Shire Hall Offices
Shire Hall Offices

What on earth is going wrong at the County Council?

Talking to Labour County Councillors recently, they said that their post-boxes are full of complaints from residents about the state of the County’s roads. Although reading the Council’s press releases you’d be forgiven for thinking that they’ve sorted out the pothole problem.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, there has been a catalogue of major failings and scandals at the Council.

The latest of these emerged last week, with an independent report into decades of racist abuse (and worse) in Gloucestershire’s Fire and Rescue service. And that was on top of accusations of corruption at the top of that service which led to the resignation of a former chief fire officer.

The record of Gloucestershire Police is no better. Government inspectors have found that the service was failing to provide even an adequate service. Even worse, police chiefs were so unaware of their failings that the report came as a shock to them. On top of that, the chief police officer has now been suspended, pending a disciplinary hearing, and it has emerged that his deputy resigned earlier this year and has not been replaced. County Councillors who are supposed to act as the public watchdog over the police, were not even told.

Gloucestershire Children’s Services, judged inadequate in 2017, still requires significant improvements, according to the most recent Ofsted inspection report. And there have been some individual failures in Child Protection in Gloucestershire which should make us all pause to reflect on how well (or badly) we look after some of the most vulnerable in our community.

Even the Council’s IT systems are failing, and endangering public health, according to a recent report.

It’s pretty obvious that we have a failing County Council, run, of course, by the Tories for the past 20 years. So it’s little surprise that the Tory Leader of the Council has just resigned, his Deputy defected to the Green Party, and the Chief Executive has announced his impending resignation. It’s notable, however, that no-one involved in the Fire and Rescue Service has been sacked or resigned.

Next May, we have a chance to start to sort out the mess, and kick out the failing Tories at Shire Hall, when we elect a new County Council. So look out for information about your Labour candidates, and prepare to use your vote to get more Labour County Councillors to fight for the high quality services that all Gloucestershire residents deserve.

Mike Farmer
Secretary, Cheltenham Labour Party

Article also published November 29th 2024 in the The Cheltenham Post
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