Wakefield has a 63 member council. At the top of the pile is an Executive Leader elected by the members of the council. He selects an executive cabinet to carry through his aspirations and policies. His position is based on a block voting system and the 52 members of his political party vote through his policies and plans. This is a whipped process and his members conform to that. Meetings are chaired by a Mayor elected by members for the municipal year and the block vote means that Executive Leaders group select the Mayor and whilst in most other authorities Mayors only vote if there is a need for a casting vote the Labour Mayors of Wakefield have always tended to vote in line with the Labour Group and respond to the Executive Leaders prompts even when the controlling group have a clear majority.
The constitution of the council and its use is normally upheld by the Mayor and legal officers but the Executive Leader can and does call for votes to suspend the constitution when he has a situation that he wishes to focus on and the block vote delivers that suspension of council rules and at times because of the block vote it feels like the Executive Leaders very own executive sports car with the ability to stop on a whim.
The majority opposing group comprises 11 members just short of 20% of the total having lost 9 seats in the most recent local elections. Whilst it is possible to comment in council, the block vote effectively stops anything more than that.
In law and in the constitution of the council there is a system of overview and scrutiny which is designed to provide a mechanism to call in and scrutinise actions and activities of the council. These overview and scrutiny committees typically have been chaired by members of the Executive Leaders group and have a controlling group majority. The Chairs of committees very much decide the programme for their committees and what is looked at and the Executive Leader has those positions in his gift.
There are also quasi legal regulatory committees for elements such as planning, licensing, enforcement and appeals and whilst they should operate in an apolitical way again the Executive Leader also has them in his gift.
Since 2004 and in line with other best practice the Executive Leader has allocated at least one scrutiny Chair to the majority opposition and following a government recommendation the Audit Committee a free roaming independent committee that focuses on council probity, appropriate use of resources and financial performance has been chaired by the Leader of the majority opposition who then working with the committee and council officers has been able to develop a yearly programme to scrutinise finance and probity, feeding back a formal report of record to the Council and Government via the Audit Commission.
On Tuesday the Executive Leader decided (following a meeting of his group) that henceforth all scrutiny, regulatory and audit functions shall be chaired by paid members of his group, end of story.
Following the election other elected representatives may take part in committees but with a ratio restriction. One place on Audit, three on planning and highways, two on Licensing and two on each of the scrutiny committees.
Where are the checks and balances?
UPDATED
From the 13th of November 20013 it is now possible to tune in and see how your elected Local Councillors behave in the council chamber. People viewing the webcast may think that they have stumbled into a parliamentary alternate universe where the Wakefield Labour group think that they control the country or that their local MPs are such light weights that they must do their parliamentary job for them.
For some this will confirm their suspicions, for others it will not really be what they expect their elected representatives are getting up to, Local Councillors should focus on local issues and stop wasting precious time running down the government and debating national issues which are more within the remit of local MPs . Before casting their vote, perhaps people need to check what their Local Councillors will do for them.
Personally I was elected to support the people in my ward on the local issues that are important to them, they give authority to the MP for the national issues.
The constitution of the council and its use is normally upheld by the Mayor and legal officers but the Executive Leader can and does call for votes to suspend the constitution when he has a situation that he wishes to focus on and the block vote delivers that suspension of council rules and at times because of the block vote it feels like the Executive Leaders very own executive sports car with the ability to stop on a whim.
The majority opposing group comprises 11 members just short of 20% of the total having lost 9 seats in the most recent local elections. Whilst it is possible to comment in council, the block vote effectively stops anything more than that.
In law and in the constitution of the council there is a system of overview and scrutiny which is designed to provide a mechanism to call in and scrutinise actions and activities of the council. These overview and scrutiny committees typically have been chaired by members of the Executive Leaders group and have a controlling group majority. The Chairs of committees very much decide the programme for their committees and what is looked at and the Executive Leader has those positions in his gift.
There are also quasi legal regulatory committees for elements such as planning, licensing, enforcement and appeals and whilst they should operate in an apolitical way again the Executive Leader also has them in his gift.
Since 2004 and in line with other best practice the Executive Leader has allocated at least one scrutiny Chair to the majority opposition and following a government recommendation the Audit Committee a free roaming independent committee that focuses on council probity, appropriate use of resources and financial performance has been chaired by the Leader of the majority opposition who then working with the committee and council officers has been able to develop a yearly programme to scrutinise finance and probity, feeding back a formal report of record to the Council and Government via the Audit Commission.
On Tuesday the Executive Leader decided (following a meeting of his group) that henceforth all scrutiny, regulatory and audit functions shall be chaired by paid members of his group, end of story.
Following the election other elected representatives may take part in committees but with a ratio restriction. One place on Audit, three on planning and highways, two on Licensing and two on each of the scrutiny committees.
Where are the checks and balances?
UPDATED
From the 13th of November 20013 it is now possible to tune in and see how your elected Local Councillors behave in the council chamber. People viewing the webcast may think that they have stumbled into a parliamentary alternate universe where the Wakefield Labour group think that they control the country or that their local MPs are such light weights that they must do their parliamentary job for them.
For some this will confirm their suspicions, for others it will not really be what they expect their elected representatives are getting up to, Local Councillors should focus on local issues and stop wasting precious time running down the government and debating national issues which are more within the remit of local MPs . Before casting their vote, perhaps people need to check what their Local Councillors will do for them.
Personally I was elected to support the people in my ward on the local issues that are important to them, they give authority to the MP for the national issues.
Clearly in Wakefield we need to unlock democracy so that individuals can really hold the administration to account on the matters that are important to them and uphold the council motto "Working for you"
