Posts tagged Ross Willmott

This morning Leicester residents woke up to a row between the mayor and ex-leader, about scrutiny, in the Mercury.

And if they’d switched on their radio while eating their cornflakes they’d have heard the pair duelling on BBC Leicester over the city’s art gallery.

Political rows are a staple of political debate at any level, and friction between the mayor and ex-leader is to be expected. It’s all grist to the mill for local media.

But it’s how quickly the ill will has spilled out into the public arena that has surprised me.

A sift through the picture archive uncovered this snap from more than a decade ago.

Both the chinos, and public veneer of comradeliness, are now long gone.

When Ross Willmott failed to win the Labour nomination to become candidate for mayor of Leicester, I expected that his dedicated campaign website would wither and die.

How wrong I was.

He still uses it to vent from time to time, and his latest blog post is, in my view, an extraordinary broadside at three party colleagues.

Discussing the second overview committee last week he scoffs at former leader Veejay Patel’s reason for not appearing to explain the redundancy of the chief finance officer in April.

“No show ‘he had a cold’,” Ross observed.

He then turns to assistant mayor Sarah Russell.

“We also requested Cllr Russell to attend to explain why she had blocked staff from transferring full time to scrutiny, preventing the resourcing of scrutiny promised by the city mayor. Again no show. Perhaps more cold….feet? or did the Mayor tell her not come?”

It’s quite a suggestion about a party colleague, and there’s more:

“Later in the meeting we learnt that Peter Soulsby had intervened to prevent officers from the finance dept from attending the meeting. Despite a specific request to have them there, and their agreement to attend the meeting.

“…we have heard from Soulsby over and over again that propriety, openness, inclusiveness and robust scrutiny are highly valued and in his view were lacking of late in Leicester.  He therefore gave assurances throughout his campaign and since his election that scrutiny will be independent, transparent, robust, and fully resourced.

“Well, the last meeting raised serious questions about Soulsby’s commitment to any of these principles.

“The committee agreed that in future finance officers as well as legal advisors will attend every meeting. Making it clear that it is not the mayor who decides who should attend.”

These are snippets of the post. Do read the whole thing.

Now, friction between the former leader and the mayor is to be expected. After all, it’s Ross’s job to scrutinise Sir Peter’s actions.

The tough tone Ross uses, however, is surprising. It’s also encouraging.

I have doubts about the effectiveness of some scrutiny members. Some councillors by nature do not wish to rock the boat. Many want a cabinet position. It happens at all councils, not just Leicester. It’s the trouble with scrutiny.

It seems that for many councillors it’s difficult to separate party responsibilities from their duties to the people of the city.

Last year on scrutiny Ross showed some promising signs when it came to putting aside party loyalty for the good of city. Now, it appears, he’s relishing his chairmanship and quite rightly setting aside party loyalties when scrutinising.

It’s the robust scrutiny that Sir Peter promised…