Labour lose some influence on York Council – alternative approach proving illusive

As expected, the balance of power on many York Council committees swung away from Labour at a York Council meeting this evening.Lendal bridge notice

As required by law, the membership of scrutiny, planning and other committees will reflect the proportion of the seats held by the different parties on the Council.

The chairs of scrutiny committees will be taken by opposition Councillors.

Amongst the appointments, Andrew Waller will chair a committee that deals with Economic and City Development, Ann Reid will chair the Planning Committee and Nigel Ayre will head the influential Audit and Governance Committee.

But the key Cabinet posts will all continue to be held by Labour. Worryingly the Council chose not to reduce their delegated powers.

In effect this gives a huge advantage to the 8 full time Labour Councillors who will continue to hold the posts. 

York residents will expect the various groups on the Council to put the City first and come up with a workable system which will see the Council through to the local elections next May

It will need to be a transparent system which can also address the many problems which have increasingly dogged York in recent months.

Debts are mounting and time is running out

 

More 20 mph speed limits slipped through by Labour 3 days after losing York Council control.

Strong Police objections overruled in “behind closed doors” decision

Behind closed doors logo

Papers published today confirm that a Council official has nodded through the introduction of 20 mph speed limits on 3 more roads in the York area. The decision meeting took place on 21st October but no notice of the meeting was given to opposition Councillors.

The roads concerned are:

  • Heslington Road (part of)
  • Hospital Fields Road (full extent)
  • Broad Highway, Wheldrake (part of)

The Police objected to the proposals saying, in a strongly worded letter, that they would not be able to enforce the 20 mph limit.

 Their objection – which can be read by clicking here – points out that average speeds are below 30 mph anyway and that at least one of the roads is not “residential” in character.

In another, the Police question whether the change proposed might actually increase speeds near a school increasing, rather than reducing, accident potential

It is possible that the changes do have the support of local Ward Councillors.

But the expectation was that the new Council would immediately stop the practice of holding private “decision” meetings before subsequently publishing – sometimes days later – agendas and supporting papers.

Residents have a right to make additional representations on proposals if they chose. They can’t do so if a decision has already been taken.

The opposition group Leaders seem to have been out manoeuvred on this issue – and a similar one concerning TransPennine Express and Northern Rail franchises  where there is no sign of any opposition influence.

Opposition Councillors will need to raise their game quickly on the newly balanced Council.

York will expect open decision making and genuine consultation from now on.

York Council must seize opportunity for change

The proposals for tonight’s York Council meeting have been published

committeeThey show the opposition parties seeking to exploit the new influence given to them by York voters.
Not only are committee memberships being restructured to reflect the new balance on the Council (Labour loses its majority on these committees), but – rightly – scrutiny, planning and other major committees will now have opposition chairs.
This will place a welcome break on the powers of the residual Labour Cabinet.
However, in other respects, the proposals may seem by many to be either perverse (e.g. Cllr Merrett continuing as the Chair of the Local Plan working group) or a failure to get to grips quickly with the organisational change that the City needs.
Under the published proposals, the Labour Cabinet remains intact.
People who have failed will continue to be paid high salaries for a further 6 months of failure.
More seriously, unless an emergency motion is placed on the agenda at the last minute, there are no proposals to control the delegated powers that Cabinet members and officials have.
Poor, impulsive, decisions – often taken behind closed doors – are the root cause of the shambles that has engulfed the York Council over recent months.
By now, many residents would have expected the various parties to have reached a decision on how the City will be governed in the run up to the “all out” elections in May.
There is a parallel with the situation in 2007, when no party emerged from the local elections with an overall majority.
Then the Groups published an agreement indicating how they hoped to take the City forward.
Something similar should, by now, have been published by the new Council.
Unless such a plan emerges over the next few hours, electors may wonder why they bothered voting.