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Tuesday, September 10, 2024

County leader and cabinet survive vote of no-confidence

* Council and Labour leader Jason McLellan.

A vote of no-confidence in the leader and cabinet of Denbighshire County Council sparked by the way they have handled the troubled introduction of a new waste recycling scheme was lost 25-17 at the full council meeting this morning (Tuesday).

The motion, put forward by the Independent group of councillors and supported by the Conservatives, was successfully defeated by the ruling Labour group backed by Plaid Cymru and Green members. There were three abstentions.

Supported by Llangollen’s two county councillors, Karen Edwards and Paul Keddie, the motion, which was debated at length, read: “We wish to propose the motion for the removal of Leader Councillor Jason McLellan and his Cabinet.

“Recent events surrounding the leadership of the council have raised serious concerns about their effectiveness.

“The disastrous and inefficient execution of the new waste recycling system, coupled with the lack of clarity and ownership highlighted in a recent briefing, has resulted in a complete loss of confidence among residents.

“Moreover, the ripple effects of this new system have placed a significant strain on other departments within Denbighshire County Council, as staff resources have been diverted to address the failures of the recycling initiative.

“This diversion has led to a noticeable increase in operational costs, which in turn has negatively impacted frontline services that are vital to the community.

“The lack of strategy and effective leadership has caused considerable challenges for residents throughout the county, and the financial implications for the authority have been immense. It is no longer sustainable to maintain this approach, and the priority must be the well-being of Denbighshire residents. Therefore, as members of the independent group, we strongly call upon the Leader and his Cabinet to resign.”

A spokesperson for the county council said: “During today’s full council meeting in County Hall, Ruthin, a motion of no confidence in the Leader and the Cabinet of Denbighshire County Council was put forward. In accordance with due process a full and open discussion was conducted in the council meeting followed by a recorded vote.  

“The result of the recorded vote was 17 for the motion, 25 against the motion and 3 abstentions, which means the motion was not carried, therefore the Leader and Cabinet will remain in situ.”

Cllr Karen Edwards said in the debate: "For the last 15 weeks chaos and confusion has reigned supreme over the new Denbighshire waste and recycling collection service. 

"We are all aware how quickly the rollout failed to deliver and by the middle of June I had already voiced my concerns with respect to the systemic issues that were causing the failures in service delivery within Llangollen and the surrounding rural villages. The leadership of the Council supported by the Cabinet dismissed these as 'teething problems'.   

"Rather than hold DCC leadership to account and demand improvement, the Cabinet backed those officers responsible, collectively offered some apologies, donned some PPE, made some videos, ridden the waste lorries on the rounds and told us, all would be well in 12 weeks.

"The situation only got worse. Collections across the county failed to materialise and rubbish piled up in residents’ bins ,driveways, pavements, and streets, meanwhile they congratulated themselves and their colleagues for the great steps forward and  DCC officers told residents how proud they were of the work done whilst the Head of Service chastised Councillors for stepping in on the ground with waste teams to help get rubbish collected from our wards. The HOS ( Head of Service ) asked me to ‘refrain from interfering with operational matters’.

"This is a Council Leadership and Cabinet in collective denial at the scale of the problem.

"Fifteen weeks on we still have a system which albeit marginally improved from the start is still failing to consistently deliver a statutory service to the residents in my ward. It has consumed over £500k of  additional costs and partial improvements have only been brought about by the addition of extra personnel and vehicles, increased rounds, overtime and DCC staff being reallocated from their normal duties.

"All throughout this period the Cabinet and Council leadership have, like Nero, simply fiddled and in some cases holidayed whilst Denbighshire's fragile budget is being burnt up on this bonfire of failure.
 
"Rather than seek to determine the real systemic failures they have offered apology after apology week in week out to anyone they can possibly give one to. These apologies are meaningless. The Cabinet leader has admitted apologies don’t collect waste, but he still offers them knowing they are hollow.

"Whilst some councillors will claim all is well in their wards, I can hand on heart say they are not well in Llangollen. As an example, over the weekend, residents who I have helped several times already have come to me again advising of no collections in the past fortnight. 

"There have also been reports of other Health and safety issues and all this taking place despite officers telling us that extensive training had been undertaken.

"New cases arise, and closed cases reopen, it’s a perpetual pattern and for the last 15 weeks, my life has been consumed by this issue. Officers never appeared to have control of this project and they are still struggling to get into a steady state. They have resorted to obfuscation, hand wringing, meaningless apologies, numerous short-lived initiatives, and constant denial of the true scales of the problems.

"The Cabinet under the current leadership is failing to demonstrate its control over DCC officers  to rectify the situation. It is weakly led and unwilling to act decisively to demand more accountability and responsibility and to accept this system was not fit for purpose. The Lead member for waste and recycling and the Leader have to accept responsibility for this failure.

"Getting back to the basics though, as we sit here now in this chamber, waste remains uncollected, the rollout of additional programmes such as AHP are stalled because the system cannot cope with any more demand, and every week more overspend is happening. Control of the scheme has failed; fresh initiatives by DCC Officers to regain control are short lived, root causes of failure remain unknown, and control of the budget has been completely lost.

"The original estimated cost saving of £500K per annum has been consumed and it continues to cost £55-60K per week more than planned which equates to approximately £3m per annum. That is the stark reality we are now facing, the evidence of failure is overwhelming, undisputable, and ultimately, no doubt  it will be the residents that will be expected to pick up the tab, for what is a complete failure in the planning and implementation of this scheme and that is totally unacceptable.

"Consequently I have no confidence that any cabinet member or any of the leadership team responsible for this disaster can provide the assurance needed today that there is an end in sight, a fit for purpose recovery plan in place, and when the additional costs which are deeply damaging to the County’s budget will cease."

To watch the debate, go to: https://denbighshire.public-i.tv/core/portal/webcast_interactive/909417 

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