DID THE HIGH EARNERS SINK MERGER DEAL?

Published: 3 December, 2010
by TOM FOOT and TERRY MESSENGER

‘Super-borough’ plan scrapped as threats to top jobs emerge

A FLAGSHIP plan to unite Islington and Camden in a “super-borough” was last night (Thursday) in disarray after the woman earmarked to spearhead the merger walked away.

Camden Council’s chief executive Moira Gibb said in September she was ready to “take the helm” of both boroughs in a “groundbreaking” bid to save the councils hundreds of thousands of pounds a year.

But yesterday Islington’s Labour council leader Councillor Catherine West told the Tribune “now she’s not going to do it”.

A full-time chief executive will be employed by Islington when the current holder of the post, John Foster, steps down in March next year.

Islington Lib Dem opposition leader Councillor Terry Stacy blamed the collapse of the plan to merge management teams on a “personality clash” between Cllr West and Ms Gibb. But others have speculated that the threat to top jobs, including that of Ms Gibb, could have proved fatal to the merger hopes. 

Union leaders warned that high-earning senior managers had launched a rearguard action to save their own skins as the cuts axe looms. Ms Gibb would have had to make decision about redundancies among senior management colleagues at both town halls.

Cllr West told the Tribune: “I wanted Moira to do it if she was going to become chief executive but, now that she’s not going to do it, we’ve got to go back to the top level because I am committed to trying to equal the organisation out a bit more to the services which people want and keeping the management light.” Insiders said Cllr West and Ms Gibb did not see “eye to eye” on the difficult process of making staff redundant. 

The Tribune understands that Ms Gibb was concerned about her own job security after it emerged she would have been legally required to enter into a competitive process for the post. 

One of the borough’s leading observers of the political scene, Dave Barnes, a former Highbury East Lib Dem councillor, said: “My experience, both as a councillor and chair of committees in Islington and a housing manager in Camden, is that the first priority for senior officers is always themselves. Any threat to their empire is a threat to them.”

Cllr Stacy lamented a “missed opportunity” to “implement a flagship policy”, adding: “Where will the axe fall now to match the planned savings from a joint chief executive and management team? How are Labour councillors going to plug this gap?”

Both councils need to make cuts of up to £100m each over the three years from 2011 to 2014.

The original plan of pooling resources and sharing services will still go ahead, according to councillors in Camden.

Their Labour finance chief, Councillor Theo Blackwell, said: “We were having to lay off 1,000 staff in Camden – that’s the biggest frontline cuts in London. Should we be doing a complicated restructure at the same time? Were services going to suffer even more? We are going to carry on sharing services like HR, parking and regeneration.”

Islington Council leader Catherine West said the two boroughs had already saved £900,000 by agreeing a joint school meals contract – achieved through economies of scale. There were also plans for joint contracts for leisure and waste services, she revealed. She said: “At member level, Islington and Camden are great friends and we don’t want the whole thing going off into a tailspin about personalities. This is about getting us through the most difficult time ever in public services.”