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Walsall Council

I am very pleased that my right hon. Friend the Member for Walsall, South (Mr. George) has secured this debate. As he said, I had an Adjournment debate on 26 April last year regarding Peter Francis, in which my right hon. Friend and I dealt with the events that had occurred on the council. What occurred in Mr. Peter Francis's case was unhappy to say the least. It was shabby, and a discredit to the local authority. It was right that he was awarded some £650,000 by the employment tribunal for unfair dismissal and disability discrimination. There is absolutely no justification whatever for what happened to Mr. Peter Francis. Of course, the council gave in on the very day on which the tribunal was due to meet, as my right hon. Friend said. It is also right that attention should be given to the other people involved, as has happened today. There was a great deal of controversy—it lay, to a great extent, with the case of Peter Francis—surrounding the way in which the neighbourhood renewal fund was being applied. I know that the fund has now been discontinued, but when it was in operation, it was meant to help the more disadvantaged and deprived parts of the borough. However, in Walsall, it was spread much more widely. It was not used as it should have been used, and that is largely the reason behind the controversy over Peter Francis, and behind the shabby and unacceptable manner in which he was treated and dismissed. I do not want to deal again with the case of the chief executive. I am sure that my right hon. Friend and I agree that we have every confidence in the new chief executive, and the council is now demonstrating some very welcome new departures. However, it is not only the former chief executive who should be criticised; it is also the political control of the council and the way in which the council operated at that time. There were certain periods during which the council gave the impression of being more like an authoritarian state than an English local authority. Those were very unhappy times, and I hope that they will never be repeated, whoever controls the council. As I have said, those events were a discredit to the local authority, and they certainly did not reflect well on those who were responsible for running the council. I hope that there will now be new opportunities for the council to act in a very different way. I shall welcome the intervention of the Minister on all these matters, which are causing such concern in the borough.