Council to ‘dig deeper’ into asphalt probe

By Elgan Hearn, Local Democracy Reporter

A special meeting will take place soon to probe issues affecting Powys County Council’s Highways Department.

Last week, members of the council’s Audit and Governance committee were told of the findings of a number of investigations by the council’s internal auditors, SWAP.

These follow allegations that council asphalt and equipment was used on private driveways.

Committee Chair, Lynne Hamilton, said: “I found it a tough read and it’s a challenging set of audit judgements. I propose that the committee has a single agenda meeting to go through these matters in detail.”

Ms Hamilton believed that a working group could be set up following the meeting to “seek assurance and scrutinise” the recovery plan from “this situation”.

Cllr Graham Breeze, who represents Welshpool, added: “I was alarmed when I read the report and the recommendations regarding the auditing process for the ordering of goods such as tarmac (asphalt) in particular.

“Members would be aware we’ve had an ongoing situation which has led to disciplinary matters taking place.

“I’m alarmed this council has not taken the action to make sure there’s no repetition of what we had discovered had been happening – so I welcome the suggestion we dive deeper into this.”

Powys Chief Executive, Dr Caroline Turner, explained that the internal audit reports were commissioned by the head of service, Matt Perry, shortly after he arrived at the authority two years ago.

Dr Turner said: “Some of these matters came to light really quite early when he took up his post.

“It has taken time to get the proper resources to support the head of service to address some of these long-standing issues, but that is now in place.”

Now that the reports had been completed, Dr Turner told the committee that Mr Perry was now forming an action plan to deal with the problems.

She wanted the committee to allow Mr Perry the opportunity of presenting his action plan to them at the meeting which “clearly states” how the department is addressing all of the numerous recommendations.

Dr Turner said: “They are addressing long standing cultural issues in the service, it’s not something that could be turned around overnight.”

Cllr William Powell endorsed the proposal for “deep dive” session.

“There is a whole range of troubling issues that need unpacking,” said Cllr Powell.