More on KentOnline
Campaigners opposed to the loss of children’s services at two Kent family centres have won their latest battle to retain them after a Tory backbench revolt.
The Conservative at Kent County Council (KCC) responsible for making the decision, Cllr Sue Chandler, stood firm in the face of criticism from all sides, including her own.
Opponents expressed “delight” after the scrutiny committee voted unanimously to put on hold a decision to decommission family hub services and move them in house.
But Cllr Chandler, who represents Sandwich at County Hall, retains the “full support” of cabinet colleagues and brushed off suggestions she resign.
KCC claims the decommissioning of Seashells in Sheerness and Millmead in Margate will save £425,000 in the face of budget shortfalls and soaring costs.
The full council will have the chance to debate the issue once more in the coming weeks, after new data appeared to come to light during the meeting held yesterday (January 29).
Millmead supporter and Margate independent member, Cllr Barry Lewis said: “We’ve won a battle but we haven’t won the war but we hope that this is the first step towards a u-turn or at least an extension to the contracts.
“Sue Chandler wasn’t even able to rely on the support of her own Tory colleagues.”
KCC, which must find tens of millions of pounds of savings to avoid going bust, officially announced the decision by the relevant cabinet member, Cllr Sue Chandler to decommission both on January 17.
The authority plans to offer the same services at alternative locations but opponents claim they will not be suitable to users’ needs, may be inaccessible or not be ready in time.
At scrutiny, independent councillor for Sheppey, Cllr Mike Whiting, produced paperwork which appeared to challenge some of the data upon which Cllr Chandler made her decision.
For instance, Cllr Whiting claims he has proof Seashells provides 161 hours core family hub services per week, far higher than that asserted by KCC.
The issue had been “called in” to KCC’s powerful scrutiny committee today (Jan 29) where a motion was proposed to postpone the decision “pending review” of the matter by members of full council.
Cllr Whiting argued that the case for saving the services had not been “properly considered” by Cllr Chandler.
He said: “I am absolutely delighted by the unanimous vote in favour of deferral. Members are saying quite clearly that they don’t like it and that must be heard.”
Afterwards, Cllr Chandler was asked if she was considering resigning over the issue.
She said: “I don’t think we have got to that place. I made my decision based on the best evidence I had.
“At the moment I will stand by that decision.”
Cllr Chandler has the “full support” of the cabinet and is “secure in post”, according to one colleague.
Cabinet member for communications and democratic services, Cllr Dylan Jeffrey said in a statement: “We will go through the process of reviewing the decision made and the additional information that may be now available, that was passed around at scrutiny.
“It really demonstrates the strength of and how an effective scrutiny and cabinet system can work even when the majority party has three quarters of the seats on council.
“Sue is secure in post with the full support of cabinet and will continue to lead on taking forward our family hub programme.”
Committee member Sir Paul Carter, who was standing in for Shellina Prendergast, said the result shows that “scrutiny works” and is unrepentant at rebelling.
He added: “It was a shot across their bows and I was pleased about the result for tall the right reasons. That’s scrutiny.”
Green Party group leader Cllr Rich Lehmann said: “I’m delighted the scrutiny committee voted unanimously to send this terrible decision to be debated at full council and that it had such clear opposition from members across the political spectrum.
“This gave the entire council the opportunity to have eyes on the decision and having it debated openly helped put real pressure on those trying to push this through.”
Cllr Whiting added: “What I want more than anything is for the cabinet member to see what everyone else sees and recognise that, at every level, this is simply the wrong decision; where a desire for uniformity, at any price, has been put before common sense, good governance and unparalleled, cost-effective service delivery.”
Cllr Chandler, who is the cabinet member for Integrated Children’s Services, earlier said she had taken a “very difficult decision” not to recommission services at Seashells and Millmead. She said that she had carefully considered the findings of the consultation exercise.
Early in the debate, Folkestone Labour member Jackie Meade asked for a detailed breakdown of the costs of the centre’s services compared to those of the future, claiming the decision “lacked transparency”.
Cllr Lewis made the point that Millmead gets 75% of the clients using family centres in the area and is more cost effective than the others.
He told members: “If it isn’t broken, why fix it? These are the economics of the madhouse…it’s scandalous that you are even considering this?”
Both centres had offered to take a funding cut in order to keep the services.