Letter: All Power to the New CEO for His Herculean Task

Published on: 20 Apr, 2024
Updated on: 20 Apr, 2024

From: Christopher Barrass

former R4GV borough councillor

In response to: Lead from the Front on Values

As a former councillor who sought to represent the needs and views of the residents, not only in our ward, but across the borough, I would like to thoroughly endorse everything which is being said by Mr Quoroll.

The frustration of dealing with a culture of resisting change, of pushing back on almost every and any suggestion to do things differently, even when coming from organisations and people far better qualified in so many ways, is dispiriting and exhausting.

The nadir for me were the attempts to get some sensible and meaningful policies included in the Local Plan Development Management Policies process.

The determination not to change through a mixture of obfuscation and dismissal of others’ proposals was appalling and ended up putting me in hospital with the consequences of stress.

The fundamental concept seems to be – we’ll resist any real detail in policies which dilutes our power to make our own decisions.

Summed up in the shock expressed by senior officers and even some councillors when I expressed the view that the council was there to serve its residents, who should be regarded as both its customers and shareholders.

Apparently not.

I wish the new chief executive all power in effecting what will be a Herculean task in changing this deep-seated culture in GBC.

He will need the support of councillors, too many of whom have little or no experience of the real world and even less experience in managing the complex financial and property issues of running a council and so rely totally on the recommendations of … the self-same officers.