Just a few weeks into the new council year and the ruling
Labour group is wasting no time showing its true colours.
Labour is exercising its majority position to assume 100%
control in chairing all the committees that regulate and scrutinise council
activity. Previously, these had been shared out with the other parties (Tory and Lib Dems), something that the independent improvement board had
recommended.
In total there are eleven committees. Some deal with
practical issues such as licensing and planning. Otheres scrutinise council
policy and performance.
Labour’s rational? The opposition parties have been so
rubbish at scrutiny they don’t deserve any position of responsibility.
A quick read through the comments in the relevant WirralGlobe article will give you some idea of what members of the public think about
that explanation. In short, not very much. Then again, Labour’s leadership
don’t seem overly bothered about what people on Merseyside might think based on
Ed Milliband’s recent clanger.
A confident executive would be more than happy to open
itself up to scrutiny. As things now stand, the Labour-run council is
scrutinising itself and can ignore any opposition criticism irrespective of how
pertinent and sensible it may be.
Of course there might be another reason why the Labour party
would want to chair all council committees. Typically, committee chairs receive
an allowance £4,584. Across all eleven committees, allowances amount to £45,391
annually.
£4584!!! What for ... One day? My god no wonder Special need centres are closing down. That amount of money is a blatant misuse of our money and its about time it was scrapped or greatly reduced. I feel sick at the thought that the chair person receives that sort of money !!!
ReplyDeleteIt's ironic that these people regard non-Torylite politicians as not being competent to chair committees.
ReplyDeleteEspecially given that that one Labour councillor, Jim Crabtree is on the record, describing data protection and the careful handling of his own constituents' personal data as... 'a load of tosh'.
Link here: http://wirralinittogether.wordpress.com/2014/05/09/what-a-load-of-tosh-wirral-councils-monitoring-officer-responds-to-an-email-sent-to-the-ceo/
The irony here is that Jim Crabtree now chairs the very important Audit and Risk Management Committee.
Whoops !!
Are any constituents of Councillor Crabtree worried about how safe their private information is? If you're not, you damn well should be.