City council watchdogs merger set to go ahead

...DESPITE ‘CONCERNS’ RAISED BY ETHICS CHIEF

Coun Colin Ferguson, leader of the council’s Lib Dem opposition, expressed fears that the council had “missed the boat” in being able to retain the expertise of independent committee members who were replaced in December.

He added: “The things that have gone on in the meantime [since September] mean that I feel this may well be the right move, but I don’t think that it is the right time to do it.”

Labour council leader Nick Kemp praised the “credibility, quality, and expertise” of the new independent members of both committees.

He added if there were any concerns about standards issues not being properly addressed then those should be brought back to the constitutional committee in future.

Former audit chair Hamish Moore and standards chair Mark

Scrimshaw, both long-serving independent leaders of the committees, were not reappointed to their roles in December.

Mr Scrimshaw had previously warned that he was “totally objecting” to the merger of the committees, which he claimed in October “has the potential to do serious harm to an ethical framework in a council”.

Those comments came just weeks after Mr Moore had grilled council chief executive Pam Smith over whether a toxic atmosphere or bullying was present within the council, which she refused to deny, amid rumours of major rifts between the city’s political leadership and senior officers.

Labour councillor Jane Byrne subsequently left her post as the council’s cabinet member for transport and claimed in an explosive statement that she could not “trust” staff.