Fears of less scrutiny at Arun District Council

Liberal Democrat councillor Dr James Walsh voiced fears over the removal of one of the two sub-groups within the council's structure which he believes will result in far poorer cross-party examination of key issues.

His views were echoed by Arun Labour councillor Tony Squires who said Conservative members were attempting to 'bulldoze' through changes to the authority's constitution.

This now leaves the council operating with just a single overview select committee beneath its government-style cabinet '“ which Arun claims will in fact make its scrutiny more effective.

In a ballot which went along party lines, the Conservative administration voted through the necessary changes to its constitution '“ which it denies is linked to its job cuts and budget reductions of more than 1m over the next two years.

Dr Walsh said: "Where is the council's commitment to open government? The arrangement for the new overview committee is that its 'working groups' will all be meeting in private.

Scrutiny will now take place in secret away from public gaze and we are very concerned the public will become less and less well informed with what is happening within the council as they are abolishing the performance scrutiny committee which I'm presently chairing '“ which does its work in public and gets reported in the paper. All that will happen now is there will be far less debate and decision-making in public."

In response, speaking at full council, Conservative councillor Paul Dendle said it 'was felt by the council that when it came down to the nitty gritty of making decisions that it were best working parties met in private'.

A spokesperson for Arun District Council said: "Instead of two scrutiny sommittees there will be one overview select committee with five working parties covering all the cabinet portfolios. Their main task will be to scrutinise all new policies.

"It is usual for all working parties to meet in private but the notes from each meeting and any recommendations that they make will be reported to the overview select committee which will meet in public.

The working parties are not decision-making committees, therefore all their recommendations will have to be agreed by the overall select committee."