Brian Clements

The latest published list of councillors’ allowances and expenses is, at last, available on the council’s website but the Leader of the council has rejected a call for the Register of Interests to be published in the same way.  Responding to a question from Brian Clements, he claimed that ‘as the register contains much personal information very careful consideration needs to be given before it becomes available simply at the “touch of a button.”  He went on to say ‘there is no lack of transparency as the information . . .  is already easily obtainable by anyone’.  It turns out that ‘easily obtainable by anyone’ means that you have to phone a named officer, during working hours and make an appointment to view the register (click for details).

Brian says ‘it’s not rocket science!’ So here is a copy of his entry (click) in the register. 

Click here for Councillors’ Allowances on council website.

In Feb 2009 Poole Conservatives squashed a Liberal Democrat motion seeking more openness and accountability from the Council.  The proposal was said to be ‘offensive’ and ‘pandering to the public’.  On May 18th Brian Clements wrote to Council Leader, Brian Leverett, demanding that he should think again about using the Council website to publish details of allowances and expenses paid to members.  We are pleased to say that the Council has now announced that it will do that.  Having them printed once a year in the Advertiser was not good enough.  Brian will keep pressing for more openness with the Register of Members Interests too.  We have added the full text of Brian’s letter to Cllr. Leverett below.  Since last year’s payments are not readily available we are setting also them out below.  We will add a link to the council website when the latest figures are posted there. 

BRIAN’S LETTER

Dear Cllr. Leverett,

In view of the current furore over MP’s expenses and allowances, I am writing to ask you to be pro-active in adding transparency to the position of Councillors.  Please reconsider the motion that I put to Council on 19th February.  I would particularly draw to your attention two of the proposals:

• Allowances and expenses paid to Members by the Council or other representative bodies to be published on the Council website.
• On-line viewing to the Register of Members’ Interests.

I will, if necessary be reintroducing these matters to Council as soon as the 6 months embargo has elapsed but I put it to you that you have the power to act immediately if you are so minded.It is about the time that the relevant expenditure for 2008/09 is due to be published so now would be a good time to see that it is readily available on the Council website.  I would also suggest that including those that were published this time last year would demonstrate our commitment to transparency.  I attach a copy of the 2007/08 published figures as a reminder for you.  Whatever the controversy about members allowances, increased special responsibility allowances or expense claims they should be readily available for inspection.  The old quotation ’sunlight is the best antiseptic’ is being much quoted at the present time - it applies to us too.You will recall that I was disappointed in February when you by-passed the convention of referring motions to a scrutiny committee and summarily dismissed my proposal that evening.  I also attach a copy of the minutes of that meeting.  I have highlighted comments made by some of your colleagues and I would ask you to reflect on them.  I think they bring no credit whatsoever to the Council e.g. “He felt that the public was satisfied with the way the Council worked as in a recent MORI Poll 63% had expressed general satisfaction.”“she felt some of this Motion was pandering to the public as Members were entitled to some privacy and however much was available in the public arena, sometimes some Members of the public would not be satisfied” “The Members’ Allowance Scheme was published as part of the Council’s Constitution on the Web and amounts claimed by each Member, by law, had to be published annually in a paper circulating in the local area.”With regard to the Allowance Scheme publication ‘as part of the Council’s constitution’ the data is quite difficult to find and does not give any guidance as to amounts actually received by individual members.The public should not have to make a special request for such information, they should be able to just ‘look it up’ for themselves.  I urge you to give proper consideration to my request.

Yours sincerely,  

Cllr. Brian Clements

Brian has challenged the basis of a 110% increase in managing the joint ‘Schools for the future’ project planned by Poole and Bournemouth councils.  Leading Conservative councillors have tried to blame the government and the 4Ps advisory partnership for their planned increase in costs.  They have not given a satisfactory explanation for a budget of £125,000 for PR on this one project or a total of £3.2 million in consultants fees.

The Daily Echo commented: ”

SCHOOLS’ £3M BILL SHOCK

6:25am Friday 24th October 2008

By James Morton »

A STAGGERING £3.2 million will be spent on consultants as part of Poole and Bournemouth’s contribution to plans to improve the conurbation’s schools.

The figure equates to more than half the local authorities’ joint budget for managing the Building Schools for the Future scheme, which has already ballooned from initial estimates of £3m to £6.3m.

It means Poole and Bournemouth councils are likely to have to dip into the public purse to the tune of an extra £1.65m each – to the possible detriment of other services.

Barry Watts, programme director for Building Schools for the Future in Poole and Bournemouth, said he believed the prize of improved schools justified the costs.

He said: “We place enormous importance in this investment, which aims to transform the lives of our young people today and for generations to come.”

The spending on consultants is down to the relatively small size of Poole and Bournemouth councils, who have fewer in-house experts, added Mr Watts.

Matthew Elliott, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said a project to improve access to education had become “a black hole for public money”.

He said: “Such a large overspend is shocking enough, but the fact that the entire original budget has been hoovered up by consultants is a disgrace.”

The programme’s draft budget details a £3.2m spend on “external support services”.

Roles specified under the heading include “technical adviser” and “client design adviser”.

The original BSF budget of £3m was prepared in 2007 and was an estimate of the commitment needed to get the project off the ground.

It has been adjusted in light of the experience of other local authorities and greater demands from central government.

Poole Liberal Democrat councillor Brian Clements said the authorities needed to “get a grip” on the BSF expenditure.

He said: “This money (the £6.3m budget) doesn’t even lay a brick.”

Poole and Bournemouth’s £6.3m joint budget for the BSF scheme relates only to the authorities’ project management costs.

The two boroughs joined forces to try to secure £120m of government funding for the improvements.

In a report, Poole and Bournemouth’s BSF chief finance officer Liz Wilkinson said the programme represented “significant financial risk” to both councils and demanded “strong financial management and control” to contain costs. “