from Sunday Herald, 26 January 2014
Council officials are facing disciplinary investigations over a £132 million hole in their budget for cleaning up old opencast coal mines, the Sunday Herald can reveal.
East Ayrshire Council is set to launch the investigations this week after a damning independent review exposed a series of serious failings in the council’s control of coal companies.
Last year the council commissioned the Scottish government’s former chief planner, Jim Mackinnon, to review how it had ended up £132 million short of the money needed to restore the landscapes scarred by 22 mines. This followed the collapse of two major coal companies.
His report, a censored version of which is due to be published after a specially convened council meeting in Kilmarnock on Tuesday, does not pull its punches. The procedures for assessing the value of the insurance bonds meant to cover the cost of restoration were “wholly deficient and defective”, it said.
The bonds were “not based on the actual estimated cost of restoration”, according to a council summary of the report posted online. Figures provided by the coal mining companies were accepted without any independent assessments, in breach of council policy.
The failure to appoint independent assessors was “completely inexplicable”, the council summary said. Monitoring progress on sites was “wholly inadequate” allowing planning consents to be breached and creating “extensive environmental degradation”.
Opencast sites were not visited or inspected on a regular basis, and East Ayrshire Council did not have enough skilled staff to regulate the industry. “Neither elected members nor senior management were provided with any accurate or authoritative assessment of the scale of the problem or the funding required to address it,” the council said.
“The review team concludes that there are significant management and communication failings, particularly within the planning service, and that the regulatory aspect of the planning service was not given the priority that was required in relation to the operations of opencast coal operators.”
The review also found that the council had contravened Scottish government guidance in the way it granted permissions to individual companies. “Departures from approved methods of working can have a significant impact in terms of the environment,” the council said.
In a report to councillors, the council’s chief executive, Fiona Lees, said that they would be asked to “consider and agree proposed arrangements for a formal disciplinary investigation”. The plan was “to fully investigate each identified instance of failure to fulfill statutory, policy and/or professional obligations and responsibilities”.
When asked to comment further on Friday, Lees told the Sunday Herald that, if agreed, the head of human resources would start detailed investigations into each identified failure. “The outcome of this initial process should not be prejudged,” she said.
“Following the conclusion of this investigation, any disciplinary action which requires to be taken will be in accordance with established procedures.”
The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), which is concerned about damage to wildlife sites, pointed out that the problem was not confined to East Ayrshire. “The council deserve credit for their prompt investigation in to why the opencast coal industry failed so spectacularly to deliver on its environmental obligations,” said Aedán Smith, head of planning at RSPB Scotland.
“This is symptomatic of a long-standing, institutionalised culture of light-touch regulation of the coal industry across the country, at all levels, which must have no place in a sustainable modern Scotland. Many communities across Scotland are badly affected.”
Smith described the go-ahead given in November to a new opencast mine at Cauldhall in Midlothian as incredible. “There needs to be a national moratorium on new extraction until a new regulatory system is identified and in place and there needs to be national action to restore the legacy of ruined landscapes created by the opencast coal industry,” he argued.
Rod Smith, an opencast coal industry specialist, also praised the council and pointed out that the problems were widespread. “Mackinnon's work will be of considerable benefit to some other local authorities provided they're prepared to listen and learn,” he said.
“It's to the council's immense credit that they've commissioned the investigation and are prepared to publish the findings in such a transparent way.”
But Greta Roberts from the local Mining and Environment Group Ayrshire questioned whether the whole truth would emerge. “How can we be confident that no stone will be left unturned if we can’t see the full evidence?” she said.
“The people of East Ayrshire, its communities and its environment are the losers. Will they get an apology?”
This story was followed up The Herald and the BBC.
The uncensored report published in The Kilmarnock Standard, despite every effort of East Ayrshire Council to prevent it being published shows a catastrophic and systematic failure of management within the Planning Dept by the Head of Planning and in particular the appointment of personnel who were not capable of doing the work they were designated to do. One wonders about the Head of Plannings capabilities.
A formal investigation is taking place but bet your bottom dollar the blame will be placed on the two individuals who have since left the authority as they are easy meat and cannot now be disciplined whilst the main culprit , the Head of Planning will get a smack over the fingers and continue in his position that he is clearly not capable of administering.
The report prepared buy Jim McKinnon clearly identifies where the failures occurred and who failed in their duty. For the Chief Executive to state that outcome of the investigation should not be prejudged is laughable. Read the independent report it identifies who what and where.
Got the feeling a whitewash is about to happen but just maybe the Head of Planning will be demoted to the post of Minerals Officer so that he can actually have knowledge of the job he was supposed to oversee.
Got a feeling someone at East Ayrshire Council is looking out a big brush and pail of whitewash and all the posturing by the Chief Executive regarding investigations is a smoke screen for what is to come.
Posted by: Unconvinced Cumnock | 19 February 2014 at 11:06 AM
Everyone knows the light-touch was enforced by the Councillors and the senior officials.....I wonder if they have been spraying themselves in Teflon?
Posted by: Circus maxima | 26 January 2014 at 11:24 PM