OPPOSITION SCRUTINY LOST AFTER ONE YEAR

In March last year Labour agreed to take on the near defunct role of Chair of the Scrutiny Committee provided that we were allocated two places on the committee by the Tories for the rest of this Council, and that the Tories maintained their commitment to a non-Tory majority on the committee. These were agreed in writing by the then Cabinet Secretary, and Deborah and I then agreed to put my name forward.

Since my election as Chair there have been 9 of us - 2 Labour, 1 independent, 3 co-optes, and 3 Tories (with a LibDem vacancy). A non-Tory majority of 6:3. Although a small and disparate group we have worked well together and have undertaken a number of important scrutiny enquiries of internal affairs, such as Wightcare home care, planning processes and gains, budget efficiencies, councillors allowances, loss of housing grants, use of consultants, educational attainment, 'Supporting People', and car parking policy. External partners have not been part of our brief, as shown by Health Scrutiny being with one of the Tory-controlled policy commissions.

At the March Full Council this year the Council Leader announced that he wanted the Scrutiny Committee to take on board some of the new external responsibilities promulgated in the Government's local government White Paper. I welcomed this announcement, though was privately intrigued to note that these new responsibilities were about external partners. This would be a new departure indeed for the committee.

Well the Constitution was changed at Full Council this month to reflect these changes and the pay off arrived in my Inbox today. Effectively the Tories have realised that they cannot give the lead for scrutiny of external partners to opposition members and have decided:

* to pack the Scrutiny Committee with a Tory majority

* withdraw our two places on the committee.

Consequently there will be 8 Tories, me for Labour, 1 LibDem vacancy, 2 independents and the 3 co-optees. A Tory majority of 8:7.

So in the future even scrutiny of internal affairs will be in the hands of the ruling Tories, just because they could not think of an alternative way to deal with the White Paper - an alternative that is staring them in the face, but they are too dim to see. Who polices the police ? Or is this all in fact a manoeuvre to remove me from a position where I can make very public waves ?

As a consequence I am now considering my position as Chair of Scrutiny. No final decision has been made yet, but I will decide once and for all by the time of the May committee meeting.