Changes in the way that the council is run will bring in a system linked to a string of catastrophic decisions taken behind closed doors, according to opposition leader Steve Davis.
The Green councillor criticised the proposed switch from decision-making by committee – a system that involves all councillors – to a new model with most decisions taken by one or more members of a 10-person cabinet.
The Labour leader of Brighton and Hove City Council, Bella Sankey, hit back at Councillor Davis’s analysis.
Councillor Sankey said that Green and Conservative councillors had made the disastrous decision to broker the i360 loan by committee.
Councillor Davis said that the council should hold a referendum before adopting a “leader and cabinet” set up.
A petition signed by 5 per cent of voters in Brighton and Hove – or 10,0002 people – could require the council to hold a referendum.
A referendum cold cost about £400,000 unless it took place alongside another election such as the police and crime commissioner election in May or the general election that is due within a year.
Councillor Davis said: “A couple of things that bother me is if you look at Nottingham, Northampton, Croydon, Woking, Thurrock, Slough and Birmingham, these councils face awful challenges.
“All seven also share a strong leader and cabinet system where they’ve been allowed to go and make catastrophic financial decisions behind closed doors.”
He and Conservative leader Alistair McNair voted against the council being run by a cabinet rather than committees at a Strategy, Finance and City Regeneration Committee meeting at Hove Town Hall this evening (Thursday 14 March). The cabinet is expected to be set up in May.
Councillor Sankey said: “As part of the planned move to a cabinet system, we will launch a consultation on the public engagement aspects of the new model, including a range of options from citizen assemblies to cabinet question times.
“Our arrangements for full council will remain the same. A cabinet system will mean we publish a forward plan of council decisions, it will bring our decision-making together and reduce siloed working.”
The proposed cabinet would meet monthly while two scrutiny committees – a People Overview and Scrutiny Committee and a Place Overview and Scrutiny Committee – would be able to review decisions.
Councillor McNair asked why there would be 10 cabinet members when the council was cutting the number of directorates to four from five.
He also asked why just two scrutiny committees were proposed – and said: “There’ll be an election in three years’ time. How will the cabinet system work in a ‘no overall control’ council when that happens? That’s an important question.”
The council’s legal chief Abraham Ghebre-Ghiorghis said that two scrutiny committees was in line with most local authorities, with much of the work going through “ad-hoc panels” for specific issues.
He said: “Even in a council with no overall control, you can make a cabinet system work where most decisions are made by a cabinet set up on a cross-party basis.
“It’s not natural which is why we had a committee system while we were in no overall control.
Anusree Biswas Sasidharan, a co-opted member of the Strategy, Finance and City Regeneration Committee, was enthusiastic about the potential for involvement from the community and voluntary sector in the overview and scrutiny committees.
She said: “The involvement of the voluntary sector has been just second to none. I think that’s a testament to the culture of Brighton and Hove how wonderful that involvement is.
“I’ve enjoyed the committee system but I hope for all of the voluntary sector, if there is a formalised way they could be involved, I think that would be of great value to bring different communities to the fore.”
The council has set up a new web page called Your Voice to consult the public about ways to include people in decision-making.
The proposed arrangements include asking questions at meetings of the full council and cabinet, presenting petitions to the council and asking questions at overview and scrutiny committee meetings.
Proposals in the consultation include cabinet member question times and citizen assemblies.
Other suggestions include structured events with discussions aimed at reaching a goal, digital engagement using the new Your Voice web page for online discussion and in-person events to discuss a range of views.
It would seem Labour are hellbent on political self-destruction with this and other unpopular decisions recently.
The leader and cabinet model is used by councils – of all parties – up and down the land.
It’s a perfectly legal model of governance and set out in statute.
If ever the greens and tories get into power they can change the system back.
They are there to serve the electorate not themselves and WE were not consulted or offered a referendum on a matter which effectively shuts the electorate, and even most other councillors, out of all democracy.
