LEADING North Wales politicians are calling on the Local Government Minister to investigate gagging orders at Denbigh-shire County Council.
The Free Press revealed two weeks ago that four former top officials at the council had been legally gagged over why each suddenly left their posts.
Insiders claim they were made scapegoats for failings in the council and it is believed the legally binding gagging contracts were linked to final pay and pension arrangements.
The departures began in October 2004 when former director of lifelong learning Sioned Bowen took sudden early retirement.
u Her successor Huw Griffiths joined the council in June 2005 but after two damming education reports he went absent on indefinite sick leave in October 2007, he resigned a year later.
u Former chief executive Ian Miller suddenly stepped down in November 2008
u Dr Michael Toman, former head of the North Wales autism centre of excellence at Ysgol Plas Brondyffryn was suspended from his post following complaints from a parent but it is understood his retirement last August was not connected to the complaint.
All four have been similarly gagged about talking about the reasons behind their departures.
Now Labour Vale of Clwyd MP Chris Ruane has slammed the council's actions and called on the Local Government Minister to investigate the gagging orders.
“If these gagging orders are to protect the rights of privacy for the individuals concerned that is one thing if it is to keep secret the inner workings of the authority then that is totally unacceptable,” said Mr Ruane.
“As far as I'm aware these orders weren't used at all during the first seven or eight years of the authority and have now been used four times - on people who were in very senior positions - in the past five years.
“I think gagging orders should be exercised very rarely and with great caution and I will be writing to the WAG Local Government minister to find out if Den-bighshire County Council is using these measures more frequently than other authorities.”
Welsh Assembly members have also backed Mr Ruane
Conservative Clwyd West AM Darren Miller said: “'When it comes to public money, taxpayers have a right to know where every penny has been spent - and that includes cash on any large payoffs made to former employees of councils.
'We need more transparency and accountability from government at all levels.”
“I would welcome the opportunity to work with others to ensure that local authorities can be accountable to taxpayers for the money they spend on their behalf.”
Ann Jones, Labour Vale of Clwyd AM said when Sioned Bowen was gagged she put in many Freedom of Information requests to find out why.
“Since then others have gone and there are still questions to be asked in Denbighshire County Council,” she added.
“I hoped the new chief executive and new leader would signal a new approach, but it's clear it has not.”
Mrs Jones said the council has a duty to its residents to give the full facts on how they are governed.
“I will be asking to see if other authorities are doing the same or are Denbighshire just using this to cover up things?
“It looks like they have something big to hide, if they haven't why are they gagging people?
“They are turning the spotlight on themselves.
Mrs Jones added the council need to come clean before they can start to move on.
But David Jones, Tory MP for Clwyd West claimed that gagging orders were common place.
“What has happened is that DCC and each individual employee compromised their disputes on terms that included confidentiality obligations operating on both parties,” he said. “This is not uncommon in the case of employment disputes.
“I am assured by the council that settlement on terms of confidentiality was positively advised by their lawyers as the proper course to adopt,” he added.
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