The Labour Party which runs Sefton Council is afraid of
anyone challenging their decisions. The following article explaining the
situation was written by Cllr Iain Brodie Browne, Leader of the Liberal
Democrats on Sefton Council. Iain is a councillor in Birkdale.
By Cllr Iain Brodie Browne
None of us were surprised when the ruling Bootle Labour Party started to downgrade the routes that allowed scrutinising of their
actions.
Firstly they took the chairs of all the scrutiny committees
and filled them with their placemen and women - they even took the chair of Audit
which even in 'one party states' is usually chaired by an opposition councillor.
Then they reduced the number of Area Committee meetings - you
can see their nervousness because they do not have an overall majority on some
of them.
Then the denigrate question time at Full Council by giving
mono-syllabic answers or not answering at all (As a past cabinet member I am
well aware that Officers will have prepared answers to the questions asked - and
yes I know what to do, it is in hand). What contempt for the rights of ordinary
voters whose elected representatives ask perfectly proper questions on their
behalf.
The Area Committee issue is very important. Sefton is a
dog's breakfast of an Authority where the towns and villages have very little
to do with each other and often look to towns outside the boundaries of the
borough. To cope with these issues Area Committees were introduced. When the
Boundary Commission last looked at the desire of Southport residents to break
away from the borough one of the 'trump cards' played against the proposal was
that these differences would be better managed in future because -under our
leadership- the council was moving to a 'devo max' solution giving the Area
Committees responsibility for their communities. No more, the Bootle Labour
party clings to all the power.
In Sefton Central the merging of Formby, Crosby, and the
Eastern Parishes - centred on Maghull - into one committee is nonsense. There is
no community of interest between Melling and Formby - and no transport links
between them if the public wanted to attend. So now in this area instead of 18
meetings a year where effective accountability could have been exercised that
has been axed to just 4 meetings. They don't like accountability.
The Labour Leader played his 'get out of jail' card. It is
the wicked coalition that has made us save money . Now the saving is small and
could easily be found. Let me suggest two ways; hold joint meetings with the
Parish Councils and secondly let's look at the allowances paid to the Labour
members chairing Scrutiny and Review. They cancel meetings at the drop of a hat
and one calculation I saw last year suggested that their allowance amounted to
nigh on £1000 a meeting. Cut the cost of Labour patronage and democracy and
accountability will flourish.
