District Councils to move to Ipswich

Babergh offices, closing shortly?

Following their recent Council meeting it is now public knowledge that Babergh and Mid Suffolk District Councils will be closing their respective offices in Hadleigh and Needham Market and moving to Endeavour House in Ipswich, the home of the County Council.

This decision has not been universally welcomed and I do not find this surprising.  Firstly, there are legitimate concerns about the economic impact of closing two reasonably large offices in the centre of two market towns. Bearing in mind the enthusiasm of many District councillors for stimulating economic growth in their areas, almost to the exclusion of any other goal, the decision on the face of it seems perverse.

Secondly it could be regarded as inappropriate for a District Council (the clue is in the name!) to move its headquarters to premises outside its district.  We are assured however that residents will not be inconvenienced.  It is the plan to locate ‘satellite offices’ in towns around the districts.  Only time will tell if this will give residents adequate access to officers.

In any event the decision has now been made and, barring accidents, there will be an influx of District Council officers into the offices currently occupied by Suffolk County Council.

Many people, including myself, have for some time been in favour of scrapping the distinction between District and County Councils and forming one or more unitary authorities for Suffolk.  The move of the Districts into SCC offices could throw up some interesting worked examples of the benefits of this idea.

In this connection, coincidentally, yesterday I was contacted by a resident about a planning matter which concerns both Babergh and the County Council. Some difficulties had arisen with regard to drainage (a County Council responsibility) and inevitably there had been some considerable delay as e mails were exchanged between the two teams of officers involved.  Then one of the key officers at the County Council went on holiday resulting in further time wasted.  When I was speaking to the manager of the County Council drainage department, trying to move things forward, he commented that once the Babergh officers are sitting in the same building, a lot of this to-ing and fro-ing ought to be avoided.

Let’s hope that he is right, because if he is the move to Ipswich may quicken things up in the short term and, possibly, lead to greater things in the long term.

Council Tax hike at Mid Suffolk?

I am disturbed to read today that Mid Suffolk District Council is considering increasing Council Tax for the next financial year.

The reason that they wish to do this is not clear. The press release speaks of wanting to spend the money raised by the increase on ‘initiatives that will make a significant positive impact upon our communities’.   I view this with great suspicion.  In my view money is best left in people’s pockets to spend as they wish.  There is plenty of evidence that money spent by councils, and indeed by government generally,  is not money efficiently spent.

Were it necessary to raise money to protect frontline services that would be another matter, but I do not like the idea of picking the public’s pockets to fund unspecified ‘initiatives’.  I hope that Babergh is not going to do the same.  I for one would only vote for a tax increase if there were a real threat to front line services.

Suffolk County Council has already committed itself to a council tax freeze for four years.  In this we are listening to the public. On his blog today Colin Noble, the Cabinet Member for Finance quotes polling results that show that, were there to be more money in the system, people would want to see 1. A cut in Income Tax; 2. A cut in VAT and 3. A cut in Council Tax.

‘So’  Colin says ‘our promise and focus on protecting people's hard earned money by not putting up the Council Tax remains a clear priority as we balance what we have to spend on services and what we have to save.’

A message about rubbish collections...carry on as usual

A message from Babergh and Mid Suffolk Refuse Collection service:-

Following two early morning site inspections today at both our Stowmarket and Sudbury depots, regrettably we have had to take the decision to suspend all waste collections today in both Mid Suffolk & Babergh districts.

We will be reviewing the situation during the day and again tomorrow morning.

We are sorry for the disruption to our normal service, but ask if you could please put your bins out as usual and we will attempt to clear all outstanding collections as soon as the weather improves.

If residents need extra capacity, please contact the refuse helpline on 0845 606 6045 and we will send out bags.

New top management team in pictures!

Mugshots of the officers who will be forming the joint top management team at Babergh and Mid Suffolk are now available on the Babergh website:

click here

Seeing the officers lined up in this way makes one thing rather obvious: there is room for a few more women at the top.  2 women out of a total management team of  11 is a marginally lower percentage than the rather low number of women councillors at Babergh,  (9 out of 43). Of course those recruiting could only consider those who applied for the positions, and the process was a restricted one, but nonetheless the imbalance is striking.

