Wakefield monitoring officer appointed to Challenge Board at Northumberland
The Monitoring Officer at Wakefield Council, Gill Marshall, has been appointed to a seven-strong independent Challenge Board set up at Northumberland Council.
The Challenge Board, established following recommendations in a SOLACE Independent Governance Review, will be chaired by Northumberland resident and former CEO at Newcastle City Council, Pat Ritchie CBE.
The governance review, led by Max Caller, concluded in June that the county council had lost its way over a number of years to the extent that leadership at both political and managerial levels is distracted, and no longer focussed on external issues but involved to an unhealthy extent on internal battles”.
The membership of the Challenge Board, which is designed to provide cross-party representation and officer insight, includes Cllr Sir Steve Houghton CBE (Labour), Leader of Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council since 1996, and Abi Brown (Conservative), Leader of Stoke-on-Trent City Council since 2019.
Wallace Sampson OBE, Harrogate Borough Council's chief executive, will be the Senior Officer peer.
Northumberland said the Challenge Board would provide independent advice, challenge, expertise and support.
The county council said Marshall was an experienced local government lawyer whose main area of work includes corporate governance and decision making. “She always strives to ensure that the legal and governance framework adopted by the Council is solution focused and enables the Council to act swiftly and appropriately. Gill has a proven track record of delivering transformation and change projects.”
Council leader Cllr Glen Sanderson said: “I am pleased to invite the Challenge Board to our council and welcome their agreement to come in as our ‘critical friend’.
“No one organisation or individual should ever shy away from challenge and I know their huge experience will be very useful indeed.
“I am very proud of our staff and all they do in delivering first class services across the County and I want us to do things even better.”
Cllr Sanderson added: “This is certainly another step in the right direction. We do have so much to be proud of in our county and we want to do our very best for our residents, businesses and visitors.
“By bringing in the Board it brings in another level of transparency, challenge and oversight which we’re looking forward to.”
The Board will regularly and formally report to Northumberland’s cross party Member Oversight Group (MOG). Reports will be made public through this group reporting to the Full Council.
