Accountability: what accountability?
In an earlier posting we referred to a judgment of the Newport Family Court that concerned dreadful behaviour by a Welsh council and a Welsh police force. We expressed concern that the Court’s damning judgment was likely to have ‘zero’ impact, as the judge declined to name the council or the police force.
The journalist Louise Tickle of Tortoise media, asked the Court to reconsider its decision. Her application for the two authorities to be named was refused. Her excellent (and difficult to disagree with) article describing her application and the consequence of the judgment can be accessed by clicking here.
A no-less excellent and ‘difficult to disagree with’ article by Dr Julie Doughty of the Transparency Project can be accessed by clicking here. It includes the statement:
Louise (a journalist and not legally trained) was making her own submissions. The local authority had gone over the top (in my view) by instructing an eminent KC and a highly experienced barrister as her ‘junior’ in a hearing that had a tangential impact on the child. Personally, I think their arguments could have been sufficiently put by the local authority’s in-house lawyers, and I hope the expense is being scrutinised internally at least, although local council tax payers are, as Louise puts it, ‘in the dark’ regarding accountability.
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Photograph of Draw-am-Feirionnydd by Richard Jones -@lluniaurich
Posted 8 November 2024