TENSIONS between some councillors and council officers have flared, a report published by a national council monitoring body has said.

According to the Centre for Governance and Scrutiny (CfGS) report, some Conservative councillors in last year’s administration felt a ‘political bias’ against them by staff.

Officers at any council must remain apolitical to ensure they can carry out the work of whichever party is in power.

After a Labour run of a decade, the Tories took control last year. However, during their 12-month residence at the Civic Centre some felt that the workforce held loyalties to their old bosses.

The report by the CfGS stated that: “During the 2021/2022 municipal year relationships between senior officers and members of the administration did not allow (certain) conversations to happen with the necessary frankness and candour.

“Members of the administration, in some cases, felt that certain officers were politically biased against them, and were “going slow” on taking decisions forward because of their personal opposition to them.”

Some councillors found that challenges put upon their decisions by officers were ‘barriers to things they wanted’ instead of ‘responses of professionals wishing to protect and support the position of the council overall’.

On top of this, ‘legitimate concerns’ held by officers were interpreted by councillors as being ‘driven by officers’ general reluctance to sign up to the administration’s agenda’.

Current Labour cabinet member for finance and change, Councillor Steve Leggett pointed the finger of blame in any councillor-officer relationship flaws at the Tory councillors.

"I’m very concerned that the CfGS investigation of decisions made last year showed that the Conservative administration did not follow clear officer advice," he said.

“It is particularly worrying that the report shows that members of the previous administration had little understanding of how effective legal and finance advice could help to deliver best value.”

Now, even the Conservatives, who aim to get back into power next year, are saying that seeing ‘political bias’ has not been ‘their experience’ and officers have always acted ‘highly professionally’.

Councillor Jeremy Moulton, who was deputy leader in last year’s Conservative administration, said: “I think its fair to say that council officers were not expecting a change of political leadership in 2021 and the new Conservative administration was elected with a very clear policy platform and were keen to progress this at pace.

“I found and continue to find council officers to be highly professional.”

The council has reiterated the fact that there is no evidence that there ever was political bias, however acknowledges that the report did find that some councillors felt it existed.

The CfGS said that despite the administration changing back to Labour in May this year, councillors and officers must still ‘take steps to address the weaknesses in relationships that have led to this situation’.

Mike Harris, the council’s CEO spoke about what the council is planning to do in the ‘few areas’ it needs to improve.

He said: “I welcome the findings of the review which acknowledges that while there are no fundamental or systemic flaws in the council’s governance framework, there are a few areas in which we can improve.

“We will be putting in place measures to ensure those improvements are made, including training for senior officers and new councillors, a review of the officer-member protocol to ensure roles and responsibilities are more clearly defined, and a greater focus by senior officers on policy development and collaboration with the leaders of all political parties.”

Mr Harris said that he anticipates that all of that will improve the quality of the decision making process – and he looks forward to working with ‘all political parties’.