 days. The very suggestion is confirmation that some people have no intention of allowing the job to be done properly. This suspicious and unseemly haste seriously compromises accountability. Standing orders say only that the Scrutiny Committee should meet within 10 days.
There has been no reply to any of the substantive points. Bob Clay was courteously invited to address the Committee last Monday under the Agenda item for members of the Public to propose future items for the Committee to consider. Councillor Edwards gave an undertaking that the Committee would consider the process by which the “Find” has been dealt with but nothing has yet been forthcoming.
Strategic Monitoring have been given evidence about the late arrival of the Archaeological Peer Review, for example. This was a crucial and somewhat critical document. Why isn’t there an enquiry taking place into why it was only produced at the start of the Cabinet meeting? One of the major issues that should be examined with witnesses, is why steps were not taken that could have identified the problem before construction started.
Surely English Heritage have to be asked to explain the one page evasion that appeared after we had all been told time and again that they were to be the main “independent adviser.”
Former Hereford Mayor Cllr. Marcelle Lloyd-Hayes said: “We are of course concerned about the council decision over the Rotherwas Ribbon, but are equally concerned over the flagrant haste and manipulation of the scrutiny process which should guard Herefordshire's voters against abuse of power. It is clear that there is a serious democratic deficit on Herefordshire Council. It is the role and duty of those of us who have been elected to hold the executive to account more effectively by demanding a proper scrutiny process and not a botched job.”
All councillors have been asked:
Do you believe that this shows that local government in Herefordshire needs to be more open and democratic in order to bring our processes to the standard expected elsewhere in the UK?
Are you concerned that democratically elected councillors are being excluded from key parts of the decision-making process and that Cabinet Members and Council Officers need to be made more accountable to elected members?
Do you believe that the Scrutiny Committee should be allowed sufficient time and resources to be able to thoroughly and robustly scrutinise the Rotherwas Ribbon decision making process
http://www.wyed.co.uk/ribbon/index.php?id=1147915878349200489
Something is not right. This message is just to keep things from messing up down the road