NLC Cabinet meeting
24 January 2012 by Paul Rhoades
I went along to the cabinet meeting tonight, its open to the public, and there were some important local issues being discussed, so I wanted to listen to the debates. I was also keen to go as the budget for the next council meeting was being approved by the cabinet, and I wanted to make sure that the money for the lakeside ecology project was still there (Good news Ashby Pond Friends - it is! So the next hurdle is planning).
Now working on the pond project I've had a lot of meetings with the leader of the council and one of the cabinet members cllr Waltham, who, credit to them have helped the group immensely by making resource in their environment team available to assist residents in establishing a wetland nature reserve. Brilliant stuff.
So tonight I was shocked. Perhaps I shock easily? I don't know, but the cabinet meeting was really not a very useful experience for any one hoping to get more meat on the bones.
Basically, how it works is that we have a conservative led council, who form the cabinet and agree or reject the reports prepared by the officers. The opposition councillors also attend and ask questions of the council, and the public get to watch.
There was a surprisingly good turn out from the public, I was sat upstairs in the public gallery but there were also a lot of members of the public downstairs.
Anyway, if I recall cll Kirk (leader of the opposition labour group) was the first to ask a question, after he'd set the scene for about a minute, he was asked by the chair to hurry up and get to the point which he then did about a minute later. Fair enough, couple of minutes on a question, an opportunity to juxtapose the idea or to put forward an alternative, and then there was a very competent reply provided by the officer.
Time given to questions then got shorter and shorter, and the chair interrupted more and more preventing questions from even being asked. The real travesty of this was that when Cll Waltham was afforded the opportunity of answering a question I felt that he did so with clarity.
The meeting came to a rushed, shambolic and messy end (which from the looks on the faces of officers present was clearly an embarrassment to the professionals among them), when the chair decided that the questions being put forward by Cllr Swift (I think) were not relevant. He appeared to be questioning why the chief exec had produced a report which was in some way different to the one he had a year ago.
Now I know you guys all read this, so come on, explain to me (and not just you labourites either) What's the crack with this? What's the protocol? Surely if the questions are a load of guff, why not just let them ask them and let them run out of steam?
You see the thing is, this debate or questioning will change nothing, the conservatives are in charge, they form 100% of the cabinet they have a majority in council, its what was voted for by the electorate and its very unlikely that an argument is going to win them round. So what's wrong with listening to the oppositions point of view, allowing them to put across their alternative perspective and waffle on for 10 minutes if the want, and, if after the question's been asked the chair then feels that on a point of order the question's not admissible then reject it?
I don't see the point, the meeting was booked 5pm till 9pm and it was concluded in 50 mins.
Anyway, that's my bit, I was hoping there was going to be a lot more to report on, especially about the adult services strategy having discussed that at a meeting with the local MP last Friday, and also about the restructuring of the council.
But there wasn't, which considering all the effort officers and the public had gone to to attend really was a bit of a let down.
One final note, I got a message from former Labour MP for Brigg & Goole Ian Cawsey after the meeting which I'll share with you, it read "I led a 35 Lab, 7 Tory council but I told our members whilst we could win every vote we still had to win the argument!"
How very true.
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Comments
It was a real eye opener for me, first time I've attended and I'd read your post in the past knowing you're a party member.
Witnessing it my self it was shocking, especially having met with both Liz and Rob on several occasions I'd have expected her to have been a bit fairer and at least let he opposition had their say. I reckon that in a situation like that trying to shut the labour lot up was the worst thing she could have done, surely it would have been better to have let the opposition ask they questions (regardless of how much they diversified) and then either said the question wasn't admissible or given an answer? The few questions which were answered it was worth while listening to the response to.
Here's a question though, and will some one from the conservative group answer it? Was this how Labour ran it when they were in control? Come on Rob, Neil, Paul etal, I know you're reading this, give us an answer.
Hi Paul
I've been to a number of council meetings both here and in other authorities. I can't say I have witnessed similar shenanigans in previous years. However I have winessed plenty of less than becoming behaviour across the country from councillors representing all three of the main parties. I wasn't at the meeting you describe so can't comment specifically but what I will say is that I have encountered negative behaviour (cronyism, bullying, aggression, secretiveness etc) from elected members of all parties. Equally I have worked with some outstanding councillors too (strong, resourceful, positive, committed and so on)
Basically all I'm saying is that all the party politics seems to do is create tribal conflict at the local level. In North Lincs we have some really good politicians on both sides and it would be great if we had a system where they were given the freedom to do more and make more evidence based decisions rather than being restrained by party headquarters. Why can't we have a system where grown ups can sit in the council chamber and discuss decisions/ issues openly with the freedom to be convinced by a strong argument rather feeling you have to wave the appropriately coloured scarves at the right point whilst booing or cheering as required and then vote according to what your buddies do. As it is at the minute though most councils have twenty or thirty people of the same party all voting identically on dozens of different issues. Surely one of them would like to vote for something different at some point...
I'm very naive though and just can't see why things have to be so complicated and so tribal...:-)
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"At the beginning of this post I reminisced that Cllr Rob Waltham had once described Cabinet meetings as where the real work takes place. After witnessing another one I believe him to be badly mistaken in his belief.
By the end of any NLC cabinet meeting a couple of things become obvious to any reasonable member of the public:
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