Peter Davies: House of cards must come crashing down at town hall

The current 63 councillors do not come cheap, costing taxpayers approximately £1.3m a year.

While savings are being made across the authority, councillors have protected their own allowances – which stand at a basic annual level of £12,000 per head and more for those chairing committees, sometimes doubling their ordinary allowance.

Like trade union leaders whose wages and expenses are paid by the local authority to the tune of £275,000 a year, they continue to ignore the financial reality and hope no-one will notice that their allowances remain intact.

Politicians, both local and national, have never been held in lower esteem. All are seen, rightly in many cases, to be in it for what they can get out of it.

Before the disastrous Heath-Walker reforms of 1974, local government delivered. Councillors saw themselves as unpaid public servants and were generally respected. Meetings took place in the evenings and no employees were on fancy incomes rivalling that of the Prime Minister. Council bills were affordable and members did not get involved in matters which were none of their business.

So here is a golden opportunity to turn back the tide. However, the Boundary Commission has so far only consulted the councillors – a wholly futile exercise. Turkeys and Christmas spring to mind.

It is no surprise that all three main parties, to their shame, have recommended a reduction of only nine which appears to have been partially endorsed by the Boundary Commission.

The three Intervention Commissioners have suggested cutting numbers from 63 to 40. This is more encouraging but does not go nearly far enough.

The most acceptable reduction is from 63 to 21 with a rider that each one should be intelligent, able and articulate and prepared to work together for the good of Doncaster. A maximum of six, plus the elected mayor, is sufficient for the cabinet leaving the other 15 to address scrutiny, licensing and planning.

During my four years as elected mayor of Doncaster (2009-2103), up to 50 per cent of councillors never contributed to any debate or asked a single question in the chamber. Labour and Conservative councillors are whipped and regularly vote for policies with which they do not agree or which are disadvantageous to their ward.

I wonder how many people in Doncaster can name their three ward councillors, how many approach them with their problems and how many would honestly notice if most of them disappeared into the ether.

Almost half of our councillors who completed a survey about time spent on council duties notched up fewer than 20 hours a week. One “anonymous” councillor put in a pitiful 42 minutes.

Astonishingly, all hours claimed are self-certified and unchecked.

I wonder what the view is of low- paid council workers who put in a 40-hour week and earn little more than the basic allowances of their lords and masters.

So, in the midst of such mystery, what do we know?

Doncaster councillors have a history of infighting, opposing the elected mayor and requiring mentors, at considerable expense, to unsuccessfully teach them how to behave.

In my experience, most requests for help come to the mayor’s office and are generally solved without reference to local councillors.

There are just eight council meetings a year. Full attendance is rare and many members leave before business concludes.

Other meetings are regularly treated with contempt. For example, a campaign to secure 20mph speed limits outside primary schools was launched earlier this year and a seminar arranged to present the findings of investigations. Only 16 councillors out of 63 bothered to turn up.

Now, in an attempt to distort the town’s need for so many councillors, the new mayor, Ros Jones, has appointed eight assistant cabinet members to support the eight existing ones.

This whole house of cards needs demolishing. Membership of the council should be recognised as public service, not as an easy means to a first or second income. This problem is not unique to Doncaster as hordes of councillors nationwide have the same modus operandi.

I urge readers of the Yorkshire Post in Doncaster to engage in the consultation process with the Boundary Commission to reduce this unwarranted expense.

If we miss this opportunity to save money to protect essential services and councillors escape the axe now, it will be a very long time before such a chance arises again.

*Peter Davies is the former elected mayor of Doncaster.