Concern at ‘lack of scrutiny’ in Arun’s move to committee system

In January, the council agreed that, from May 2021, it would switch from a cabinet to committee system and a working party was set up to look at the necessary changes to the constitution.

Those changes were presented to a meeting of the full council on Wednesday (September 16) and included dropping the scrutiny committee – something that did not sit well with many members.

The aim of a scrutiny committee is to hold the council’s leadership to account by examining decisions and making recommendations.

With some councillors calling the change ‘a step too far’, Tony Dixon (Ind, Aldwick East) insisted scrutiny would still be part and parcel of the new set-up.

He said: “Yes, the scrutiny committee will be abolished but scrutiny will still happen – it will happen at full council.

“At the moment full council tends to be a nodding through chamber and I’m hoping that under the committee system we’ll have proper critical evaluation of the things that come before full council.”

Mike Northeast (Lab, Courtwick with Toddington), who has served under the committee system before, was not convinced.

He said: “The thing that worries me about this at the moment is people saying committees will be self-scrutinising and also that things will be scrutinised by full council.

“That’s not effective scrutiny.

“Effective scrutiny is being able to call witnesses, to be able to get people to meetings and gather information.

“That will not be able to be done at full council.”

The Conservatives raised a number of other issues, calling the entire process rushed, with Ricky Bower (Con, East Preston) adding that it was ‘trying to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear’.

Tory leader Shaun Gunner claimed the process was costing ‘hundreds of thousands of pounds’, adding: “We do not think this is a wise use of taxpayer money, especially at a time of global pandemic.”

His claims were dismissed as ‘pure fantasy and scare tactics’ by Francis Oppler (Lib Dem, Orchard), who accused the Conservatives of ‘playground opposition’.

This did not go down well with Grant Robert (Con, Arundel & Walberton), who told members that, by the end of the last working party meeting, only four councillors remained – three Tory and one Lib Dem.

He said: “At that stage, if the Conservatives were really against this and trying to delay things unnecessarily, we had the power in that position.

“But we didn’t. We wanted to help, we wanted to try and get things done right.”

The working party’s recommendations were all approved – though the Tories abstained from voting – and the constitution will be brought back to the council on November 11 to be signed off.

Council leader Dr James Walsh said: “We must build a system that makes the council work better – not just for councillors and the officers but, much more importantly, delivers openness, transparency and understanding to the residents of the Arun district who pay the bills and receive the services from our council.”

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