tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2129943063330427887.post6356553333235486190..comments2024-03-29T13:59:53.760+00:00Comments on WEMBLEY MATTERS: Brent Cabinet fails to take scrutiny seriouslyUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2129943063330427887.post-89832882063607124582020-03-02T20:26:46.253+00:002020-03-02T20:26:46.253+00:00FOR THE RECORD:
I have received the following ema...FOR THE RECORD:<br /><br />I have received the following email from Cllr. Matt Kelcher, Chair, Resources and Public Realm Scrutiny Committee, which suggests that Martin's efforts in highlighting this matter in his blog, and mine in sharing my concerns with councillors, may not have been a waste of time:-<br /><br />'Thanks for your continued interest in this matter. <br /><br />I have had several meetings on the subject with the most senior officers in the last couple of weeks. I can assure you that it is something I take very seriously. <br /><br />A new system will be in place for the next couple of meetings of my committee and I am sure you will see a significant improvement. <br /><br />Best wishes, Matt <br /><br />Cllr Matt Kelcher'<br /><br /><br /><br />Philip Granthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08216646114377430489noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2129943063330427887.post-40488813215297765202020-02-29T15:17:57.891+00:002020-02-29T15:17:57.891+00:00FOR THE RECORD:
Further to my comment of 11 Febru...FOR THE RECORD:<br /><br />Further to my comment of 11 February above, I did receive a response to my email of 1 February (to Cllr. Butt and the members of his Cabinet) from Cllr. Tom Miller on 26 February.<br /><br />Cllr. Miller is Lead Member for Community Safety and Engagement, but he did not say whether he was writing on behalf of the Council Leader and fellow Cabinet members, or just in a personal capacity.<br /><br />Among the points in his email, I welcome his statement that: <br />'I wish to agree with the point that Scrutiny reports should not simply be ‘noted’. Often when there are 20+ recommendations etc it can be difficult to go into great detail in responding, but generally where an action or decision is requested I feel that the cabinet should record its response, if not its basic reasoning.'<br /><br />He went on to say:<br />'... if cabinet disagrees with a scrutiny recommendation, then we should make an effort to say why. My officers will shortly report back to the Chair of the knife crime scrutiny task group, Cllr Kabir, on progress against her report recommendations, for this reason. I would like to see this embedded in our practice more officially.'<br /><br />I have replied to Cllr. Miller, saying:<br />'I welcome your agreement that the Cabinet should do more than just "note" recommendations from Scrutiny Committees. The findings of those committees, who have the time to consider particular issues far more closely than the Cabinet can do, should be respected and implemented by the Leader and Cabinet, unless there are very good reasons why that should not be the case. Scrutiny is one of the important "checks and balances" which a well run Council democracy needs.'<br /><br />Hopefully, the points raised by Councillors Nerva and Mashari at the Resources and Public Realm Scrutiny Committee meeting on 29 January, and Martin's highlighting of them in the blog above, will see better treatment by Brent's Cabinet of recommendations by the Scrutiny Committees in future.Philip Granthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08216646114377430489noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2129943063330427887.post-44710365631488210702020-02-11T18:30:41.990+00:002020-02-11T18:30:41.990+00:00FOR INFORMATION:
Ten days on, and not a single res...FOR INFORMATION:<br />Ten days on, and not a single response to my email from anyone at Brent Council (apart from several automatic acknowledgements that my email had been received, including one from the Council Leader's email address).<br /><br />It is a good sign for democracy when ordinary citizens are able to speak Truth to Power.<br /><br />It is a bad sign for democracy when Power is so powerful that it feels able to ignore Truth.<br /><br />Philip Granthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08216646114377430489noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2129943063330427887.post-16899695744691128462020-02-01T16:39:37.307+00:002020-02-01T16:39:37.307+00:00SCRUTINY AND GOOD GOVERNANCE:-
As I believe in en...SCRUTINY AND GOOD GOVERNANCE:-<br /><br />As I believe in engaging with councillors if I have strong opinion about something, I have sent an email (with the above title) to Cllr. Muhammed Butt and the members of his Cabinet. For readers' information, here is what it said:<br /><br />'Dear Councillor Butt and Cabinet members,<br /><br />The "Wembley Matters" blog website has published a thoughtful article, arising from last Wednesday evening's Resources and Public Realm Scrutiny Committee meeting:<br />https://wembleymatters.blogspot.com/2020/01/brent-cabinet-fails-to-take-scrutiny.html <br /><br />I have added a comment to this blog, as follows:<br /><br />[text of my comment of 31 January above]<br /><br />You may not agree with everything I have said, and you are welcome to add your own replies to my blog comment if you wish.<br /><br />I would, however, ask you to consider carefully the points raised, by Committee members, the blog article and my comment, particularly my final (highlighted) sentence. Thank you. <br /><br />I am copying this email to the Chief Executive, the Chair and members of the Resources and Public Realm Scrutiny Committee, and the Chair and Vice-Chair of the Community and Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee, for their information. Best wishes,<br /><br />Philip Grant<br />(a Fryent Ward resident)'Philip Granthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08216646114377430489noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2129943063330427887.post-80134549891513190302020-01-31T14:46:15.147+00:002020-01-31T14:46:15.147+00:00For ease of reference, here is what Barry Gardiner...For ease of reference, here is what Barry Gardiner said in May 2014:<br /><br />'Barry Gardiner MP for Brent North, who attended the vote count, said he was delighted with the result but issued a stern warning to the [Labour] group’s councillors.<br /><br />He said: “I’m thrilled, of course I’m thrilled but we need to be very careful.<br /><br />“It is a huge responsibility because a majority this big for any party means that we have to look within ourselves for the sort of scrutiny that we need of the policies that we ourselves are proposing.<br /><br />“All of these people got elected because they managed to persuade voters they wanted to represent them in the Civic Centre on the Council. They must remember their job is to represent the people to the bureaucrat[s] of the Council and not to represent the Council bureaucrats to the people.'<br /><br />The reality of what has actually happened is that most of the, mainly Labour, councillors have very little power.<br /><br />Cllr. Butt gave them the sop of a 25% "pay rise" (annual allowance up from £8,000 to £10,000) directly after the May 2014 elections (although I understand that they are expected to donate 10% of the allowance they receive to local Labour Party funds, which would mean that each Labour councillor gives £1,000 per year of Council Tax-payers money, so that Labour has a huge fund available when contesting local elections, and so ensures that its big majority continues!).<br /><br />Virtually all of the power on Brent Council is held by the Council Leader and his appointed Cabinet. They also control the Council's General Purposes Committee, which is meant to consist mainly of "back-bench" councillors, as part of a system of "checks and balances" to ensure that too much power is NOT in the hands of a small number of Council members.<br /><br />Now, as shown above, the Cabinet are ignoring the detailed consideration given to particular policy issues by the Council's Scrutiny Committees, which are another way by which "back-bench" councillors are MEANT to be empowered, so that potentially poor decisions by the Cabinet (and there have been a number of those in recent years!) can be effectively challenged.<br /><br />For the sake of good governance in Brent, Cllr. Butt and his Cabinet colleagues need to give up some of their power, and respect the proper procedures which sensible Councils should follow.Philip Granthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08216646114377430489noreply@blogger.com