I went along to observe the Overview & Scrutiny Committee last Thursday for the first time in a couple years and found it even worse than it was then. Two main concerns out of many:
1. The way an independent opposition councillor, Chris Welsford, was interrogated by the current Tory Committee Chair over the basis of his entirely legitimate concerns about mobile phone masts on Council buildings. Surely it is for the Cabinet decision-maker to be defending their decision? Scrutiny shouldn’t be about being a cheer-leader for the Cabinet….......
Of course we then had the inevitable rejection of the ‘Call In’ as the Tories exerted their majority on the committee by 6 votes to 5 on the Chair's casting vote. Majority-controlled scrutiny is frankly a joke, which is why I resigned as the Chair of this committee back in May 2007 at the time they removed opposition control. Ironically if the previous independent Chair of this committee had still been been in post (see 25.11.09 post) the 'Call In' would have succeeded due to a Tory absence........
2. Perfectly sensible concerns about the narrowness and unresponsiveness of decision-making in this Council – mainly by Cabinet members, rather than Full Council – were expressed by another independent councillor. However, there was no sense from the Committee Chair that this was a real issue for him. Its something I have been banging on about for the last year or so, but without the advocacy skills of Cllr Bacon.
So with little contribution to the Scrutiny function from the Tory majority on this committee, except their votes, I think we can forget any meaningful 'holding to account' of the Cabinet on this Council.
