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Last night’s Social Scrutiny Panel meeting was rather interesting.
Firstly we had a call in. Always interesting these and only the second in my time as a councillor. The first being the grounds maintenance contract.
The call in by the Labour group (for those who are not local) was in three parts two of which were not allowed to be debated because the proper officer had decided that they were not subject to call in. Initially there was some protest on this point and I must say I agreed with the Labour people here. The chair was quite correct in that as the constitution of Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council is written at the moment the debate would be limited to the single item that had been approved. i agree that the opposition parties should be able to call in any damn thing that they see fit for scrutiny. This was not something that we were able to vote on at the meeting unfortunately. It is a constitutional matter and one that I look forward to seeing (for I am sure that I will) at a future meeting of the standards committee.
Other subjects on the agenda were the Community Cohesion Strategy and reports from the Nuneaton Museum and Art Gallery and the Play Rangers.
The Community Cohesion Strategy report was presented and was I must say far more interesting than the debate on the now limited call in. Good work has clearly been done on this strategy from definition right through to monitoring outcomes.
The management and staff of the Museum and Art Gallery do far more than simply occupy a building in Riversley Park. Visits are up by 27,000 on the previous year. This is excellent work on behalf of the management and staff. The staff have many more ideas for the future of the Arts in the borough but with the post of Arts Development Officer being frozen currently due to budgetary constraints these cannot be progressed, or at the very least it is incredibly difficult for them to do so in a more limited manner than they would wish.
The panel passed a motion to recommend to cabinet that the position of Arts Development Officer be thawed out as it were at the next budget. The effects that this department has throughout the borough I do not have time to go into here unfortunately.
The Play Rangers scheme reported their successes to the panel and faced questioning as had the others. The panel passed a motion to recommend to cabinet that the Play Rangers be included in the next budget as a growth item and this was tied in with the work currently being done by the Health Inequalities Working Group which I am also on.
There was a little political intrigue at this meeting.
The scrutiny panels are supposed to be non political. Politics is left at the door. Now being a realist and as the subject matter discussed is far too important for petty playground spats and the making political of points I usually refrain from proposing motions. I take a full part in debate and suggest wordings and I always vote but I do not actually propose motions that often. The reason is self evident. Politics should stay at the door but the members from the other parties by and large cannot help themselves.
last night with the play rangers debate every member still in the committee room was in agreement that this request should be put forward but no-one was doing it. So I did!
The room went quiet. The motion was clarified and a seconder was sought. Bearing in mind that every member in the room agreed and had already said so the Chair seemed quite perplexed that no-one would second the motion so he seconded it himself to prevent the motion falling. The vote was taken and from the six members in the room three voted for the motion with non against and three abstentions. If the motion had been allowed to fall the play rangers would not have been put forward to cabinet for consideration as a growth item for the forthcoming budget. I am in a frustrating position quite regularly in committee and bite my tongue for the good of the people. It is a test of character and sometimes, as on this occasion, quite frustrating. I never allow politics to get in the way of the best decision for the people and vote accordingly. I have voted with both ruling and opposition parties though obviously not at the same time.
