Opposition councillors have been left in the dark, struggling to access basic information, a Green member said at a Brighton and Hove City Council meeting yesterday (Thursday 21 May).
They have regularly complained about not being kept properly informed since Labour ditched decision-making by committee and switched to having a cabinet two years ago, having won a majority in the local elections a year before.
Green councillor Kerry Pickett spoke out at the council’s formal annual meeting at Brighton Town Hall when decisions were made about roles for the year to come.
She said that opposition councillors should chair three “overview and scrutiny” committees.
Councillor Pickett said: “Under the committee system, cross-party committee members would all receive information beforehand with which to evaluate and make decisions.
“The cabinet system is less transparent, affording the decision-making cabinet members access to information often denied to opposition members and residents.
“In response to this criticism, we are told that scrutiny committees are the place for us to fully examine issues of concern (and) that this is the time for the opposition to hold the decision-making cabinet accountable.”
She cited a recent Local Government Association “peer review” which recommended that councils “build trust and confidence” across political groups with cross-party representation at scrutiny committees.
Brighton and Hove Independent councillor Mark Earthey agreed with the complaint but disagreed with the Greens’ proposed solution: appointing three of their own members to chair the scrutiny committees without discussion with other parties.
Councillor Earthey said: “I can’t speak for the Conservative group but we’ve had no formal communication from you asking us if we agree to these names thus we are not participating in any appointment process to establish and approve these names.
“For the record, we only agree with one of the three names proposed. It’s a pity this amendment contains this fatal flaw.”
Councillor Earthey also criticised the way that councillors are appointed to outside organisations, such as the Open Market Community Interest Company (CIC), the Brighton and Hove Food Partnership and the Downland Advisory Panel.
He said that the council should find out what skills would be most useful to those organisations and appoint members who would be the best fit.
Labour councillor Amanda Evans, who chairs the council’s Place Overview and Scrutiny Committee, said that the LGA peer review had not recommended appointing opposition members to chair scrutiny committees.
She said that out since the scrutiny system had been set up, there were now more meetings and task and finish groups dealing with specific issues such as anti-social behaviour and holiday lets.
Councillor Evans said: “Good scrutiny is not intended to provide an opportunity to make grandstanding speeches in opposition.
“It is intended to represent all residents of the city in providing transparency and accountability in decision-making and contributing to the formulation of good future policy.”
Councillor Evans will continue to chair the Place Overview and Scrutiny Committee and fellow Labour councillor Gary Wilkinson will continue to chair the Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee.
Another Labour councillor, Sam Parrott, is the new chair of the People Overview and Scrutiny Committee in place of her party colleague Councillor Faiza Baghoth.
Residents kept in the dark too. And for anyone trying to get the council to answer a Freedom of Information request, good luck! Swerving questions, deflection and simply ghosting residents seems to be the name of the game.
It’s really quite appalling.
Totally agree.