At last week’s Children and Young People’s Scrutiny Panel meeting, Newport West councillor, Chris Whitehouse called for details of the payouts made to council officers suspended during the Cowes Enterprise College fiasco to be made public.
The officers who had been suspended by former CEO Steve Beynon were cleared of any wrong-doing at the end of July when the investigation into their suspension came to an end.
Not appropriate
Strategic Director Stuart Love responded by advising Cllr Whitehouse that after taking advice from the monitoring officer he could not confirm details of the severance pay to the Committee as it was not within the terms of reference of that Committee and therefore not appropriate.
He went onto say that it was not related to education or schools, but was an employment matter and the Employment Committee had been fully brief and were aware of the sums of money involved.
Formal request to council’s MD
Unhappy with the response, Cllr Whitehouse has now written to the Managing Director of the Isle of Wight Council, Dave Burbage, to demand the information.
He tells us that the letter demands to know the level of the payments made, “to ensure that elected members are no longer denied the information that they need properly to meet their obligations.”
Cllr Whitehouse said:
“I fear this building will become known as the ‘Wight Elephant’ and we really do need to get to the bottom of the massive costs associated with the project. The public interest demands that this information should be made available.”
The letter
To: Mr David Burbage, Managing Director, IOW Council
CC: Cllr Ian Stephens, Leader, Isle of Wight Council
Cllr Dave Stewart, Leader, Conservative GroupDear Mr Burbage,
Staff Settlements
At the Children and Young People Scrutiny Panel held on Wednesday evening I raised a series of concerns about the Cowes Enterprise College building. One of those questions related to the payments made to two former officers of the Council who had been involved with the project but who are no longer, I understand, in the employ of the Council.Acting under advice, the officer answering my question on that point felt unable to agree to my request that Councillors be advised of the sums involved in those pay-outs on the basis that the Children and Young People Scrutiny Panel was not constitutionally the correct Panel to receive such information.
My personal view is that such information should be in the public domain and I understand that a third party Freedom of Information Act request was made for the information, but that the request was declined and is now being appealed to the Information Commissioner. I hope that appeal is successful, but in the meantime it is unthinkable that Councillors, who are after all morally and legally stewards of the Council’s financial resources and have a duty to ensure prudential financial management, do not know the level of payments which they are in effect being asked to sanction. This situation is simply wrong.
I would, therefore, repeat now my request to be told the sums in question. I will keep that information confidential until the appeal to the Information Commissioner is resolved one way or another, but I am most uncomfortable that I am being denied in this way the information necessary to fulfil my moral and legal obligations.
I urge that you personally look again at this decision by officers and take appropriate action to ensure that elected members are no longer denied the information that they need properly to meet their obligations.
The public interest demands that this information be made available to Councillors and I am therefore releasing this letter to the local media.
Thank you for reviewing this matter, and I look forward to hearing from you.
Kind regards. Yours sincerely, Chris Whitehouse
