Informal report of a Meeting held 18/9/08 with KCC regarding Bob Hughes

 

A report from this evening’s meeting with KCC’s Head of Community Safety and the managers of the warden service.  There were two representatives from Mersham PC and ABC Cllrs Paul Bartlett and Richard Honey. Brabourne PC Chairman had been sent an invitation, but he is away on holiday. KCC claim Smeeth PC Chairman was invited, but does there seems some doubt about this. Aldington PC Chairman, and Ward Cllr, Peter Wood was unable to attend at short notice due to prior commitment.

 

KCC absolutely refused to give any explanation whatsoever for why Bob Hughes was not confirmed at the end of his probationary period.   

 

KCC also said that there was no way that Bob would be reinstated by them.

 

It was confirmed that Bob had commenced the KCC grievance process, but KCC was unable to say whether this might lead to him being reinstated.  They undertook to check whether this was a possible outcome and let us know.  KCC said that the grievance process was not an appeal against the decision, and the degree of community support for Bob would not be taken into account in the process.

 

It was explained that the community had lost faith in KCC’s community warden service as it seemed that poor wardens got promoted and good wardens got sacked.  The message appeared to be that KCC was only content employing soft wardens and would sack anyone too tough.  It was pointed out that there was a massive gulf between the community and KCC if someone the parishes thought was excellent was according to KCC so bad that his employment had to be terminated.  The failure to consult the communities he served before dispensing with his services had led to a loss of trust.  As a result, there had been a catastrophic loss of faith in the KCC community warden service, which KCC could not hope to rebuild if they were not open with us.

 

The possibility of the parish councils employing Bob as a parish warden was discussed.  KCC did not seem to have a problem with this. 

 

KCC seemed to suggest that if we wanted someone like Bob we should try to get a PCSO rather than a community warden.  KCC made much of how our expectations were too high of what a community warden was expected to do and that wardens had no real powers.

 

When asked about whether KCC would pay over to the parish councils the money they would otherwise spend on a community warden, they said that they doubted it but they would look into this, and that it would probably be a political decision.  They also said that they would look into other sources of funding for a parish warden, and report back to us. 

 

We were told that Richard Sinden was now to be appointed as the permanent warden for the villages.  We asked that regardless of what else happened, KCC reconvene the meeting of parish councillors and borough councillors in four months time to see whether Richard was meeting the community’s expectations.  KCC agreed to this.

 

We also asked that a representative of the community warden service attended the meetings of each of the parish councils in the area, to discuss the situation and to explain what KCC thought its community wardens were supposed to do, as against what the community wanted.  KCC agreed to do this and will contact the PC clerks.

 

KCC also said that it was their intention for the future to consult parish councils about wardens before their appointment and also at the stage of evaluation of a probationary period.

 

Overall, KCC made some concessions, but within very narrow limits.  They were left with little doubt that the community had lost faith in the KCC community warden service and a lot of work by KCC would be required to regain that faith.  KCC thought that they could do that – we were sceptical.