Attempt To Review Council Decision Fails In Heated Debate

An attempt to review two recent decisions by the Council’s Executive Board failed today at a heated Scrutiny Committee meeting.

While temperatures soared outside in a bout of lovely sunny weather for the town, inside the Guildhall Councillors also got a little hot under the collar. Two decisions had been ‘called in’, that is to say recalled to committee to be reheard and possibly resent to the Executive Board.

The first was regarding a decision back in May to withdraw school ‘specials’, discretionary fare-paying bus services that are subsidised by the council which cover areas where private bus firms do not operate a service.

The meeting began with a criticism of the impartiality of the Chairman, Councillor David Taylor, who co-signed the call in notice.

Councillor Mark Pritchard said: “Personally I have no problem with you or as a Chairman, but you as a Chair in this meeting it is morally wrong and I have severe reservations on it.”

The technicalities of the Council rules meant there was no issue with a signatory being a Chairperson, although there was criticism of those rules themselves. It is possible that the Council’s constitution could be reviewed in light of today’s meeting.

Cllr Taylor did say “I won’t cast a vote if it’s all square”, as if a tie occurs, it is customary that the Chairperson casts the deciding vote.

This was described as “Making the meeting an ass if you don’t use your vote”. Which resulted in Councillor Bob Dutton advising the Chair ‘to seek the advice of the members of the committee’ on how to proceed.

No changes to the Chairman or the like was made and the meeting continued.

Councillor Arfon Jones, the spokesman of the group who called the decision in, said:” Whilst we all understand the need to make savings there are in fact good and bad savings opportunities.”

Cllr Jones went on to say the decision to axe the School Specials ‘hasn’t been thought out properly’. He stated the ‘most important’ consequences of the cessation of the school specials would be the dangers posed to children left at bus stops ‘because operators have ceased to provide the service because it is no longer subsidised’.

Quoting figures from the Daily Post Cllr Jones stated that ‘Wrexham was the most risky place for children in traffic according to crashes recorded by police’.

“I was told once that the overall cost of investigating a fatal road traffic collision is about a million pounds, not to mention emotional cost.” said Cllr Jones.

“A financial cost of a million pounds is 10 times the savings that would be made by stopping school specials. Is a child’s life worth £100,000 to this council?”

Cllr Dutton responded thanking Cllr Jones ‘for his monologue’. He went on to say: “No other authority provides this type of service in Wales. Unfortunately under equalities assessments the authority would be in an untenable position if we expanded it, which we would have to.”

“We have to find £35,000,000 of savings in four years, and this is a discretionary service, so this is pure speculation. We need to practical about this, understand the position and deal with it.”

The debate then focused on decisions made by the previous Council administration, referring to blame shifting and which schools were and were not affected, with Councillor Brian Cameron telling Cllr Jones that he should have done his ‘homework’.

Councillor Neil Rogers said Cllr Jones was ‘suffering from amnesia’, referring to a similar decision that came before the council in June 2010, a time when Cllr Jones was a relevant Lead Member.

The debate was at times personally critical, with Cllr Rogers referring to the analogy of the price of child’s life as ‘disgraceful’

Cllr Rogers said: “There is no one in this room who does not value a child’s life. It’s despicable.”

Cllr Rogers went on to say: “This council works damn hard to make people aware of road safety issues”, which prompted an interjection by Cllr Jones to mention ‘Kerbcraft’.

Kerbcraft is a child pedestrian training programme for pupils aged five – seven, which has had funding worries. Cllr Rogers replied that Kerbcraft ‘will continue under current form and is funded for this financial year’.

The heated interchange ended with Cllr Rogers saying “I am not having someone here today lecturing us while they try and build profile for their own political gain.”

Cllr Dutton said: “Arfon Jones is being extremely emotive without any justification.”

Cllr Jones responded: “I am not surprised with these personal attacks. Everyone says it’s political and everything else, but no one is answering the questions.

“It makes a mockery of the statements made this afternoon.”

Councillor Bernie McCann explained how ‘back in the day’ people used to make their own ways to school saying: “I am not ashamed to say there is no one in the county borough who can talk to me about deprivation as I grew up with it, I walked to school.”

One thrust of the call-in argument was that the possible use of hazardous routes by pupils has not been explored, and that such checks and solutions should be provided before any bus services are scrapped.

Councillor Keith Gregory stated ‘You cant just pull the plug’, and addressing Cllr Dutton said “Let it be on your head if there is an accident.”

This provoked an angry response from Cllr Dutton who replied: “My concern for children is the same if not more than Keith Gregory’s.”

At the end of the debate Cllr Jones was invited to summarise, saying: “I don’t think my questions have been answered. I am not alone in expressing these views.

“What has come out today is the hazardous route information. The hazardous route issue should have been discussed before this decision was passed.”

This itself caused a chorus of ‘it was’, with Cllr Jones then asking ‘how many of these 15 routes have been assessed?’

Councillor David Kelly, who embraced not only the debate but summer as well with sunglasses and Crocs, said: “The policy states that a route has to be applied for to be hazardous, and usually flagged up by a parent or the like. We need to understand he polices and protocols we have as a council before we castigate how we do things.”

The call in was put to a vote, and it was not felt there was a need to send it back to the Executive Board as the motion was defeated eight – two.

The second issue to feature in the call in was one of ‘centralising’ highways and related services. Cllr Jones was again spokesman of the group calling in the decision to centralise some of the StreetScene services.

Concern was raised that there was no detail of efficiency savings, and how the group calling in the decision said ‘some of us will recall how badly served we were under Clwyd not to mention the sorry state of our centralised housing repairs service’.

Cllr Dutton was again the ‘respondent, saying “Once again Arfon is speculating on all sorts of things.

“The officers and I put this forward as a holistic response. What we need to do is to maintain the highway network with the funds available, which are getting less and less.”

Cllr Evans mentioned the ruts and potholes in roads in his ward, as did Cllr Roxburgh.

They were assured that “this proposal does not change the fundamental street scene setup. There will still be area managers, the systems will still operate. We need the local knowledge that the engineers have.”

Cllr Pemberton said he was concerned about fairness saying “If a bridge needs repairing it will draw on the central pot, so those areas like Ponciau that have no bridges will lose out”.

“Under the proposed new system I fear it will be those who shout loudest will get it. I want fairness for the ward I represent”.

It was pointed out by Cllr David Jones “There is more infrastructure than in other areas and people are looking to have equal treatment. Its only equatable and fair if there is the same amount of roads in each area but there are not.”

Cllr Dutton attempted to make a point but was told ‘butt out’ by Cllr Jones.

Councillor Brain Cameron praised Street Scene and his relationship, and commented that there would be no change in that therefore he didn’t support sending the issue back to the Executive Board.

This view was echoed by the vote which ended seven – three, not sending the issue back to the Executive Board.

Despite the meeting ending it appeared there was ‘afters’ between Cllr Jones & Cllr Dutton with both sharing strong views.

After the meeting Cllr Arfon Jones has tweeted asking if Wrexham Council will ‘investigate’ the events in the meeting:
https://twitter.com/ArfonJ/status/341940250467266560
https://twitter.com/ArfonJ/status/341940840870060032