This aside however the officers are a handsome looking bunch I am sure you will agree!

Observant readers will notice that two of the people in top slots are currently labelled as 'acting'.  This is due to the fact that, having looked internally,  the councils have decided to recruit from outside to fill these positions and the process is still ongoing.  Further announcements are expected in due course.

Integration news: Top officer selection and a new Joint Housing Panel

 Integration of operations at Babergh and Mid Suffolk continues apace.

Now that our joint Chief Executive, Charlie Adan, has settled in, next week interviews will be taking place to select the team of senior officers who will oversee the work of both organisations.  This is a difficult process, since not everyone will come out with what they want, but I do know that all of the people involved have received, and will continue to receive, professional support to help them make the best of the challenge they face.

In the meantime at yesterday’s Strategy Committee we approved proposals to set up a Joint Housing Board for Mid Suffolk and Babergh.  Three Councillors from Babergh and three from Mid Suffolk will sit on the new body, which will also include tenants’ representatives.   Shortly a single officer to oversee Housing at both councils will be appointed, and this ensures that the management and governance of the area as a whole is put on a sound footing.

This is not a small enterprise! Between them Babergh and Mid Suffolk have 7000 council houses, which takes us into the top quartile in terms of size in the Eastern Region. Economies of scale should result, and better ways of working together should effect a transformation of how we deliver this service.

The Board will set policy for the day to day administration and management of the housing stock . The Strategy Committee/Cabinet of each council will continue to make decisions on housing finance, rent levels etc.  Clearly however there will have to be a good deal of interaction to ensure that the joint operations work efficiently and fairly.

Babergh and Mid Suffolk - a disappointing, if not unexpected, result.

Most people will know that I am disappointed that Babergh’s residents have voted against a full merger with Mid Suffolk District Council.  It is clear that the majority of people found the case for merger unconvincing.  I have to confess that I find it hard to understand why there is such an enthusiasm for sticking with the current, rather unsatisfactory,  status quo.

I'm sorry to say that many people in the District were mislead by ill-informed scare stories regarding Mid Suffolk’s financial strength, and also about the probability of car parking charges being introduced for short term stays in town centres were the merger to go ahead.

I can’t help feeling that Babergh has been denied a great opportunity, not just to save money, but to become a more streamlined, stronger, more effective entity.

We will still be continuing with full integration of officers under our new CEO, who held a very fruitful workshop on the subject last week.  However, as I think was made plain in the documentation that accompanied the poll, the savings that will be achieved by this will by no means fully compensate for the expected loss of our grant from the Government.  This means that we will inevitably now have to think about revisiting the level of charges for all services and, very regrettably, support for community groups may well be cut again.

When I heard the news I was at a planning training course at Mid Suffolk’s offices, and I felt that the Mid Suffolk members were also disappointed by the result.  I have got to know some of them quite well, and on the whole they are friendly and positive and they continue to look forward to closer co-operation with Babergh.*

In contrast to our political opponents, we wanted residents to have their say.  They have done so, and we must abide by their decision.

*I should tell you that I parked my car in a totally free car park, of which, contrary to received opinion,  there are several in Mid Suffolk.

Please say yes to the merger with Mid Suffolk

I can't believe that I still seem to be on the campaign trail!

Nick and I spent the morning with colleagues from Babergh delivering leaflets in Long Melford in support of a yes vote in the Local Poll on Babergh's plans to merge with Mid Suffolk District Council, details of which should hit your doormat very shortly.

As many people know the two councils are already combining as many of their business activities as possible in order to save money and protect services.  However in order to reduce the number of councillors and complete a full merger of the councils we need a mandate from the public.

The merger has benefits over and above the purely financial, although the savings of at least £400,000 per year that would be achieved is around 10 percent of Babergh's share of council tax, and cannot be dismissed as insignificant.

