* 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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