A senior Conservative councillor has accused Staffordshire County Council’s Reform UK administration of presenting a “misleading” account of its first 100 days in office, after a report highlighting early achievements was found to include actions completed before the party took control.
Philip White, who was Staffordshire County Council’s deputy leader before the May elections, said a number of the authority’s achievements described in the Integrated Performance Report happened before Reform UK took control of the administration.
He also raised concerns about the political nature of the report at Tuesday’s Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting 28 October 28. The report, which covers the period between July and September this year, was also considered by the county council cabinet at its October meeting.
Council leader Ian Cooper said in the report:
“It’s been a busy quarter and an incredible first 100 days in office, with many successes. Highlights include adult social services being rated ‘Good’ by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and the launch of Screen Staffordshire – the county’s first ever centralised film office.
“We also saw work begin on the development of a new Community Safety Strategy, the delivery of an Internal Efficiency Review to ensure every pound is well spent, a new approach to roadworks management and lobbying of government to implement urgent reforms for children with SEND (special educational needs and disabilities).
“Our work to transform the council, make budgets work harder and find smarter ways of doing things continues, so we can deliver more for the residents and businesses of Staffordshire.
Everyone who lives here knows what a fantastic place it is and we now want to share the message far and wide that Staffordshire is the place to choose to live, to choose to invest and grow business and to choose to visit and stay.”
The Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Committee was told the report provides an overview of the council’s delivery progress, performance and financial position. Councillor Chris Large, cabinet member for finance and resources, added:
“It also includes a selection of highlights from the (first) 100 days of the Reform administration.”
But Councillor White, now the Conservative Opposition Group leader, said:
“The structure of the report has changed a bit, I note, from the previous reports we have had. The report has now got a political element to it rather than just being a report on council activity.
“We have got an introduction and a section about Reform’s first 100 days so I presume that means everything in this report in that section you’re claiming that Reform has delivered. Could you please confirm the CQC inspection took place in February and March – before the Reform administration took over the running of the council?
“That is a success of the council we all celebrate, but it’s not something Reform had anything to do with. Screen Staffordshire launched in April 2024, so in what way was that a 100 day highlight for your administration?”
Councillor Large responded:
“It’s a highlight put forward through this 100 days, so the achievement of it. It’s being delivered now and we’ve furthered that on in that 100 day period.
“It’s been launched – not within the 100 days that’s correct.”
Councillor White said:
“This report as it stands is misleading and I think it needs to be amended. It’s unfortunate it’s already gone to cabinet, but we will be discussing it at full council and it is a public document.
“A recommendation would be this report is amended so it doesn’t sit in the public domain as it is. I think it’s really important these public documents that come forward to scrutiny are not political documents.
“We can do politics in the council chamber or in the outside world. This is a scrutiny document about the performance of the council as a corporate body and I don’t think we need things like this in our reports.
“Could you please review the report as it has come to us today, to make sure anything that is misleading (is) not represented in the Leader’s Statement to the cabinet. It would be good in future if the reports that come here could be non-political, so that we could have the really good discussion we’ve had plenty of today, but without the politicking.”
Councillor Large replied:
“We will look at the document and we will clarify the points that we’ve made in there.
I agree with you, we don’t want to bring politics into this scenario; in fact as you know I hate politics.”
1 comment
Mel
Sounds like someone has got sour grapes. Conservatives had their chance. Didn’t do a bad job for staffordshire. But as it is , the public have just had enough.