This letter should be fairly self evident in the context of the £46million overspend in the first quarter of the budget year at Derbyshire County Council.
To: Cllr Barry Lewis, Leader of the Council
From: Cllr Ed Fordham, Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group
cc.Emma Alexander, Managing Director
Friday, 23rd August 2023
Dear Barry,
There is a fixed item on the agenda of each and everyCouncil meeting “Report of the Leader of the Council and member questions”. However, with questions only being allowed to be asked on subjects brought up in your report you have slipped into a habit of declaring that “I have nothing to report.”
On each occasion when you have said ‘nothing to report’ you know that this was disingenuous - that many things have occurred that you could choose to report to Council - but you have chosen not to. Either you consider them below the threshold of being worthwhile, or more simply you are seeking to avoid being held to account.
You know that your conduct in this regard is unworthy of you and your office. You would be critical of any other Leader of any Party who so frequently reported ‘nothing’. You know that this avoids being asked any questions from fellow councillors.
This situation would be an issue, in and of itself, but at the last Council you directly and consciously misled councillors. When you stood up in the Chamber and from the Leaders seat declared “I have nothing to report” we now all know that the opposite was true. Whilst you made out to councillors that there was nothing out of the ordinary in the business of the council the precise opposite was true. Indeed, we now know that the Managing Director of the Council was herself taking urgent steps as the Head of Service to inform all staff the following day of the crisis overspend of £46million. The same responsibility fell to you as Leader of the Council to communicate the scale of the problem to fellow councillors but you failed to do so and failed in your role.
It is now known that the papers for the Cabinet meeting had been signed off, the email was going to all staff at 9am, MPs, partner organisation and the media were all being personally briefed by senior staff on the scale of the financial crisis facing the Authority. Further, formal measures were being put in place ahead of Cabinet to limit spending, recruitment and thereby to directly affect service delivery in many areas of the Councils work.
All of this was going on whilst you glibly, blithely and indeed misleadingly told councillors that there was ‘nothing to report’.
You must surely reflect on the extent to which you have failed to understand the role of the Leader and failed to take questions from councillors in Full Council. On this occasion you have been found not just lacking, but you have deliberately and dangerous mislead all councillors. You had the formal opportunity to say something and you chose silence. Whilst the Managing Director has chosen a strategy of openness with staff - you chose silence in front of fellow councillors and peers.
It is appropriate that you should to apologise to all councillors at the next meeting of Council, or to enable others to fulfil the role of Leader in keeping with the constitution and the basic and core tenets of accountability.
Yours sincerely
Cllr Ed Fordham
Leader of the Liberal Democrats
Derbyshire County Council
