July 21: Kent's new highways chief impresses
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KENT County
Council has – apparently - had five highways directors in about as
many years, which may go some way to explaining some of its
difficulties in the recent past.
But it looks like it might have found
someone who could last the distance in John Burr,
who is the latest to take on what is a decidedly challenging
job.
I have to say that if his impressive
performance at today’s cabinet scrutiny committee meeting is
anything to go by, KCC has got the right man for the job.
He’s clearly on top of his brief,
knows exactly what is going on and was frighteningly efficient –
and lucid - in dealing with backbenchers’ questions.
He drew the sting from a potentially
tricky issue - the on-going programme to repair Kent’s badly
pot-holed roads - and successfully appeased a couple of councillors
who queried whether Kent was adopting the wrong approach to repairs
by focusing primarily on fixing pot holes rather than resurfacing
entire stretches of roads.
Mind you, there was not exactly what
I'd call forensic scrutiny going on - it was all very civilised and
Conservative backbencher Julie Rook took it upon
herself to congratulate the highways department on its "absolutely
fantastic job" on drawing up a list of transport schemes worth
£4.1m that now face the axe in spending cuts, praising the way the
directorate had responded "quickly to the hand you were dealt" and
adding for good measure: "I just commend you for taking the action
that you did."
All well intended I'm sure but using
scrutiny meetings to proffer congratulations was possibly not what
was envisaged in the Local Government Act 2000...
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I DON’T
hold out much hope for the Lib Dems at County Hall who are using
tomorrow’s full council meeting to call for a review of the
arrangements KCC has for agreeing severance payouts to staff.
It follows the controversy over a
£365,000 pay-off to Adam Wilkinson, pictured, who left KCC after
just a year in the job as KCC's environment and highways
director.
However cosy the Lib Dems are with the
Conservatives at a a national level, I doubt whether County Hall
Tories will be lining up to support the call for a review.
That won’t stop the official
opposition using its right to trigger a debate. And in tabling an
amendment urging new KCC managing director Katherine Kerswell to
conduct an "urgent review" of severance payment procedures for
staff, they’ll be able to further embarrass the ruling
administration over the six-figure payout that was agreed with Mr
Wilkinson.
Wednesday, July 21 2010
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