Criticism that councillors are ‘kept in dark’ over local authority asset disposal

A Wrexham Councillor has accused the authority of keeping some members ‘in the dark’ when it comes to disposal of assets.

Under the Local Government and Elections Act, the council is required to undertake and publish a self-assessment showing it meets requirements set by the Welsh Government.

A draft of the self-assessment was discussed at Wrexham Council’s Customers, Performances and Resources scrutiny committee for feedback with a view to it being signed off at a future meeting of the Executive Board.

One of the areas the council is required to assess itself on is asset management, an issue that Grosvenor Cllr Marc Jones (Plaid) raised concerns about.

The council has come under fire in recent years for decisions taken on how it is choosing to dispose of sites and buildings it owns.

Decisions to put the former Pontfadog school in Glyn Ceiriog on the open market, and demolish the former vicarage in Rhosddu, also known as Centre 67, have drawn criticism in the community.

Cllr Jones said there were deficiencies highlighted in the self-assessment report, pointing to opportunities to improve on clarity around decision making.

The report states: “There are opportunities to improve processes and consistency relating to the management of assets across the council.”

Cllr Jones said: “Now that would qualify as the understatement of the year in any council, but it would certainly qualify for it in this council.”

He accused the authority’s Corporate Land and Buildings (CLAB) strategy group which is confidential and chaired by council leader Esclusham  Cllr Mark Pritchard (Ind), of being secretive and not lending itself to scrutiny.

Cllr Jones added: “I think the Welsh audit office has identified a problem in terms of the CLAB strategy group.
“The frankness of it is, it doesn’t work, it’s secretive and erratic, it’s top-heavy with Executive Board members and it doesn’t lend itself to proper scrutiny.
“For example, the last three meetings of the strategy group have been cancelled despite there being significant purchases and sales ongoing.
“I feel there are councillors who aren’t members of the Executive Board that are being kept in the dark over assets.”

Next month at Cllr Jones’ request the Corporate Resources scrutiny committee will look at council owned farms which he believes will shine a light on a wider issue on assets.

The draft self-assessment report shows that the council’s entire assets are collectively valued at £452m, which includes 11,400 buildings of which just over 11,000 are houses.

Cllr Pritchard, who is also the lead member for finance and assets, refused to be drawn on specific issues regarding disposal of assets but said the aim is always to get the best value for rate payers.

“A lot of the concerns that Marc has raised are in the report”, he said.
“We’ll move forward to addressing some of these concerns through the process.

“I understand you (Cllr Jones) as an individual are not happy with the process around assets. We had the same issue with Kings Mill, we had the same issue with Centre 67, we had the same issues with regards to properties in Cefn.

“We have a duty of care and we also have a duty to the tax payers of Wrexham to get the best value and do the right thing which is right for this council when we sell our disposable assets. That’s a given, and we follow due process.”

Cllr Pritchard suggested to Cllr Jones that to take issues forward he can continue to table topics at scrutiny meetings, where he would be happy to answer questions.

By Rory Sheehan – BBC Local Democracy Reporter