Council leader and cabinet survive motion to remove them

Richard Evans, local democracy reporter

A council’s leader and his cabinet survived a motion to remove them from rule after Labour and Plaid Cymru united to ensure they remained in power.

It comes despite the council’s botched recycling roll out going £50-60K a week over budget.

Denbighshire County Council Leader Cllr Jason McLellan accused the independent party of tabling an “ill-advised, politically motivated” motion to remove him and his eight cabinet members from the helm at a council meeting today (Tuesday) at Ruthin ’s County Hall HQ.

Cllr McLellan said he was aware of independent members calling councillors from other parties on the phone and promising them seats in a newly formed cabinet – if the vote was won for a change of leadership.

But backed by Green Party members, Labour and Plaid voted unanimously in favour of keeping their seats, meaning the vote was lost 27-17 with three councillors abstaining and one not attending the meeting.

Independent leader Cllr Huw Hilditch-Roberts opened the debate by claiming the leader and cabinet had failed Denbighshire residents across the board in terms of education, the economy, public toilets, and the reduction of libraries.

Slammed

But it was the failed roll out of the county’s recycling scheme that was the main topic of debate, with councillor after councillor slamming the service and citing angry residents who hadn’t had their rubbish collected on time for weeks on end.

Cllr Hilditch-Roberts said: “There’s nothing political in this, other than we want to raise the concerns of our residents in our communities.

“We put residents first, not politics, and what we feel is that the role of the cabinet is to put the whole of Denbighshire first, not just their patch. It’s not just about your patch.

“It’s the whole 96,000 people in Denbighshire.

“Every single one of us in this room has had complaints from residents, especially in the last 13 or 14 weeks. We’ve seen vulnerable people struggle.”

Cllr Hilditch-Roberts then said Denbighshire had gone from being an outstanding council to an officer-led authority.

He told the chamber: “You’re in the storm here. You’re in the middle of the ocean. You need to decide whether to go left or right, rather than just keep on going.

“I remember Graham (Boase, chief executive) saying, ‘we’re in it too far. We need to keep on going’ – and Jason’s (leader Cllr McLellan’s) line ‘we need to get it (the recycling roll out) over the line’, but we are now 14 or 15 weeks in the storm – a storm that keeps damaging the reputation of Denbighshire County Council.”

Public perception

Leader of the Conservative group Cllr Hugh Irving then said the public perception and reputation of Denbighshire County Council had never been so low.

Cabinet member for recycling Cllr Barry Mellor responded by suggesting blame should be shared with the previous cabinet who initiated the failed recycling scheme as far back as 2018.

He then added: “We all know.

“We’ve all heard it’s not been a perfect roll out, and when you’re looking at 47,000 households, I don’t think it could ever be perfect for a roll out of that size.

“What we are doing about it – that is the main thing. We are not giving up. We’re carrying on. We are taking the fight forward.

“The service, I admit, isn’t yet where we need to be, but there’s a plan to get us there.

“We know that the current situation is not sustainable financially or operationally, and we know we need to move to the next phase for a recovery, a new normal for the service.”

Cllr Mellor then explained new replacement recycling routes would be announced in the coming weeks, including financial details of the cost and overspend.

Leader Cllr McLellan then said he had provided strong leadership during unprecedented times, blaming the former Conservative government in Westminster for not funding the Labour-led Welsh Government and local councils properly.

“I’ve said before this happened on my watch. I’ll take responsibility that this has happened,” he said.

“We’ve been working flat out to change this. We’ve turned a corner.

“Things are getting better – 232 (missed collections) out of 46,000 (households) – it’s not acceptable for those 232; let’s be clear on that, but that’s the perspective, and I think we’ve turned a corner.

“The chairs and vice chairs group will be detailing the nature and format of a detailed scrutiny process, a process I welcome.

“Now that process must and will look at the implications of all the decisions made by the entire timeline and life of this project.

“It will include, of course, the roll out, what went wrong, what we can learn, but it should also look at all the decisions all down the line.”

‘Blackmailed’

Earlier in the meeting Conservative councillor Brian Jones, the former cabinet member for recycling, claimed the Labour Welsh Government had “blackmailed” Denbighshire to take on the new recycling scheme.

Cllr Jones said: “Denbighshire County Council were blackmailed by the Welsh Government to go down this track because they began in 2018 to withdraw funding from Denbighshire County Council to run the waste service, and they did that by cutting what a lot of people won’t know, residents and voters, the revenue support grant.

“They started to cut the revenue support grant that was given to us to run the waste service.”

Labour leader Cllr McLellan criticised Cllr Jones’ earlier statement, blaming Westminster for councils being hard up.

He said: “I’m absolutely amazed that we’ve heard from the former lead member that he was blackmailed by the Welsh Government.

“At no point in any of the meetings, and I haven’t watched the broadcasts, but I’ve read the minutes of the meetings – at no point did he express any concern that what he was supporting and advocating and saying what was a good thing to do was not how he really felt.

“That is the very definition of weak leadership.”