Councillors in Cardiff are calling for more training on topics such as affordable housing, Section 106 and biodiversity.
Induction training after elections is also set to change with one recently elected councillor claiming she had “basically nothing”.
Others complained of training sessions on the planning system being “patronising” with serious issues around “inappropriate behaviour”.
Updates on improvements to councillor training were given to the democratic services committee during a meeting on Monday, May 24.
Upcoming training sessions include code of conduct, unconscious bias, biodiversity, natural resources, Welsh language, social housing, Section 106, dementia, and fraud.
Gary Jones, head of democratic services, told the committee that unconscious bias “would benefit a lot of members”. But each session was four hours long, so he is asking the training provider to make it shorter.
Section 106 is a rule where developers must pay towards improving local infrastructure such as roads, schools, and affordable housing. Sometimes, however, developers don’t have to pay Section 106 money, if they claim they won’t make enough profit from the development.
Mr Jones said: “There’s some specific training for the planning committee on social housing and Section 106. This is something to enhance the knowledge of the planning committee when dealing with those particular topics.”
Councillor Peter Wong, who also sits on the planning committee, said: “That level of training needs to be wider than just the planning committee, because it’s important that people engage with the committee in an informed way.
“It would be helpful if we had a wider perspective than just Cardiff, looking at best practice from other authorities. It needs to be better than purely what information Cardiff planning wants you to know, which is one of the problems we have consistently had.”
Another problem raised was a previous planning training session, where one councillor was accused of inappropriate and patronising behaviour. The council’s chief lawyer, known as the ‘monitoring officer’, had to step in to prevent similar problems in future training sessions.
Cllr Emma Sandrey said: “The last one was patronising and there were some issues with behaviour during the training. That needs to be looked at. The tone of it in places wasn’t appropriate. It really needs to be rethought carefully.”
Mr Jones said: “I’m aware of the difficulties of the last training session. For the next set of planning training we will have a new head of planning in place by then. The monitoring officer has also taken steps to make sure any behaviour is addressed very quickly.
“Hopefully that won’t discourage any members from attending any of the [training] in the future.”
Training for new councillors is another issue. Ahead of the next council elections in May 2022, council bosses are updating induction training and asking councillors and staff to suggest how inductions could be better.
Suggestions for improvements included providing less information “so members do not become overloaded”, making training “as entertaining as possible”, and limiting the use of PowerPoint presentations. One new councillor complained she had very little induction.
Cllr Mia Rees was elected in a by-election in 2019 after the death of Cllr Tim Davies. She said: “One of the reasons why some of our committees are not that great is because a lot of people don’t feel confident to engage. If they had a bit of training, that would be good.
“I came in a by-election, and I’m going to be completely blunt: I had basically nothing. The provision for by-elections needs to be a bit better. I didn’t get very much at all, and I didn’t have any IT for almost two weeks. My IT should have been sorted.”
