The District Council’s cabinet system seems to be making the council adminstration a bit smug, arrogant and complacent. A recent example of this was a press release the council issued last Monday about car parking.
It is all started when the council’s Review Committe looked at car parking. The council’s review committee is a non-political body that scrutinises council functions. It’s chaired by a member of the opposition (Lib Dem June Lumley) and the rest of the committee are backbench Tories.
The Review Committee came up with a number of recommendations about car parking. For example bringing back a 30-minute time band for motorists who only want to stay a short while.
Once the Review Committee had finished, the report then went to one councillor – the cabinet member for planning and transportation – and he decided whether to accept it or not.
This one councillor disagreed with the committee’s advice on a number of issues – for example he ruled against a 30 minute band.
However, if any three councillors are unhappy with a cabinet members decision, they can call it in to Full Council – and Ron Oatham, Chris Lumley and Chris Black did just that. On Friday 9th we emailed the council office and told them that.
Trouble is , on Monday 12th , the council put out a press release making the Conservative administration look really good and not mentioning June Lumley’s role.
What seemed a bit arrogant was that the council administration disregarded the fact that the report had been called in and announced a council decision – a fortnight before the vote is going to be taken. The end of the press release – which misled the Echo, and maybe some other newspapers – said
“NOTE TO EDITORS
Among the other proposals that will not be implemented are the introduction of a 30 minute time band.”
Hmmm.