Council errors ‘in need of further investigation’
CALLS have been made for a wider investigation following an inquiry into errors made by a Derbyshire council in its hunt for a permanent Traveller site – dubbed the “tip of the iceberg”.
A Derbyshire Dales District Council meeting last week discussed a report into the authority’s assessment of a potential Traveller site at Hasker Farm, near Carsington Water for eight months, including liaising with a known convicted drug dealer.
The independent report, carried out by East Midlands Councils at a cost of nearly £5,000, partially upheld four out of 10 complaints made to the district council – implicating all of its councillors.
Now calls have been made for a wider independent investigation to further assess the shortcomings of the authority, with resignation demands for leading officers already being made.
Council leader Cllr Steve Flitter said the investigation may go further but also that it should be “put in the past”.
Paul Williamson, a Hasker Farm resident for the past decade, told the meeting the report was a “good start” but could be called an “investigation” due to its limited scope, the limited evidence considered and due to witnesses it did not interview.
He said the resulting conclusions were fundamentally flawed and procedurally unfair and felt there needed to be a “do-over” to avoid severe legal and reputational jeopardy. Sarah Dines, Conservative MP for the Derbyshire Dales, described the Hasker Farm situation a “scandal”.
She said: “The findings at this stage are already damning and there is clearly more to come. Rather than accept the fact that very senior officers of this council have behaved in an appalling and unprofessional manner, all I have seen is attempts from the council to try and downplay the findings.
“This is the tip of the iceberg. Any of the attempts from the council to downplay the seriousness of the scandal will rebound on officers and those elected members of the council. There is no real difference between upheld and partially upheld complaints. You cannot be a little bit pregnant.”
Ms Dines said: “When you are in a hole, stop digging. The leadership of the council need to act fast otherwise they damage the reputation of the many good people that work at this council.
“It is time to come clean, the matter needs to be further investigated and, frankly, I for one expect proper resignations of those senior officers who have misled my constituents and me.”
Cllr Dermot Murphy said the reputational damage caused to the council was “truly unacceptable” and that he did not have any confidence in the results of the report, due to not all witnesses being interviewed.
He said: “The Hasker Farm must in my view go to the ombudsman for further investigation and scrutiny. Unless we do there will continue to be a black cloud hanging over the authority.”
Helen Mitchell, director of corporate and customer services and monitoring officer, said the authority apologised for any mistakes made, noting the “errors of judgement” made “as a result of pressure on officers from political leadership”.
Cllr Flitter said: “There are lessons to be learnt here and we have to do it in the correct way. “We have got to come together and look at how we do things, which we have been doing since day one, because we did not agree how the process was led in the first place. Transparency and governance was one of my main topics when we took over in May and that’s what I aim to try and drive this council to do, in being open, honest and above board.
“I think that a lot of things (raised in the report) are minor things because not one has been fully upheld. Public confidence was used by Cllr Murphy and also a ‘black cloud.’
“That black cloud was held over the last administration and we are trying to build that public confidence and to do that we have to work together and until things stop and people start working together then we will not succeed in coming to a successful outcome. I do not believe that blaming officers for things which they may or may not have made an error of judgement in the past, we have got to look at the seriousness of that.
“And that has been looked at in the proper way. We have looked at it as leaders.
“We have looked at it as an external inquiry and it may go further. I can’t see this stopping. But we as a district council will do what we can to appease what the complainant has put forward and we want to work together.”
It is time to come clean, the matter needs to be further investigated and frankly I for one expect proper resignations of those senior officers who have misled my constituents and me.