More excuses after social services drubbing but Christine refuses to go...

The Tory councillor responsible for the worst adult social services in the country refuses to accept any blame and has instead offered more excuses.

At yesterday’s council - just 24 hours after the damning inspection report was released - Labour’s John Hough reminded Christine Talbot that this time last year, she promised to resign if this year’s inspection report didn’t show marked improvements.

Last year Lincolnshire social services were graded a lowly one-star. But at least we had “promising” prospects of improvement.

This year we have slipped to the very bottom of the heap. Now we have “uncertain” prospects – the worst performance in the country.

John Hough called on Cllr Talbot to keep at least one promise by resigning.

He pointed out that under the leadership of Jim Speechley - who was jailed for abuse of office – there were 46 councils across the country who performed worse than Lincolnshire’s social services.

Now we are the worst.

Christine blushed and wriggled and wriggled and blushed, but refused to go, saying she was the best person to sort out the mess.

She said the report only covered services provided up to the end of March this year and brazenly claimed that the poor services were “not on my watch”.

In fact, she was appointed as Portfolio Holder in May 2005, so at least nine months of the year being inspected certainly were on Christine’s watch.

Cllr Talbot talked it as if Labour had been in charge prior to her appointment, when in fact she took over social services from fellow Tory, Wing Commander Cllr Edward Bliss.

But the most gobsmacking excuse Cllr Talbot offered for our appalling inspection was “a problem with Data Collection”.

When my chance came, I told Cllr Talbot that no amount of wriggle, spin and lame excuses could deflect from the damning indictment that under the Tories, adult social service delivery in Lincolnshire is officially the worst in the country.