You put a lot of stock into referendums, despite having no legal obligation into their outcomes, and considering the turnouts to things like elections, even less would be interested in participating.
The biggest “shut out”, to use your terms, comes from people not voting in the first place, Barry.
Opposition is always going to be against this. Anusree makes a good point though, I think VCSE should have a seat at the table, considering how much influence they have on delivering often vital services to the city, and fostering a synergetic working relationship with the council is so important to continue the good work they provide to often our most vulnerable people.
An undemocratic Blaririte power grab
Do us a huge favour have capable cabinet members if you’re going down such route. Cllrs Mutt£n and Rowk!ns don’t seem the brightest!
Muten is a slave to the ‘sustainable’ lobby in the Transport department
Green Councillor Steve Davis is the ultimate hypocrite. Didn’t Labour and Greens have a coalition (aka Memorandum of Understanding) when Labour didn’t have a majority so that decisions were then made behind “closed doors” without involving committees or affected councillors?
After Greens became the largest party, didn’t Labour continue to lamely support Green policies? In fact, looking at transport schemes being implemented recently, you’d think Greens were still setting the agenda.
The Greens were quite happy then to get Labour to implement their schemes, such as the infamous weedkiller ban, and then blame Labour for the resultant damage to pavements, and then accept no responsibility for anything.
Now the same sort of council decision making taking place when they aren’t involved, and the Greens start whinging like spoilt children.
And as we know, the Greens are fervently anti private transport, and especially cars, but Steve Davis is, as far as I know, still a driving instructor .
I am interested to see the announcement of the 10 cllr cabinet members tbh. Those appointments will be important in what kinds of cabinet led polices and decisions are made. I think we as a city need to give the administration time for this, but knowing the petition for a referendum is available and a resource to hold the administration to account does provide me with some confidence in the democratic process.
They have stood by their active listening from my own perspective so lets see..
We need serious reforms and a cabinet system I think could achieve this and ensure decisions are taken faster, evolve consultations to participation type events, utilise our assets for events…
The current system has flaws but allows people to ask questions at committees, present petitions and so on. I have found that decisions are made in advance of these meetings, so even when councillors see the points made by residents and agree with them, they then vote against following an agreed party line
The scale of the papers presented to each committee also means that councillors don’t read them. Often 400 to 800 pages for a meeting. That means that the council staff (the “officers”) are making many of the practical decisions
I’ve also seen errors made in details presented to a committee. No one spotted these errors, despite being sent to a committee of councillors and other staff. These errors were then voted on, agreed and implemented. Only then was the error pointed out by a resident and the council then had to work out how to fix (tricky as they’d accidentally stated that an activity done legally by tens of thousands of residents every day was a criminal offence!)
So the current system is far from perfect. If the cabinet system can listen to ideas and develop them with residents and groups then all for the good. Currently, policy is made too often by council staff who don’t have the time, it seems, to look at them properly so basic errors occur. Unintended consequences aren’t considered or mitigated during policy design. Then a huge amount of work goes into firstly defending these errors, then admitting them and then changing them!
Agreed. Council staff don’t have time or expertise, use expensive consultants who are remote and ignorant of locality, and some elected councillors are working to their own agenda, not their constituents’ , consequently there have been outcomes of poor value and poor function
To Barry above,
Instead of going off half-cocked as usual, perhaps read previous articles? Allegedly, there is to be a public consultation on this running until 19th April, which presumably involves one of those consultations on the council website. Whilst the result may be ignored if Labour doesn’t like it (as could equally happen with a referendum), at least it doesn’t cost an arm and a leg and major organisation. The consultation was supposed to be live from today (but isn’t), so maybe check back with the council website on Monday? Nobody is saying that residents can’t have their say,
Quote from Sarah’s article of 8 March – “If the committee votes through the proposals, a public consultation will take place from Friday 15 March until Friday 19 April.
The consultation includes proposals for new forms of public engagement including question time, “meet the cabinet” events, citizen assemblies and other forums.”