SCRUTINY COMMITTEE MOVES UP A GEAR

PRESS RELEASE

After a quiet meeting last month, the IW Council's Scrutiny Committee on Thursday 27 July (6pm, County Hall) will demonstrate it is moving up a gear in terms of holding the Council and most public service providers to account on behalf of the Island people.

The packed agenda for the meeting includes;

• an enquiry into the reason for Southern Water's hosepipe ban, with the water company sending along a senior manager to respond to questions;
• separate, evidence-giving appearances by four of the seven Council Cabinet members - Cllrs Ward, Wood, Cousins and Abrahams - as the Committee progresses two of its current formal enquiries ('planning gains' and 'the delivery and impact of budget efficiencies'), tries to get to the bottom of precisely why a substantial Government housing grant was lost this year, and exactly who is responsible for enforcing on-street parking infringements at present;
• an expected response from the Cabinet member to the Committee's recent Wightcare privatisation enquiry report;
• the conclusion of two earlier enquiries into Development Control processes and reporting.

Cllr Geoff Lumley, Chair of the Scrutiny Committee said, "After the excellent Scrutiny Committee meetings of April and May where we concentrated on the Wightcare enquiry, last month's meeting was relatively quiet. However, the meeting this month has a packed agenda of public interest items, showing that the Scrutiny Committee takes its role very seriously indeed and is pursuing an extensive work programme. We have had better attendances from members of the public than the Cabinet over the first three months I have been the Chair, and I hope that will continue to be the case this month. In the autumn we will be looking at ways and means of improving public engagement with the scrutiny process."

Cllr Lumley concluded, "Scrutiny of local affairs - whether its the Council or other public bodies - is something the Government is very keen on developing. We are likely to see the extension of scrutiny powers in the local government White Paper in the autumn to agencies like the police. If Islanders are not sure what scrutiny is all about, why not come along to one of our meetings to get a flavour of what we are up to ?"