Mayor of troubled council stays away from recovery discussion

Martin Slack

A GOVERNMENT-appointed recovery board overseeing improvements at Doncaster Council met for the first time yesterday – but the borough’s elected mayor did not attend.

Leaders of the main political groups at the authority, who did appear at Doncaster’s Mansion House for the meeting, expressed surprise that Peter Davies was not in attendance for the discussion.

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Mr Davies, who was elected last year, is responsible for formulating council policies, and is expected to play a leading role both in the council’s rehabilitation and the work of the recovery board.

The board was appointed by Communities Secretary Eric Pickles shortly after the General Election in response to a highly-critical Audit Commission report into the council’s performance.

That report was prompted by a catalogue of failings which included the deaths of seven children known to social services and a horrifying attack on two boys carried out by two young brothers.

Audit Commission inspectors said Doncaster Council was the worst they had ever seen, with in-fighting and poor leadership leaving the authority unable to function properly.

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Yesterday, the Recovery Board’s chairman Sir John Harman outlined the improvement work he expected to take place.

He made it clear that he and his two fellow commissioners, Rotherham businesswoman Julie Kenny and former Hackney Council member Jessica Crowe, were not looking for “perfection”.

He added: “You can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. We want to see sound, rational responses and we will be examining the way in which they are pursued.

“The policies to achieve the change which is required are the council’s area, but we will be looking at the quality of that response.”

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Members of the recovery board, which includes the leaders of the council’s Conservative, Liberal Democrat, Labour and Independent groups, were asked to approve a “framework recovery plan”.

The plan, which identifies 10 main areas for attention, will be now be examined by the full council before being sent to the secretary of state for approval at the end of next month.

Rob Vincent, the former chief executive of Kirklees Council, has been appointed by the Government to run the authority until December 2011.

He said a “great deal of progress” had been made in some areas, mainly those which will be affected by the expected cuts to be introduced in next month’s Government spending review.

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But Mr Vincent also admitted that there was “much work to do” in others, particularly in those where new relationships had to be built between senior council members and officers.

He added: “When I arrived two months ago, the relationships in the council were not the relationships you would expect to see in a council that was working well.

“I have now said openly at all levels that because of the power play and struggles that had been going on, Doncaster had not been addressing the way it worked as an authority.

“To some extent, the strategy so far has been to create relationships around the current challenges but I think there is a lot to do still behind the scenes.”

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Mr Vincent described a “wariness” which still existed between senior politicians and senior officers and said specific work had been done to manage expectations on either side.

He added work would continue over the next few months.

Mayor Davies has spent much of the week attending and promoting the St Leger horseracing festival at the town’s racecourse.

A council spokesman said yesterday the Mayor’s whereabouts was not known and that no further comment was available.