10 Labour group members walk away

This whole farce reminds me of an entry I placed on here a long time ago.

There are professional people in the Council who perform any range of tasks. One of them the Chief Officer has a very good CV and is in place to run the Council and its affairs. There are Departments in existence that run anything from Leisure to Transport, education to whatever. They are manned by well paid, salaried professionals who do largely good work. If they don’t, they should be removed.

Why on earth these Councillors are micro-managing the work of remunerated professionals, I don’t comprehend. Indeed, why on earth there are any number of Consultants when there are professionals in play I can’t quite get my head around.

The Councillors should meet rarely, raise budgets, get paid very little and micro-manage very little. If the professionals aren’t doing their job (which we should all have access to information to ascertain) move them. If they excel, bonus them. If the Chief Exec does an excellent job, pay her/him more.

Party politics and all the baloney that goes with it needs to take a back seat. The decision on Plas Madoc should have been taken by the paid professionals within the relevant departments (like Economic Development, Leisure, etc) not become a political football.

Leighton is know as a no nonsense Minister who has a proven track record on previous occasions an ill no doubt take the challenge of reorganising Public Services (not just Local Authorities). The change also avoids Lesley Griffiths having to clear up the mess on her own patch. The the action start ass soon as possible to put Wrexham were it deservedly should be as the leading County in North Wales,

With the latest announcement of more ‘Independents’ now getting involved with the Top Table (Executive) on the Council by taking on Portfolios (and increased pay) the likelihood of any formal debates on any issues have all but disappeared. With so many coming together they will all toe the Party (sorry Group line). Previously all Executive decisions were pushed through on a 7 : 3 ratio- In future it looks like it will be straight 10’s or 9:1
How so many Councilors who were elected based on their specific election campaign can now do such a turnaround is quite frankly astonishing. If any of these Councilors had an ounce of moral fabric they would all resign thereby forcing By-elections throughout the County and give the decision making back to local people through the ballot box.

If the Executive Leadership of the Council changes when will the electorate find out who’s who and what their personal credentials are to take on their new roles.
If we have to put up with a group of ‘new’ Leaders then we the electorate at least have the right to have some idea who they are, how they perform in their own communities and what their employment experience has been in the past that will be relevant to their new roles. As this may not be forthcoming perhaps contributors to this thread may be able to enlighten us all what to expect!

@JaneJ 15216 wrote:

Most of the background information to the dismissal of Clr Malclm King due to allegation about the CAFAT team have been released under an FOI in redacted form.
It is very comprehensive document and readers need to take it all in context. It does however not really clear up why Clr King was sacked for raising concerns.

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/wrexham_independent_report?nocache=incoming-561702#incoming-561702

It is interesting to see the redaction after seeing the full version – on first look it appears to have been done in a reasonable manner.