COVID-19: Somerset Authorities Failing Residents and Taxpayers

Andrew Pope
Speaking Up For Somerset

UPDATE (15/1/21): We've just seen this press release from Somerset County Council, which relates to the questions being asked about Covid-19 in the House of Commons. We also asked a follow-up question on this. Tory Council Leader David Fothergill is denying that they have misused Covid-19 monies from the Tory Government.

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In a time of national crisis, Somerset's councillors of the national political parties are not standing up for you. Instead, they like to keep their heads down and keep taking their councillor allowances, and taking your vote for granted. Worse, most of the County councillors even want to postpone the County Council elections due in 2021.

The Covid-19 situation just gets worse and worse. And we are not going to let the Government and County Council get away with failing residents. We've already asked a lot of questions of authorities across Somerset, during 2020.

Now we are demanding more answers. But of course Conservative County Council Leader Councillor David Fothergill and his merry band of followers don't want to answer. They just want to carry out the instructions of Boris Johnson's Conservative Government.

Somerset Independents does not take no for an answer.

So, our Leader Andrew Pope has just spoken at the Somerset Covid-19 Engagement Board this afternoon. Here is what he said, leading up to asking only three questions that he was allowed to ask at the meeting:

"The numbers on Covid-19 are the worst ever. That is an indictment of the failures of the Government and the failures of the County Council. I have some sympathy with the local teams who have been sidelined and left in the lurch by the repeated failures of the Government. But I believe that you should stand up for Somerset residents. But you haven’t done so regularly enough or with sufficient strength.

Due to those failures, there are a large number of questions that I think the people of Somerset deserve answers to. These questions should be asked by elected representatives, such as councillors. But there is little evidence of that in the minutes of this Engagement Board. So the public has to.

I have already asked 13 questions of Councillor Fothergill as Leader of the Council and Chair of this Board. Most of his answers were non-answers. Which is disappointing but not surprising.

I thought that I might get answers to 9 further questions from this Board. After being ignored by officers, then having the run-around and then having to chase up, I was then told by an officer that I could only ask 3 questions. Then I was told by an officer that my questions had been answered and so there was no need for me to come to speak to you. Someone had been misinforming.

I got the distinct impression that I was not welcome at this meeting and that the questions were not welcome either. But then this Engagement Board seems to operate more like a Government Propaganda Machine, than a way for the public to be represented. Why do I say this?

If the minutes are accurate, and you have agreed that they are accurate, I have seen very little in the way of pushback, little in the way of challenge, little in the way of representation of Somerset residents. All I see are things being “noted” and “agreed”. No votes. No dissent. It’s like a branch of the 21^st Century Chinese Communist Party, not a 21^st Century democracy in England.

I have been promised that all of my questions would be answered. The three questions that I would like answered today, and for which I would like to hear you all to consider and answer please, are as follows:

1. Last year, I asked the Director of Public Health why the Risk Register had not been updated to include outbreaks of novel viruses such as Covid-19, because it only allowed for influenza? Has the Risk Register been updated and published and if not, why not?

2. What is the earliest possible date that so-called "mass gatherings" will be allowed again?

3. What audit measures have been taken to ensure that there has been no fraud or corruption in the use by Somerset County Council of the Covid-19 grants provided by Government, and what reassurances can you provide that none of these monies have been diverted for other purposes, such as the unitary authority bid "One Somerset"? Please confirm that they are completely ringfenced.

Thank you and I hope that you will ensure this Board operates as a democracy from this point on."