Cultural Learnings for to make Ammanford great again

Colin's Got It Covered(Up) in Mayoral Mankini of Office

Ammanford's year as "Town of Culture 2018" is now well underway. I wondered what was meant when the "initiative" was announced. So far efforts have been mostly focused on celebrating the entertainment side of things. For some light relief I'd like to take a look at local governance, how Ammanford Town Council's culture of ineptitude and secrecy feeds into the pitiful state of local so-called democracy with a blatant disregard for accountability.

Ammanford Town Council was recently fined by the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales, upholding a complaint of maladministration. The anonymised Decision Letter is linked here. Mr X's complaint was hand delivered to the Town Hall, Iscennen Road on 21 December 2017, as follows:

"I write to make a formal complaint regarding the absence of published Minutes for Ammanford Town Council’s meetings, since August 2016.
 It has long been a requirement (Local Government Act 1972) for the Council to properly record and make Minutes available for inspection.  Since 1 May 2015 section 55 of the Local Government (Democracy) (Wales) Act 2013 has also required community and town councils to provide these in electronic format, along with the proceedings and (in so far as reasonably practical) any documents referenced in the Minutes (you may find guidance and press releases publicising this on the Welsh Government’s website).
 Please acknowledge receipt of this complaint and in the first instance provide a copy of your complaint resolution process (which should also be on your website). The Public Services Ombudsman for Wales has asked that I exhaust the Council’s formal complaints process before they will continue with their investigation into Ammanford Town Council’s performance."

The PSOW originally buffeted the issue when first reported in December 2017, claiming that Mr X hadn't followed Ammanford Town Council's complaint resolution process - a cyclic argument as Ammanford Town Council doesn't publish it's process. Following delivery of the written letter, the matter was put back to the PSOW for proper consideration. The PSOW failed to respond; further prompting led to a formal review and the PSOW ruled (without a right of appeal) that the complainant had to give 13 weeks for Ammanford Town Council to respond - the clock ticking from the letter through the door, rather than the matter first being raised with the Council (electronically) on 18 October 2017. A plucky case officer also took the initiative to call the Town Clerk, provide an electronic copy of the letter and inform Mr X of this positive action. Payment, details of the complaints process, and some highlights of the new Town Clerk's first year in post were provided, in a brown envelope, on 27 April 2018.

The PSOW action compounds that of the Information Commissioner's Office, who have ruled that Ammanford Town Council was/is in wilful breach of the Freedom Of Information Act (2000). The ICO has repeatedly spoken with the Town Clerk and directed the Council to release copies of the Minutes. Four ICO Decision Notices are pending release from the work-waiting queue. Enforcement action is imminent - once the file is allocated back to a case officer (96 days and counting, since confirmation on 8 February 2018). Some Minutes were published, but they are incomplete and "prove" the existence of other Minutes which have been missed in the relevant quarterly period. The full discourse is available publicly on the WhatDoTheyKnow platform at the following URLs:

   Request submitted 18/10/2017
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/aug_dec_2016_minutes_for_town_co
   Request submitted 01/11/2017
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/jan_mar_2017_minutes_for_town_co
   Request submitted 16/11/2017
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/apr_jun_2017_minutes_for_town_co
   Request submitted 30/11/2017 (and botched delivery in notes)
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/jul_oct_minutes_for_town_council

Seven months on, and Ammanford Town Council still has not complied with its FOI obligations, citing a revamp of their website and upcoming GDPR changes as just two of the things on the jobs list. The Council may wish to take heed of the ICO's view that "Businesses must understand they can't break one law to get ready for another", in the £13,000 fine issued to Honda - commentary and links to the Ruling here at The Register. 

For the Reader wondering what interest our glorious and illustrious Welsh Government has in the matter (might they want to uphold the Law we paid them to write?), don't get too excited. After a bit of war-dialling last week, an officer tasked with Town and Community Councils lamented that they have "such limited powers of enforcement". Her best suggestion was to try and publicise the matter. Another option floated was to speak to a Scrutiny officer at Carmarthenshire County Council - that was drowned by laughter in milliseconds. 

Here is the Welsh Government's Statutory Guidance "Access to Information on Community And Town Councils".

And how about these (2015) words of inspiration from then Public Services Minister Leighton Andrews?

“Some of the best Community and Town Councils are already meeting high standards of openness and transparency, and from now we will require all councils to meet the same standards.” 

The legislation itself is quite readable and unambiguous. A pity the legislation doesn't seem to have any teeth.

A Council must operate on the basis of collective responsibility and has to be accountable. Duties have to be discharged irrespective of personal circumstances. Ammanford Town Council has met and discussed important issues, such as asset transfer and Planning proposals - but who knows the outcomes or the interests involved? It has statutory duties and stewards considerable sums of public money. Minutes have been distributed electronically to Councillors, by both the interim Town Clerk and the current Town Clerk. Serving Councillors have considerable experience in public life, including the current Town Mayor who was a former leader of Dinefwr Borough Council, and was a member of the infamous indemnifying Labour/Independent Executive Board at Carmarthenshire County Council. Not so long ago he had the cheek to claim that pan-Wales local government reorganisation would reduce representation and accountability. According to the recently liberated complaints procedure, the buck stops with the Town Mayor, but the incumbent has been silent (until now?). The complaints protocol is linked here.

This sorry adventure down the rabbit hole begs the question: how inept is Ammanford Town Council? Or worse still, what are they hiding? And most worryingly, is this culture directly or overtly transferred into representation at Carmarthenshire County Council?

I do hope that the distasteful image of Town and County Councillor Colin "Got It Covered(Up)" Evans in his Mayoral Mankini of Office will be all the publicity needed to nudge things along. The Reader really doesn't want to see more.

[Picture brought to you courtesy of Doug Peters/EMPICS Entertainment, South Wales Guardian, Section 30A and Schedule 2 (2A) of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, the GIMP & the number 6. Sources here:
https://cdn.images.dailystar.co.uk/dynamic/33/photos/778000/620x/547b3bfade4f1_BORAT.jpg
http://www.southwalesguardian.co.uk/resources/images/7788223/?type=responsive-gallery-fullscreen
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukdsi/2014/9780111116029
https://www.gimp.org]