No heads will roll at County Hall despite a damning report into the ‘dysfunctional’ Isle of Wight Council, it has been confirmed.
The leader of the Isle of Wight Council has said he is not expecting any resignations at any level relating to last week’s Penn report.
Councillor Phil Jordan, who heads up the Alliance group, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) no resignations had been tendered connected to Richard Penn’s review, which described County Hall as ‘dysfunctional’.
However, he said he is expecting improved behaviour from ‘certain’ councillors.
Mr Penn’s 31-page ‘Governance at the Isle of Wight Council’ report flagged ‘inappropriate’ councillor behaviour and also contained criticisms of the local authority’s officers.
Alongside the report’s release, it emerged last week that the government is ‘concerned’ with member behaviour, with a letter from Whitehall to the council warning of ‘further action’ without ‘additional assurance’.
Cllr Jordan said:
“There are no current (top level) resignations at County Hall that are related in any way, shape or form with the Richard Penn report.
Article continues below this advertisement “Neither am I expecting any resignations, at any level, related to the report. I am, however, expecting improved behaviour from certain councillors that are referenced in the report especially as we implement all of the recommendations and actions required to address the issues we have experienced previously.”
In a joint statement with the leaders of the Conservative and Liberal Democrat groups, he previously pledged to ensure the council operates properly and said it was abundantly clear there are problems.
The Penn report said policies and procedures meant to provide ‘checks and balances’ on the behaviour of members and officers are ‘all too often ignored’ or ‘forgotten’.
Mr Penn, a former Commissioner for Standards at the Welsh Assembly, wrote:
“The council has well written and comprehensive policies and procedures that theoretically provide robust checks and balances on the behaviour of members and officers.
“These documents give clear and unambiguous advice about what is required and all major on one word – ‘respect’ – but it appears that these policies and procedures are all too often ignored or forgotten and rarely if ever used to deal with inappropriate behaviour by members.
“Members are required to behave in accordance with the Councillors’ Code of Conduct as they formally commit to that when making their Declaration of Acceptance following their election – but this seems all too often to be disregarded by some councillors.
“I attended a couple of full council meetings and viewed some committee meetings when they were webcast, and not only was the behaviour of some members a potential clear breach…but there was no attempt by the other councillors – or indeed council officers – present at the meeting to challenge the behaviour.
“This leaves the chair of the meeting with the unenviable task of trying to calm down a very heated atmosphere, an unfair expectation of one councillor acting alone.”
The Penn report is due to be presented to full council on Wednesday evening (19th November).
Pass the Kleenex, makes you want to weep.
Andrex would be more appropriate.
“The leader of the Isle of Wight Council has said he is not expecting any resignations “
Usually, after such a “damning report” the person at the top resigns.
They hold total responsibility.
That only happens with genuine people who would do
the right thing.
If that honourable tradition still maintained, I fear most of our corporations and institutions would be leaderless, Comment. When did you last hear any notable public figure say ‘Mea culpa, it happened on my watch and I’m stepping down’? Quite. Taking responsibility now seems as common as rocking horse poo.
Of course no one will resign, why on earth would you give a nice little earner just because a government report says you are incompetent, their overblown egos would never allow it.
Same old chestnut, known to be failing, allowed to continue failing.
Heads deep in the trough of plenty so no chance of hearing anything.
So no one with any morals will resign and even though they have been condemned by independent auditors things will just continue as before, great use of tax payers money
Doesn’t surprise me, most if not all Government organisations
are poorly run, hence such a large blackhole.
Too much money is wasted on public sector employees,
public sector sick pay and public sector pensions not
to mention all the public sector employees who are being paid
to shirk from home.
A dysfunctional government warning a dysfunctional council what a joke don’t do as I do as i say
This has nothing to do with resigning, it’s about the whole issue being bloody useless and incompetent and being sacked. Of course no one is going to resign out of choice from their nice little cushy guaranteed secure jobs and pensions.
OMG! After all that, nothing’s going to happen, is it? How much did this report cost to compile?
Hands up who thought anyone would be sacked, let alone resign, or anything would change. Why should they expect behaviour to change? They have been given a free pass to carry on regardless
You scratch my back I’ll scratch yours!!!!!