Leaders of West Sussex councils association could be replaced as shared arrangements collapse

A showdown over the future and leadership of West Sussex Association of Local Councils is set to take place today (Thursday February 25).
West Sussex Association of Local Councils will be holding a crunch meeting today (Thursday)West Sussex Association of Local Councils will be holding a crunch meeting today (Thursday)
West Sussex Association of Local Councils will be holding a crunch meeting today (Thursday)

The county’s parish and town councils subscribe to WSALC, which in turn is supplied services such as training, guidance, advice and support along with neighbours Surrey and East Sussex by the umbrella organisation Surrey and Sussex Association of Local Councils (SSALC).

A value for money exercise, conducted by WSALC’s board, has led it to propose buying services from Hampshire’s ALC instead citing cost savings.

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This has led to a chain of events that has effectively splintered SSALC.

At its virtual AGM today, there will be a resolution tabled to replace WSALC’s board chairman Terry Oliver and vice-chairman Mike Beal.

Other resolutions propose that WSALC does not purchase services from Hampshire and instead works with East Sussex’s ALC to re-establish a Sussex association to receive joint governance arrangements through a single service.

Martin Beaton, chairman at Aldingbourne Parish Council, described ‘anger’ at the board for ‘effectively pulling out of SSALC’ on the basis of the value for money exercise and felt it had ‘not been particularly transparent in the way that it has operated’.

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He also criticised the content of the value for money exercise itself for not containing a clear comparison on costs between what Hampshire is offering and what SSALC offered.

He added: “There’s never been any clarity about what was the problem they were trying to solve in the first place. What was so wrong with the current arrangement that they decided to do something different without consulting the parishes?”

Douglas Denham St Pinnock, chairman of West Hoathly Parish Council, said: “It’s now about damage limitation and trying to restore the peaceful and successful structure we enjoyed before.

“The long-term plan is that we will replace the West Sussex board and restore the relationship with East Sussex and hopefully invite Surrey back.”

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But Mr Beal, who is a Selsey town councillor, defended the board’s actions and the value for money exercise and claimed both East Sussex and Surrey were well aware of the work that been going on.

He felt they had achieved a better deal with Hampshire and decided to put that to the parishes, but described their reaction last week as ‘quite mind boggling’.

He added: “The board’s interpretation of our role was to serve the parish councils to the best of our ability. If we can save significant amounts of money that was part of our role.”

He said the numbers ‘speak for themselves’ and it was a question of parishes ‘using money wisely’.

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Mr Beal added: “The whole thing to me seems completely bizarre”

But with SSALC having reduced its costs recently, there have been some questions about whether the Hampshire deal would actually lead to savings for WSALC.

Neighbours East Sussex and Surrey have been preparing for what will happen on April 1 when the shared arrangements are likely to end.

Steve Cosser, chairman of Surrey ALC, described how as a consequence of West Sussex ‘intending for some time’ to leave the joint arrangements they had to develop new separate service arrangements for themselves.

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He said: “It became clear from the professional advice that the joint board was receiving that it made financial sense and was also in the interests of the welfare of our current staff not to let this keep dragging on. The joint board has therefore agreed that the current joint arrangements will cease on the 31 March.”

Meanwhile Ruth O’Keeffe, chairman at East Sussex ALC, added: “The Surrey association has taken the firm decision, recently announced, to separate from this arrangement, whilst West Sussex were still considering whether to and had not reached a definite decision.

“East Sussex is therefore needing to sort out new arrangements as the three part arrangement can’t work if any one of the three leaves and it appears one definitely is and one may well.

“East Sussex is attempting to provide employment for some of the staff affected by this cessation of the previous arrangement and to maintain a service as similar as possible after the separation to that presently enjoyed by members of the local Association of Local Councillors in East Sussex.

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“The change will need to be fully planned for taking place on 1st April as the three part arrangement will have to cease on 31st March. There is a lot of work going on in East Sussex at present in order to achieve this.”