There has been a good deal of nonsense talked about what would happen to us all in the event of a merger, and also about the relative financial strength of both councils. I do not propose to address these here and now.  However if anyone has any questions when they have received their voting packs I will be very happy to answer them either by phone, by e mail,  or here on the blog.

Lib Dems' action threatens local poll on Council merger

‘I for one do not want to see one community grant reduced, or one service for residents cut, just to pay for a plethora of surplus to requirement District Councillors desperately hanging on to office and confusing the issue, while money is squandered, and Babergh and Mid Suffolk staff take the pain of job losses and redundancy.’

I suppose that it was too much to hope that yesterday’s extra Council Meeting would all be over by coffee time. I was rather hoping it would since I have developed a nasty cold and wanted to go and sit by the fire.

There were only two papers on the agenda. The second was a ‘Part 2’ item and therefore confidential so I can’t say a word about that. Suffice it to say that mercifully it didn’t take too long and I did get home for a late lunch.

The first looked innocuous enough, so I felt I was safe in expecting to be home by noon.

No such luck.

The proposals asked members to approve (or reapprove) the business case for both the merger of officer structures of Babergh and Mid Suffolk and also the potential constitutional merger which would form one council out of two. This sounds a bit dull, but stay with me reader, for you will learn much about the nature of political goings on at Babergh District Council if you do.

In their wisdom the Liberal Democrats had asked that this business case be verified by an outside auditor some time ago. Although I had faith in the scheme as prepared by our officers, since much of the scope for cost cutting is very transparent, I had no real issue with having a third party take a closer look.

This verification has now been done. The excellent work that was prepared by officers from the finance departments of both councils has been unequivocally endorsed by representatives from CIPRA. This body has been very active in recent years examining plans for corporate activity between local authorities in the UK and are generally considered to be the number one experts in the field. ‘Robust’,’ sound’, ‘conservative’, ‘accurate’, were some of the adjectives used by the man from CIPRA who came specially to the Council chamber to present his findings to us. Even if the costs of implementation of the scheme increased by 100%, he said, the business case was a sound one which would meet the Boundary Commission’s ‘Value for Money’ parameters.

This means that from a financial standpoint what we are doing, and what we are planning to do, is A VERY GOOD THING.

It seems however that the Liberal Democrats, despite the ringing endorsement of the scheme from people who, I would have to say, know rather more about the issue than they do, have now decided that they have lost their enthusiasm for a full merger. This is despite the fact that just five months ago all but two of their number voted, in principle to go ahead subject to the business case being verified. (See blog for Tuesday September 28^th 2010 which describes the debate).

It was hard to grasp what was troubling them now that didn’t trouble them five months or so ago, and it is hard to avoid the conclusion that with an election some weeks away , and with their own party doing even worse than the Conservatives in the opinion polls, they have been panicked into an attempt to create some political difference between themselves and the Conservative Group.

In the debate I urged Babergh members to consider the financial benefits to their constituents of a full merger (additional savings of at least £800,000 per annum for the new council), to put politics behind them, and to ‘do the right thing’. I for one do not want to see one community grant reduced, or one service for residents cut, just to pay for a plethora of surplus to requirement District Councillors desperately hanging on to office and confusing the issue, while money is squandered, and Babergh and Mid Suffolk staff take the pain of job losses and redundancy.

I don’t know if my words made any difference but the outcome was, in the end, just about satisfactory, as the motion to approve the business plan was carried by 19 votes to 15 with one abstention. The names of who voted which way have been recorded*

What is really frightening about the Liberal Democrat’s flip flop on this issue is that they risked bringing the whole discussion of a full merger to a full stop. If they had prevailed that would have been it, finished, the end. The residents of Babergh and Mid Suffolk would have been denied the right to vote on the question in the planned local poll that is due to take place immediately after the Local Government elections in May.

Not much liberal about that....or much democratic either.

*Three Independents voted for the motion, and three against, with one abstention. Our one Labour member voted against, but to give him his due, he has been entirely consistent in his opposition to the scheme, preferring to support a more fundamental unitary solution. Were this to be an option at present I would agree with him.