Quote:
Originally Posted by JCB
If only half of the criticism aimed at Hyndburn Council , and in particular at its leader Peter Britcliffe , is justified , the Labour opposition on the council must rank as amongst the most ineffective in the land .
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Could you please quantify the above statement as I don't think you understand how the local government process works.
In essence all important decision are made by the Cabinet - and the chair of the Cabinet is the Leader of the Council. At Cabinet meetings the chair chooses who of those present can speak - the present leader of Hyndburn Borough Council will only allow 1 opposition councillor to speak on any issue (and then it is usually only if he thinks they will agree with him). Although Cabinet decision can be called into Overview and Scrutiny to be discussed further, the controlling group have a majority on the 2 Overview and Scrutiny committees (as well as holding the positions of chair and vice chair) and so it is nye on impossible to have a decision reversed.
The only real forum any opposition group have to get things changed is at meetings of Full Council when they can table motions to be debated and also attempt to reverse any policies that are presented to the Full Council meeting that they regard as being detrimental to the citizens of Hyndburn. As the number of meetings of Full Council have been drastically reduced (and meetings have been cancelled at short notice as has been discussed in other threads) this avenue has in effect been closed to the opposition.
Presently many of the decisions are also being taken by Emergency Powers -which are then presented to Cabinet at the next meeting.
There is also a complete lack of information about the important decisions being disseminated to the Labour Group of Councillors until they have actually happened -in fact quite often the first we know about it is when we read an article in the Observer or Telegraph. We do work hard trying to get our policies accepted by the Council but without being in control it is extremely difficult as the Leader sets out to undermine any opposition. When we do get policies implemented they are being undermined by the Leader.
Maybe you would like to explain how you would be a more effective opposition to the current administration.