Two mutually exclusive concepts

To start things off, it's not just Bristol City Council who struggle with the concepts of honesty, transparency and fairness. When we were living back in Essex, the battles we had with Thurrock Council and, alongside our comrades from Basildon & Southend Housing Action with Basildon Council, revealed a culture of secrecy combined with contempt for any residents holding them to account. This is what we had to write about Thurrock Council at that time:

How much lower can Thurrock Council sink FFS?! - The Thurrock and Basildon Heckler | 28.1.22

How many times do we have to state this? Thurrock Council are not fit for purpose. At a broader level, the system of local governance we have is not fit for purpose. This is because a culture has developed where ruling group councillors and the senior officer cohort think their purpose is to rule over us mere plebs – they have forgotten that they’re supposed to be our servants. At some point, these arrogant f**kers need a reminder of who’s supposed to be the boss. Residents starting to withhold their council tax payments may be the kick up the arse these councils need!

Moving from one side of the country to another and it's a case of 'same shite, different location'! Obviously there are differences in how council arrogance, lack of transparency and contempt for the residents they're supposed to be serving manifest themselves, which depend on the specifics of the region, and also, the make up of the councillors and the full time officers.

Focusing on Bristol, there's an issue with the way 'independent persons' are appointed to examine cases of misconduct. Tim O'Gara is the Director of Legal and Democratic Services at Bristol City Council. He is supposed to know how this process works and how it should be accountable. However, there appears to be what can politely be described as some confusion as to whether 'independent persons' appointed to look at misconduct cases need to be voted in by a full council meeting. This confusion is covered in this article: Bristol City Council's top lawyer apologises over misconduct cases advice - Adam Postans | Bristol Post | 19.10.23

This is what O'Grady had to say in relation to the confusion about the appointment of independent advisors:

"The recent recruitment process for Independent Persons will require the ratification of those appointments by full council and it is anticipated that this will be at the next ordinary meeting of full council on November 14. This is not the position that was outlined in the meeting.

I have advised the members of the sub-committee of this. Please accept my apologies for any confusion in the meeting."

Well, it seems as though O'Grady hasn't been following his own advice and has himself appointed an 'independent person'. This is what The Bristolian had to say about the matter:

L’IL TIM THE LAWBREAKER - The Bristolian | 26.11.23

For it seems this senior council boss whose job is to make sure the council doesn’t break the law has been, er, breaking the law! Residents have discovered that his councillor complaints process that should involve advice from an ‘independent person’, publicly appointed by councillors, has instead involved a top secret ‘independent person’ personally appointed by L’il Tim contrary to the Localism Act.

Say one thing and then go and do the exact opposite. You couldn't make it up, could you? We could pretend to be shocked and indeed, outraged by this but, having witnessed decades of local council obfuscation, it's just another case of the same old shite.

Moving on, there's the issue of the hastily cancelled full meeting of Bristol City Council when the crisis at Barton House broke on Tuesday 14^th November: The consequences of neglect... 16.11.23. That cancellation could be read as the council putting all of their resources into dealing with the crisis. However, the shambolic clusterf**k that ensued made it pretty clear that the council were, to put it politely, winging it: Contingency planning? Anyone? 18.11.23.

Given this, people can be forgiven for thinking that the Barton House crisis was a very convenient opportunity to hit some tricky agenda items into the long grass and buy some time to think about how to deal with them. This is the agenda for the cancelled meeting: Agenda | Full Council - Tuesday, 14th November, 2023 5.30 pm, CANCELLED. When you look into the petitions that had been submitted for consideration at the meeting, this is when things start to get really interesting: Petitions Notified by Councillors for 14 November 2023 Full Council PDF 442 KB.

These are just some of the issues raised in the list of petitions:

• Appointment of Independent Persons for Councillor Complaints

• Independent Inquiry into the facts, faults and failings surrounding' Send surveillance

• Values & Ethic Committee

• Regarding East Bristol Liveable Neighbourhood

• 15 Minute Cities

• Code of Conduct Complaints

It should be noted that some of the issues have attracted more than one petition. The discussion of which would shine a spotlight on areas that the council would rather not have open to full scrutiny. Anyway, have a read through and draw your own conclusions. If you want to pass any of those conclusions onto us, please feel free to do so:)

There's a lot more that could be written about the dire state of local and regional government. Volumes could be written about it. What's abundantly clear is that it's not fit for purpose and needs to be replaced with a system working from the neighbourhood level upwards where the residents are in charge and there's genuine honesty, transparency and fairness.