There are lessons for all councils, including Uttlesford, in the wake of the Hanningfield affair. It comes down to the culture of an organisation and to the ability and willingness of those on the inside to promote openness and transparency and to welcome challenge. Checks and balances to prevent abuse of power and bullying are crucial to good governance.

The culture at Essex during the Hanningfield regime seems to have been one based on patronage and nepotism, with the leader handing out jobs and cash allowances to ensure obedience from very large numbers of Conservative councillors. Other Conservative members of Essex cannot absolve themselves from the present mess, because they allowed it to happen.

I had a taste of the Essex culture three years ago when I was Uttlesford’s chair of scrutiny. We tried to get to the truth about the closure of Wicken House near Saffron Walden. Councillors whose first job should have been to back local people and services for Essex children seemed more interested in doing what the boss wanted. A member of the public who was well placed to quiz the council leader, his cabinet member and her deputy was excluded from a meeting I attended in Lord Hanningfield’s office. Tories don’t like to be challenged. The cabinet member was repeatedly aggressive when put on the spot.

So, what does this mean for Uttlesford? We have a new council so dominated by Conservatives and their sympathisers – 36 out of 44 members – that effective challenge and opposition is going to be difficult. The council leader has already begun to increase the number of cabinet members with allowances beyond the number indicated before the election. At least one job is of questionable value, though we still wait for the jobs to be defined.

The chairmanship of the scrutiny committee has been taken away from the opposition Liberal Democrats, who ask awkward questions, and given to a Conservative Party supporter who nominally sits as an independent. The audit committee is also in the hands of the Conservatives. Moreover, the council does not recognise any opposition; the roles of Liberal Democrat opposition spokespeople do not formally exist.

So there are inadequate checks and balances at Uttlesford District Council. All this is happening at a time when the Tories are gathering all power and responsibility to a handful of their party members; but in reality all power is in the hands of one man, the leader. Essex County Council was at this point some ten years ago. Whither Uttlesford?  Time only will tell. If the Tories don’t actively go out of their way to demonstrate to the public that they will not drift the way of Essex County Council, the public may become concerned.

If I were in their shoes, I would want to go out of my way in the next few weeks to show that the odour presently wafting out of county hall will not drift in our direction. I would start a constitution review to build in safeguards that Essex has already started to address. Lord Hanningfield seems to have been well-meaning in much of what he did, but that clearly wasn’t good enough. It’s no good Uttlesford’s leader protesting ‘it could never happen here’. He needs to put written safeguards in place quickly. And we need strong officers to stand up to strong elected members. This clearly didn’t happen soon enough at Essex County Council.