Tuesday 30 November 2010

Anglesey Recovery Board - latest report to WAG

Below you can find the latest report by the Anglesey Recovery Board to the WAG Minster for Local Governmen, dated July 29th. A quick summary is set out below:

  • The political situation has stabilised following the formation of the Alliance, although the Board notes that, "the focus of the Council in the past two or three months has again been on member behaviour".
  • The Board further notes that, "it is becoming clear that that the naming of two councillors in the Alliance’s terms of engagement remains a significant issue of contention between the Alliance and the opposition" and goes on to "urge the Council to dispose of the two existing Ombudsman complaints as soon as possible. Then, all councillors could move on to addressing the very real problems that the island faces".
  • Discussing the decision to work on a joint Local Development Plan between Anglesey and Gwynedd, the Board hints that this may be the first of many similar collaborations with other Local Authorities: "We also believe strongly that there are a range of other opportunities for increasing the amount of joint working and collaboration between the authorities in line with developments elsewhere in North Wales ... In any case, developing these sort of arrangements will be an inevitable and essential part of the Council’s response to dealing with the service challenges resulting from fewer resources."
  • Bryan Owen, Leader of the Original Independents highlighted that, "opposition members were afraid to offer challenge in the Council chamber in fear of being regarded as undermining the work of the Council." In response the Board states that, "It should be made absolutely clear that offering constructive criticism is welcome and we would urge all members, inside and outside the Alliance, to act accordingly in the interests of maintaining an effective and well ordered democratic forum."
  • The report ends by noting, "despite some good work, it is still a time of considerable tension within the Council, exacerbated by the particular form of the terms of engagement."

You can read the whole report below and an archive of all the Recovery Board reports can be found here.
Anglesey Recover Board 7th Meeting

22 comments:

kp said...

'Discussing the decision to work on a joint Local Development Plan between Anglesey and Gwynedd, the Board hints that this may be the first of many similar collaborations with other Local Authorities ...............'

On matters tourism, I would suggest the council looks to work with rather more successful local authorities than Gwynedd.

Indeed, any form of collaboration with Gwynedd local authority should be avoided at all costs.

TGC said...

"Indeed, any form of collaboration with Gwynedd local authority should be avoided at all costs."

Yes, but it's costs that are paramount, you see? No matter how rubbish the team-up might be, just feel how much slimmer the budget is now...

Would it be wildly wrong to summarise this as "behaving nicely whilst we watch them, set to collapse as soon as we're not"?

Prometheuswrites said...

Issues regarding Ynys Mon:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/northwestwales/hi/people_and_places/newsid_9242000/9242174.stm

"Facelift for Beaumaris pier and Anglesey beaches"

Good stuff, go to the roadshow, ask questions.

&

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-north-west-wales-11876211

"Group claims Anglesey nuclear 'scepticism'"

Survey shows a majority support renewable energy generation

Anonymous said...

Decisions, Decisions

From the Daily Post

1. HOLYHEAD tops Wales’ jobless league with more than seven workers chasing each job vacancy, according to new figures.

2. Isle of Anglesey spent £1.4m on CCTV cameras

Photon said...

Often, things like CCTV spending comes as a direct result of nominated funding from a particular source - such as the Home Office. So whilst you can validly argue whether this is a good way to spend our money, it may not directly come from the Council Tax.

Anonymous said...

this is how many jobs on offer for anglesey

http://www.1job.co.uk/jobs/11746/Isle%20of%20Anglesey/1/allSectors.html


24 thats all

Anonymous said...

Do a FOI request and ask what IWJ was up to on 4th Spetember 2009 which is a Holyhead connection.

Anonymous said...

Prometheus

"Issues regarding Ynys Mon:

"Facelift for Beaumaris pier and Anglesey beaches"

Good stuff, go to the roadshow, ask questions."

Am very interested but attending an event between 11.00 and 2.00 on a working day is a non starter. You'd think that in the circumstances the Council would use their website to publish details but I've failed to find any.

Richard Sletzer said...

Well I've read the latest Recovery Board report - and it was every bit as badly written, foggy and jargon-ridden, as I expected it to be.

I was tempted to get my green eye-shade and blue pencil out to do some sub-editing on this less-than-grammatical essay but - dear God - it really needs a complete re-write from end to end.

Perhaps there should be some sort of island-wide competition for anyone who can tackle para 28 - fix the grammar, and the punctuation, and explain what on earth it's supposed to mean.

If this is the best Professor Elan Closs Stephens can do I am afraid I can only award her three marks out of ten along with a note in the margin - "Must do better".

Anonymous said...

17.12

"Do a FOI request and ask what IWJ was up to on 4th Spetember 2009 which is a Holyhead connection."

Why don't you do it and then let us know?

Bet you're the type who whinges and moans about everything and expects everyone else to do something about it. And a huuuuge big whinge when 'nothing is done' eventhough 'you told them about' just like your cryptic message above.

