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Unison would have liked quick and local resolution
• I WRITE in response to the letters regarding the Standards Board decision on Camden councillor Paul Braithwaite (Bureaucrats are in fear of plain, forthright language etc, October 30).
Unison did support our members who were insulted by the comments written about them.
We also agree that councillors should be able to question works done by a sub-contractor carrying out a repair in Camden.
In fact we think it is part of their role to do so for their constituents. We would have liked this issue to have been dealt with speedily but we were informed that this was the way to proceed so we were also caught up in the lengthy process and clearly would have supported a quick and local resolution.
However, we also firmly believe that as council workers we, like any other employees, should all be treated with respect and dignity.
Mandy Berger
Unison Co-Convener
Housing and Adult Social Care
Phoenix Road, NW1
Standards board role
• I NOTICED a number of letters in the New Journal which were mistaken about the role of the Standards Board for England in the recent investigation into local councillor Paul Braithwaite (October 30).
To clarify our involvement: the Standards Board for England received a complaint about Cllr Braithwaite on April 9 2008.
We referred the complaint back to the London Borough of Camden’s monitoring officer for investigation on April 23 and wrote to Cllr Braithwaite to tell him of the complaint at that time.
This was our only involvement in the specifics of this case; the subsequent investigation and hearing were handled by Camden Council.
As strategic regulator we at the Standards Board take a national overview of the councillors’ code of conduct and the system which supports it, to ensure they work fairly, proportionately and in timely fashion.
However, the management of individual cases such as this one is, we firmly believe, best handled through the work of the local authority’s standards committee.
Finally I’d like to remind your readers that from May 8 this year, the Standards Board for England no longer has the role of receiving and assessing complaints against councillors.
All complaints now go directly to local authorities who decide whether or not they should be investigated. In most cases, the local authority will also carry out the investigation.
Paul Hoey
Director of Strategy and Guidance, The Standards Board for England
Manchester, M1
So shocking!
• A FEW years ago, in the days of Bundred, there were stories about a code of conduct for councillors, drawn up by Camden’s bureaucrats.
It seemed an aberration at the time, a feature of the dysfunctional Town Hall culture that had developed under the Labour veterans grown complacent through being too long in office.
Then came the election, and the old guard were kicked out, and soon there was hope. Within weeks Councillor Graves, new to the Town Hall, was rattling their cages, voicing the concern of thousands of taxpayers with a simple question: why did the officials need 10 days to respond to simple queries?
Indignant at such impudence, the borough solicitor described the question as “unnecessarily offensive” and “inappropriate” yet taxpayers, wondering how long a lawyer would last in the private sector with such an attitude, we’re delighted. At last, a councillor was asking real questions; perhaps things were beginning to shift; perhaps it was even the beginning of a new age.
Some hope! For now we’re hearing about Councillor Paul Braithwaite, dragged through the disciplinary hoops for nine months for something most people would applaud: a bit of straight talk about shoddy workmanship.
Feigning moral indignation, the bureaucrats seized on his use of the word “crap” to cloud the issue by disciplining him. What sensitive souls they must be to find the word shocking. How do they cope with the torrent of f-words we find in the media now? Why, daily life must be a torment for them... or perhaps (perish the thought) they’re just plain hypocrites.
Whatever the case, one really has to wonder what’s going on. Forgetting their place as public servants, these men presume to dictate to our elected representatives, while rejecting any criticism of their own behaviour, and turning the public standards committee into an example of more double standards.
It wouldn’t matter that much, of course, if they did their jobs properly. But they don’t. The only things they do well are the nasty ones, issuing parking tickets and hounding people late with their council tax.
Everywhere else the obtuse negligence of the Town Hall culture lets our money trickle in a steady stream through their fingers.
They must have squandered or lost millions over the years, yet no one is ever held to account. As to the practice common in the private sector – people not up to their jobs being sacked – well, that’s another planet, isn’t it.
So why do we have to put up with this abuse? And why do councillors tolerate it? Why can’t they just sink their differences for a bit, and act together to slap down a few of the over-mighty functionaries? They’d have massive public support if they did. So what’s stopping them?
There’s a crying need for the officials to be shown they’re not untouchable, that the rules apply to them too. Whether the councillors will have enough principle to do this, and enough courage to act, to make a stand for competence and decency, is anybody’s guess.
If they do, they’ll make history; if they don’t, the shabby charade will just go rolling on, costing more but delivering less with each new year and turning democracy and public service into no more than festering lies. Over to you, councillors…
JACK SMITH
Fellows Road, NW3 |
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