Labour’s smokescreen

PRESS RELEASE

Contact: Ian Marks (01925 753051)

Date: 1 May 2011

LABOUR’S SMOKESCREEN

Town Hall bosses have hit back at Labour claims that their comment on the stinging Local Government Ombudsman’s report is just a ‘political stunt’.

Labour opposition leader Cllr Terry O’Neill has criticised the Lib Dem / Conservative administration for laying the blame with the previous Labour ruling group at the Town Hall.

Council leader Ian Marks says, “This is no stunt. For Warrington Borough Council to be described as having suffered ‘a significant and very serious failure of corporate governance’, and that ‘the destruction of the Council’s statutory records was an extraordinary and inexcusable act of maladministration’, is a very serious matter. This action by a trusted senior planning officer must have been planned. The report says ‘It must have involved a considerable administrative effort and a number of staff’.

It is possible that the illegal act of destroying the archive of planning records contrary to planning law was simply an isolated act of incompetence by a senior officer. Nevertheless the destruction of records raises speculation about other possible reasons for their removal which brings the Council into serious disrepute.

The timing of the report, and its release to the press immediately prior to an election, was an entirely independent decision by the Ombudsman. Once the report was published, we had no option but to comment.

Cllr O’Neill’s ill-tempered response is an attempt to write off evidence of the failure of his administration to manage Warrington Council properly. His statement must be seen as the smoke-screen that it is.”

Deputy leader Keith Bland added, “Cllr O’Neill refers to the need for a full enquiry. The Council’s Internal Audit team has already been asked to undertake the investigation and they started the process promptly on Thursday. I would expect the Council’s Monitoring Officer to consider preparing a report as part of any governance response, depending on the conclusions of the Audit investigation. All planning records are now kept in digital form but Internal Audit will check and confirm that the way we now keep planning records is up to the required standard.”

Ends….

The original BBC item.

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