A “HOLIDAY romance becomes a marriage” after Blaenau Gwent councillors agreed to continue the experiment of sharing a chief executive with neighbours Torfaen County Borough Council.
Blaenau Gwent and Torfaen have been sharing chief executive Stephen Vickers on a trial basis since July 1 last year.
At a Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council meeting on Thursday, January 23 councillors were asked to vote on the proposal.
A report recommended that they continue with the joint chief role with an element of closer working or “federation” take place between the workforces.
Opposition Independent group leader, Cllr Wayne Hodgins said: “We had an agreement that the discovery phase would run for nine months, up to today it’s only seven months, and I notice that the final draft report was issued after five months.
“How did we arrive at the recommendation in such a short period of time taking into account we were in recess for the whole of August.”
He also believed that the “costs” of the senior management restructure should have been “worked up” ahead of the meeting.
“We need to know the cost implications as we’re going from a holiday romance to a marriage,” said Cllr Hodgins.
Council leader Labour’s Cllr Steve Thomas explained thethat when councillors agreed to share the chief executive with Torfaen in June last year, the predictions for the 2025/2026 Welsh Government financial settlement ahead to councils ahead of the general election was “pretty ropey.”
Cllr Thomas explained that these financial “concerns” had speeded up the process but despite the better than expected Welsh Government settlement there are: “still huge challenges.”
Cllr Thomas said: “For me it’s about building resilience and preserving services for our constituents, a number of those services were in danger.”
“This represents the best opportunity for us to face the future.”
The council has struggled to appoint a permanent chief executive ever since former managing director, Michelle Morris left the council’s top job to become the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales in March 2022.
Cllr Thomas stressed: “What you have to balance this with, is what the alternative would be.”
Social Services portfolio holder, Labour’s Cllr Haydn Trollope reminded councillors that during the initial recruitment process to find a new chief executive, the council had failed to find someone suitable for the role.
Cllr Trollope: “I don’t see any other alternative.”
He suggested that Mr Vickers could be brought back into the meeting to answer questions.
Earlier Mr Vickers had declared an interest and left the meeting while the discussion to make his role permanent took place.
After being brought back into the meeting Mr Vickers explained that he is still working with directors and senior leadership teams across both councils to finalise the new management structure.
Mr Vickers said: “I’ve deliberately held back on recruiting to vacant posts across both councils so as not to cause added competition that would trigger any redundancies.
“The cost are not clear, but I anticipate we will see some savings.
“The transformation work will come later and is a different set of costs.
“We are working with the Welsh Government and WLGA (Welsh Local Government Association) on that, we anticipate some support.”
He said that if no financial help is received council reserves would be used rather than the revenue budget as it would be seen as a “spend to save investment.”
Mr Vickers explained another advantage is that the councils could also work together on building and capital investment projects.
Mr Vickers said: “For example we buy huge gritters costing £250,000 apiece.
“If we could buy one or two fewer of those, you can see where there are opportunities to make savings.”
Labour’s Cllr Lisa Winnett asked: “If members agree are you happy to continue?”
Mr Vickers said: “Yes, I think it’s a very exciting opportunity, my experience in Blaenau Gwent has been wonderful with a very warm welcome by staff and members alike.
“I am 100 per cent enthusiastic.”
Mr Vickers then left the meeting again to allow councillors to vote, and they unanimously agreed that he continue in the role.