Less scrutiny meetings open to the public scheduled now Reform run Calderdale Council
Axing three of Calderdale Council’s scrutiny meetings has slashed the number of scheduled watchdog meetings open to the public.
As reported previously, one of Reform’s first actions when taking over Calderdale Council was voting to scrap three of the council’s four scrutiny committees.
Council scrutiny boards act as watchdogs. They can call-in decisions made by the cabinet, monitor the authority’s performance and hold detailed reviews of local issues.
The call-ins allows scrutiny members to halt a decision and have it re-considered.
Instead of one overall scrutiny committee and three specialised scrutiny committees, the council now only has one overall scrutiny committee.
A report ahead of that committee’s first meeting, on Thursday (June 25), sets out a calendar of meeting dates for this municipal year.
Instead of more than 20 scrutiny meetings – all open to the press and public – held last year, this year the council is only currently set to have seven.
The reduction means substantially less issues are currently scheduled for discussion and investigation.
A spokesperson for Calderdale Council said as well as the currently scheduled scrutiny meetings, sub-committees will be established and there might be extraordinary meetings called “if deemed necessary”.
“Scrutiny has an important role to play, allowing for a deeper look into the issues that matter to the people of Calderdale,” said the spokesperson.
“In addition to formal scrutiny meetings, there will be sub-committees established to look at specific member-led reports.
“There are no set number of topics which will be looked at. Scrutiny will look at what’s required and there is the option to hold extraordinary meetings if these are deemed necessary.”
They said all meetings will be open to the public and dates of future meetings can be found on the council’s website.
Previously, there have been nine councillors on each of the four scrutiny boards, and the Children and Young People Board also had a number of co-opted independent members.
There are nine councillors on the new overview and scrutiny committee.
In-depth reviews carried out by Calderdale’s scrutiny boards previously include domestic violence, winter gritting, river pollution, care homes children’s mental health and SEND provision.
Labour, Green, Lib Dem and Independent councillors all spoke and voted against the idea of scrapping the scrutiny when it was up for discussion at Calderdale Council’s annual general meeting in May, but they were out-voted by Reform who now have a majority on the council.