If IWJ was up to something that day either tell us/put in a FOI or just shut the fff up.
Put up or shut up.

County Councillor Barrie Durkin said...

This latest report to WAG gives rise, that the naming of two Councillors in the Alliances "Terms of Engagement" remains a significant issue of concern and a stumbling block to recovery, so much so, that even members of the Alliance have refused to sign up to it.

There are a number of definitions for "Terms of Engagement" the ones Clive McGregor and some of his Alliance have signed up to are more a kin to an engagement for war. A war of threats, abuse and public humiliation, to inflict as much personal damage as possible, using nothing more than conjecture for ammunition. Conjecture that some councillors are constantly blocking progress and by their actions, refusing to embrace new ways of working?

In doing so, it demands that members of the Alliance shall collectively take steps to robustly name, shame and condemn councillor's publicly. If they do not they are threatened with ejection from the group, and deemed trouble makers themselves.

I use the word conjecture, because that is exactly what it is. More importantly for Anglesey County Councils position. No independent hearing, Tribunal or Trial has taken place to support such conjecture and for any Local Authority to engage, involve itself and support the condemning of anyone publicly or otherwise, no matter what the reason without a fair independent hearing or trial is a serious breach of the, European Convention of the Human Rights Act 1998.

The fact that the Recovery Board makes it clear that. " Despite some good work, it is still a time of considerable tension within the council, exasperated by the particular form of the "Terms of Engagement".

One would think, in the interest of a speedier recovery and to try and mitigate any legal challenges the "Terms of Engagement" should have been scrapped long ago?

The one and only redeeming feature in all this is the fact, that at least half the councillors have enough humility and integrity not to condone such a wicked, scurrilous document, whilst the others in my opinion are just to weak to do otherwise.

Anonymous said...

There should be some sort of a Godwin-like law against misuse of the Human Rights Act.

".. is a serious breach of the, European Convention of the Human Rights Act 1998."
Fact or a view?

An Eye On... said...

not to condone such a wicked, scurrilous document, whilst the others in my opinion are just to weak to do otherwise.

So half can't be arsed with it and the other half are such a pack of fannies they're to scared not to.

What a shambles.

PS The report itslef is for the most part well constructed english masking meaningless gobbledy-gook. Such a waste pof paper it makes a mockery of any environmental claims the Council may make. Youd have to be a 5 star dullard to put your name to it.

What a bigger shambles

Anonymous said...
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The one from Valley said...

"The whole feckless bunch"

Couldn't put it better myself.

Not fit for purpose, incompetent, Ineffectual, lacking purpose without the courage to act in any meaningful way.
Yes, that just about sums them up,
Feckless.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
kp said...

Insofar as I have now had a chance to read the paper I think I can honestly say I don't really understand very much of it.

Doubtless it is meant for much smarter people than me.

My only purpose is to continue to pay for such.

Anonymous said...

Considering the Recovery Board chaired by Elen Closs Stephens are so concerned that the Terms of Trash (As they are now rightfully know as)are so troublesome. Why are they not doing something about it? After all, when they talk about "Constantly blocking progress" Clive McGregor and his Terms of Trash, are the main culprit.

Prometheuswrites said...

If anyone ever wants a demonstration of the meaning of the word "Obfuscation" then give them this report to read.

It certainly merits entry in the Plain Speaking Awards 2010.

So apart from the labyrinthine grammatical constructions what does it tell us, once we've removed all the 'promised to resolve to consider to consult on beginning to start to plan' jargon?

What is there in the way of actual achieved outcomes and evidence based observation?

What stood out for me was the statement of Cllr Bryan Owen where he says "that opposition members were afraid to offer challenge in the Council chamber in fear of being regarded as undermining the work of the Council. He also felt that the current practice of naming and shaming individuals was preventing the Council from moving on".

The comments on this were the nearest that the recovery board came to taking a position on events, as well they should as Bryan Owen's statement portends the death of democracy on the island if the terms of engagement stand.

What I find distrurbing is standard of writing evidenced in this report. Richard Setzler is indeed correct about the impenetrable language used in section 28.

The final section says it all - "we will continue to do so until the situation becomes clearer".

A quick check of my Star Trek Universal Translator comes up with "we have no idea what's going on after a year of examination"

When a respected academic come out with this sort of claptrap is it no wonder that our current crop of students get tarred as being semi-literate - after all they are just copying what they're being shown.

'Must do better' - Mr Chips.

Prometheuswrites said...

To Clarify: where I write -

"It certainly merits entry in the Plain Speaking Awards 2010".

I do of course mean entry in the "Golden Bull" category.

Anonymous said...

These pages might as well be blank because like our future, these pages are meaningless. No independent writer can explain to me the horrors of the past, and the futureless hope that this Authority has left as a legacy to the people of Anglesey. All these words in all of that report are worthless.

Anonymous said...

TERMS OF TERROR.
TERMS OF HATE.
TIME TO CLOSE THE WHOLE PLACE DOWN.